A Environment Variables Used by Oracle Database for z/OS

This section lists the environment variables used by Oracle components running on z/OS. Not included are variables like PATH and LIBPATH that are significant to Oracle programs but are processed only by IBM z/OS components.

Listed with each variable are codes indicating the environments where the variable is meaningful. Be aware that each of these environments has distinct mechanisms for specifying environment variables. The environment codes are:

C: CICS client
I: IMS client
N: Native (non-POSIX) batch and TSO client
P: POSIX client
S: Oracle server

A.1 Environment Variables Used by Oracle Database

The environment variables used by Oracle Database for z/OS are listed in the following table:

Table A-1 Environment Variables Used by Oracle Database for z/OS

Name	Environment	Description
_BPXK_MDUMP	`N, P`	Defined by LE for control of dump processing; if set to any value, Oracle tools/utilities disable LE TRAP processing so that a normal z/OS dump (for example, SYSMDUMP) can be obtained.
NLS_*	`C, I, N, P, S`	These variables determine character set, language, and other locale settings. They are described in the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide.
ORA_RTL_COMPAT	`N`	Set to "OFF" to disable Oracle C runtime compatibility; any other setting (or not set) enables Oracle C runtime compatibility.
ORACLE_HOME	`P, S`	Indicates Oracle install components location in POSIX HFS.
ORACLE_SID	`N, P`	Specifies OSDI SID of target server to be accessed with XM protocol.
SHELL	`P`	Normally defined by the z/OS UNIX shell, but used by SQL*Plus to determine shell for HOST command.
SQLPATH	`P`	Used by SQL*Plus to search for SQL files.
TNS_ADMIN	`P`	Used by Oracle Net to locate certain files in POSIX HFS.
TWO_TASK	`N. P`	Specifies Oracle Net TNS service name or address for target server.