4.4 Configuring Environment Variables with Enterprise Manager

Use the Environment tab of the Enterprise Manager Application Server Control Console page to manage Environment Variables. From this page, you can add, edit, or delete environment variables as necessary.

The environment variables such as PATH, ORACLE_HOME, and FORMS_PATH for the Forms runtime executable (frmweb.exe on Windows and frmweb on Solaris) are defined in the Environment tab. The Listener Servlet calls the executable and initializes it with the variable values provided in the environment file, which is ORACLE_HOME/forms/server/default.env by default.

Any environment variable that is not defined in that page is inherited from the servlet engine (OC4J). The environment file must be named in the envFile parameter in the Default section of the Forms Web Configuration page.

A few things to keep in mind when customizing environment variables are:

Environment variables may also be specified in the Windows registry. Values in the environment file override settings in the registry. If a variable is not set in the environment file, the registry value is used.
You will need administrator privileges to alter registry values.
You do not need to restart the server for configuration changes to take effect.

Environment variables not set in the environment file or Windows registry are inherited from the environment of the parent process, which is the servlet engine (OC4J).

Note:

You cannot create or delete environment files through Enterprise Manager Application Server Control Console. Environment files must be created manually in ORACLE_HOME/forms/server with a .env extension.

Likewise, environment files cannot be deleted from Application Server Control. For a new environment file to be picked up by Application Server Control Console and for a deleted one to disappear you will need to restart the Enterprise Manager processes:

emctl stop em
emctl start em

Table 4-11, "Default Environment Variables" describes important environment variables that are specified in default.env:

Table 4-11 Default Environment Variables

Environment Variable	Valid Values	Purpose
`ORACLE_HOME`	`ORACLE_HOME` (default)	Points to the base installation directory of any Oracle product.
`PATH`	`ORACLE_HOME\bin` (default)	Contains the executables of Oracle products.
`FORM_PATH`	`ORACLE_HOME\forms` (default)	Specifies the path that Oracle Forms searches when looking for a form, menu, or library to run. For Windows, separate paths with a semi-colon (;). For Solaris, separate paths with a colon (:).
`FORMS_TIMEOUT`	Default: 15 Valid Values: 3 – 1440 (1 day) Example: `FORMS_TIMEOUT=1440`	This parameter specifies the amount of time in elapsed minutes before the Form Services process is terminated when there is no client communication with the Form Services. Client communication can come from the user doing some work, or from the Forms Client heartbeat if the user is not actively using the form.
`TNS_ADMIN`	`ORACLE_HOME/network/admin`	Specifies the path name to the TNS files such as TNSNAMES.ORA, SQLNET.ORA etc.
`CLASSPATH`	`ORACLE_HOME/jdk/bin/java`	Specifies the Java class path, which is required for the Forms debugger.
`REPORTS_CLASSPATH`	`ORACLE_HOME/jlib/zrclient.jar:ORACLE_HOME/reports/jlib/rwrun.jar`	This setting is only needed if Reports applications are called from Forms applications
`REPORTS_SERVERMAP`	`cluster:repserver` Where: `cluster` is the Reports Server cluster name; `repserver` is the Reports Server name.	This setting is needed if Forms applications are calling Reports applications from a Reports cluster instead of a Reports server. This setting is also needed when a Forms application calls a Reportss application using `web.show_document`. See Oracle Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web for additional Reports configuration information.
`ORACLE_GRAPHICS6I_HOM`	`<GRAPHICS6I_HOME>`	These settings are only needed if Graphics applications are called from Forms applications Use Enterprise Manager to set the `ORACLE_HOME` value to use Graphics applications.
`LD_LIBRARY_PATH`	Set the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment variable for the first time to `ORACLE_HOME/lib`. You can reset `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` in the Bourne shell by entering: `$ set LD_LIBRARY_PATH=ORACLE_HOME/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}` `$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH` or in the C shell by entering: `% setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ORACLE_HOME/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}`	Oracle Forms Developer and Reports Developer products use dynamic, or shared, libraries. Therefore, you must set `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` so that the dynamic linker can find the libraries.

Note:

On Windows, Oracle Application Server Forms Services reads Oracle environment settings from the Windows Registry unless they are set as environment variables.