Application Search Path

The application search path is the primary search path used by the desktop to locate applications on the local system and on application servers throughout the network.

When locations are added to the application search path, the other search paths (database, icon, and help) are automatically updated to reflect the corresponding locations for that data; thus, the application search path provides relatively simple administration for applications and their desktop configuration files. See How the Application Search Path Affects the Database, Icon, and Help Search Paths.

Default Application Search Path

The default application search path includes personal, system-wide, and built-in locations. The default language is C.

Personal location—HomeDirectory/.dt/appmanager

System-wide location—/etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language

Built-in location—/usr/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language

Application Search Path Environment Variables

The application search path is assembled from the built-in locations and the following input variables:

DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS—system-wide application search path input variable

DTSPUSERAPPHOSTS—personal application search path input variable

The assembled search path is specified by the output variable DTAPPSEARCHPATH.

Syntax for the Application Search Path Input Variables

The syntax for the variables DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS and DTSPUSERAPPHOSTS is:

VARIABLE=location [,location...]

where location can have the syntax:

/path—specifies a directory on the local (session server) system. Use this syntax to add a local directory.

hostname:—specifies the system-wide directory /etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language on system hostname. Use this syntax to add an application server.

hostname:/path—specifies a directory on the remote system hostname.

localhost:—the local system-wide location. This keyword is used to alter the precedence of the local system-wide location. See Changing the Precedence of the System-Wide Local Location.

How the Value of the Application Search Path Is Assembled

The value of the application search path (DTAPPSEARCHPATH) is created by assembling the following locations, listed in order of precedence:

• Locations specified using the DTSPUSERAPPHOSTS variable

• The default personal location: HomeDirectory/.dt/appmanager

• The default location: /etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language

• Locations specified using the DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS variable

• /usr/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language

  The syntax:

  hostname:

  is expanded to specify the directory /etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager on system hostname.

Changing the Precedence of the System-Wide Local Location

By default, the local system-wide location (/etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language) has precedence over remote locations. Thus, local application groups have precedence over remote groups with the same name. For example, if both the local and remote systems have Printer application groups (/etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language/Printers), the local group is used.

The application search path input variables provide syntax for specifying the precedence of the local system-wide application groups:

localhost:

For example, suppose your system must access application servers SysA, SysB, and SysC, and you want the system-wide application groups on SysB to have precedence over any local groups with the same name.

The following value for DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS creates this behavior:

DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS=SysB:,localhost:,SysA:,SysC:

How the Application Search Path Affects the Database, Icon, and Help Search Paths

Additions to the application search path automatically add corresponding locations to the database, icon, and help search paths. This provides the ability to add an application server to a search path by setting only the application search path input variable.

For example, if you set DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS as follows:

export DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS=servera:

then the search paths are affected as shown in Table 9–3.

Table 9–3 Affected Search Paths

Search Path	Directory Added to Search Path
Applications	servera:/etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language
Database	servera:/etc/dt/appconfig/types/language
Icon	servera:/etc/dt/appconfig/icons/language
Help	servera:/etc/dt/appconfig/help/language

Similarly, if you set DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS as follows:

export DTSPSYSAPPHOSTS=/projects1/apps

then the search paths are affected as shown in Table 9–4 .

Table 9–4 Affected Search Paths

Search Path	Directory Added to Search Path
Applications	/projects1/apps/appmanager/language
Database	/projects1/apps/types/language
Icon	/projects1/apps/icons/language
Help	/projects1/apps/help/language