Oracle forms environment variable problem.

[Michael Langas]

Can anyone describe how evironment variables work inside of oracle forms? Pointing me to docs works to ;-)

I recently move a users home directory on a dev server and it broke a script that is being called by an oracle form. The user has hardcoded $HOME in the script because it is not being initialized when called from the oracle form. It's obvious why this broke the script. I have little to no knowledge of oracle forms, so any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Environment variables really don't work inside of forms.

What they effect is the behavior of the forms server/servelets when they are started.

The place to focus is the startup script for the forms server or the servlet configuration.

Key variables are:

FORMS_PATH

This tells the server WHERE to look for forms.

Here is a working environment dump

_=/usr/bin/env
MANPATH=/usr/share/man/%L:/usr/share/man:/usr/contrib/man/%L:/usr/contrib/man:/usr/local/man/%L:/usr/local/man:/opt/mx/share/man:/opt/upgrade/share/man/%L:/opt/upgrade/share/man:/opt/pd/share/man/%L:/opt/pd/share/man:/opt/pd/share/man/%L:/opt/pd/share/man:/opt/pd/share/man/%L:/opt/pd/share/man:/opt/resmon/share/man:/opt/ignite/share/man/%L:/opt/ignite/share/man:/opt/hparray/share/man/%L:/opt/hparray/share/man:/opt/scr/share/man:/usr/dt/share/man:/opt/samba/man://opt/perl/man:/opt/aCC/share/man/%L:/opt/langtools/share/man/%L:/opt/langtools/share/man:/opt/perf/man/%L:/opt/perf/man:/opt/OV/man/itose/%L:/opt/OV/man/itose:/opt/audio/share/man:/opt/ansic/share/man/%L:/opt/ansic/share/man:/opt/image/share/man:/opt/imake/man:/opt/ldapux/share/man:/opt/ldapux/ypldapd/man:/opt/sec_mgmt/share/man/%L:/opt/sec_mgmt/share/man:/opt/ssh/share/man:/opt/gnome/man:/opt/graphics/common/man:/opt/aCC/share/man
SHLIB_PATH=/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/lib:usr/lib:usr/ucblib
PATH=/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/bin:/ias/product/1.0.2/Apache/Apache/bin:/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/icache/lib:/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/ifs1.1/bin:/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/webcache/bin:/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/6iserver:/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/discwb33/util:/usr/bin:/opt/ansic/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/contrib/bin:/opt/mx/bin:/opt/hparray/bin:/opt/nettladm/bin:/opt/upgrade/bin:/opt/fcms/bin:/opt/pd/bin:/opt/resmon/bin:/opt/ignite/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/contrib/bin/X11:/opt/scr/bin://opt/perl/bin:/usr/sbin/diag/contrib:/opt/aCC/bin:/opt/langtools/bin:/opt/perf/bin:/opt/OV/bin/OpC:/opt/imake/bin:/opt/sec_mgmt/spc/bin:/opt/sec_mgmt/bastille/bin:/opt/gnome/bin:/opt/mozilla:/opt/netscape:/opt/graphics/common/bin:/oracle/scripts/tst/compile:/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/forms60/sysalt
COLUMNS=80
EDITOR=vi
LOGNAME=forms60
TMP=/utmp
LIBPATH=/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/network/jre11/lib/PA_RISC
ORACLE_SID=ias
ERASE=^H
TNS_ADMIN=/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/network/admin
DISPLAY=kch3lgf.juf.net:0.0
SHELL=/sbin/sh
ORATAB=/etc/oratab
HOME=/home/forms60
TERM=xterm
ORACLE_HOME=/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/
PWD=/home/forms60
TZ=CST6CDT
LINES=24

Here is a working .profile

Some things have to be adapted to your environment such as oracle home.

@(#) $Revision: 66.1.1.1 $

# Default user .profile file (/bin/sh initialization).

# Set up the terminal:
stty erase "^H" kill "^U" intr "^C" eof "^D"
stty hupcl cs8 -parity
tabs

# Set up the search paths:
# PATH=/home/forms60/bin:$PATH

# Set up the shell environment:
set -u
trap "echo 'logout'" 0

# Set up the shell variables:
EDITOR=vi
export EDITOR

ORACLE_SID=ias
#ORACLE_BASE=/oracle
export ORACLE_SID
export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/
IAS_HOME=/ias/product/1.0.2/
export ORACLE_HOME
ORATAB=/etc/oratab
export ORATAB

# . /usr/contrib/bin/setOraProfile
#echo "Starting oracle settings"

export TMP=/utmp
#export SHLIB_PATH=${ORACLE_HOME}lib:usr/lib:usr/ucblib/:$SHLIB_PATH
SHLIB_PATH=${ORACLE_HOME}lib:usr/lib:usr/ucblib
export SHLIB_PATH

export LIBPATH=${ORACLE_HOME}network/jre11/lib/PA_RISC

PATH=${ORACLE_HOME}bin:${IAS_HOME}Apache/Apache/bin:${ORACLE_HOME}icache/lib:${ORACLE_HOME}ifs1.1/bin:${ORACLE_HOME}webcache/bin:${ORACLE_HOME}6iserver:${ORACLE_HOME}discwb33/util:$PATH:/oracle/scripts/tst/compile:/ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/forms60/sysalt
export PATH

# PATH=$PATH:/oracle/scripts/tst/compile

echo $PATH

TNS_ADMIN=${ORACLE_HOME}network/admin
export TNS_ADMIN
clear
. /ias/product/1.0.2/6iserver/forms60.sh

ORACLE_SID=ias
export ORACLE_SID
#. /usr/contrib/bin/setOraProfile
# DISPLAY=10.1.102.149:0.0
# export DISPLAY
# PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
# FORMS60_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/forms60/jufdev;export FORMS60_PATH

#. /usr/contrib/bin/setOraProfile
DISPLAY=10.1.102.108:0.0
export DISPLAY
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
FORMS60_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/forms60/sysalt;export FORMS60_PATH


SEP

[Michael Langas]

Steven,

Thanks for the quick response. I'm still not sure I understand how the HOME variable will get set. It's normally dynamic and I would like to keep it that way. I don't want them hardcoding it in the .profile if at all possible. Keep in mind I'm not talking about ORACLE_HOME. They are picking stuff up from their home dir.

Thanks again

Mike

[Lisa Mauer]

Michael: Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but we set all our Oracle and application environment variables in a script in /usr/local/bin, then that script gets called from everyone's .profile. That way only 1 script needs to be changed and anytime someone logs into the .profile those variables will get set.