About the Environments panel
Use the Environments panel to create and manage environments for your projects. To view the panel, select Environments.
In the Environments panel, you can also click an environment to display and edit its variables.
Details tab
Environment properties
Specify the following environment properties:
- Name
- The name for the environment.
- Access
- The access group of users who can use this environment.
Variable properties
In the Environments panel, select a variable to view the Variables panel. Use the Variables panel to specify the following properties:
- Name
- Variable names can use only alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z,
0-9) and the underscore character ( _ ) in a name. The maximum length
is 255 bytes:
- Single-byte character sets: 255 characters
- Double-byte character sets: 127 characters
- Value
- Variable values have the following characteristics:
- Length: Values can be any length (up to the operating system limit, if there is one).
- Special characters: The characters %, $, [, ], {, }, \,
", and ' have special meanings for the pre-parser (before OS evaluation)
and for evaluation on the operating system. Avoid using them. Escape
them with a backslash (\) to pass them. See Interpretation of variables in steps.
If a value is in single quotes, variable names are passed as literals rather than interpreted. For example, a variable assignment
MyEnv='$env'
causes the string$env
to be assigned toMyEnv
, rather than the value of variable$env
. - Variables in values: If a variable is in a variable value, that variable is interpreted when a step using the variable is run.
- Pulldown values: To specify items for a pulldown variable, set the variable type to Pulldown List, save the variable, and then edit it. Click the Pulldown Options tab to add items to the pulldown. See Creating pulldowns for a variable.
- Dot commands as values: Some dot commands can be used as the value of an environment variable; in these cases, the system replaces the dot command with other values. See Using dot commands in variables.
- Carriage returns: Variables do not store carriage returns.
You can assign a multiple line value to a variable, as shown in the
following example. The contents of the file text.txt are
assigned to the variable test:
The lines in the file are concatenated. For example, suppose the file's contents were as follows:.bset env "test = `type text.txt`"
The variable's value then becomes the following:A first line And a second line
A first lineAnd a second line
- Type
- Variables are assigned one of these types:
- Standard - The default. The variable can have a value and action assigned.
- Include - The variable value points to
another environment to include. All variables in the environment are
included.Note: The Include variable type replaces the .include functionality provided in prior releases.
- Pulldown List - The variable contains a set of values that users can choose from. After a pulldown list variable is created, you can select it and click on the Pulldown Options tab to add values.
- Action
One of the following:
- Set: The default option. The specified value is assigned to the variable. The variable is created if it does not exist.
- Set if not set: This action assigns the value to the variable only if the variable does not already have a value. See About variables.
- Append: The value is appended to the current
value for the variable. The OS-specific PATH delimiter is added between
the values:
- Windows®: semicolon (;)
- UNIX® or Linux®: colon (:)
- Prepend: The value is inserted in front
of the current value. The OS-specific PATH delimiter is added between
the values:
- Windows: semicolon (;)
- UNIX or Linux: colon (:)
- Clear: The value is set to an empty string. If the Value property contains a value, it is not used.
- Delete / Unset: The variable is deleted from the current applied environment. If the Value property contains a value, it is not used.
- Assign Hidden: The value is displayed as
*****
, in logs and user interface. Use this option to store sensitive information.Assign Hidden variables are protected from editing by default. If you do not have the Edit Hidden Tags permission set, you cannot edit these values. However, you can delete and recreate them if the permissions are set. If the Edit Hidden Tags permission is set, the values can be edited and then entered for use. This behavior prevents you from displaying the value of an Assign Hidden variable by changing its type to Set.
If the Action value of the environment variable is Assign Hidden, the Type and Action values of the variable cannot be changed. If the Action value of the environment variable is not Assign Hidden, you cannot change the Action to Assign Hidden.
Note: It is recommended to increase length of the Action value to enhance security.Note: If a variable in a step is set to Assign Hidden, the other variables in the step default to Assign Hidden.
- On Project
- Defines how a variable is used when you manually start a job.
This property affects only variables that are used in environments
assigned to a project. The property does not affect variables when
the job is running. The value can be one of the following:
- Normal: The variable behaves normally when assigned to a project.
- Required: A value must exist for the variable.
Variables with this property are highlighted in the Start panel. A
value defined in the variable definition is sufficient. If a value
is not defined, a job cannot be quick-started or started.
If a job containing Required variables is started by the scheduler rather than a user, the variables are left unchanged if they currently have a value or blank if they do not have a value.
- Read-Only: The value cannot be changed.
- Suppress Display: The variable is not displayed on the Start Job panel. However, the variable exists and can be used in steps.
- Must Change: The variable value must be
changed. Top-level variables with this property are highlighted in
the Start panel; if a new value is not entered, the job cannot be
quick-started or started.Note: If a job that contains Must Change variables is started by the scheduler rather than a user, the variable values are not changed. Also, if a job that contains Must Change variables is started by a class property, the variable values are not changed. Class properties include Start on purge, Start on entry, and Start on exit.
Snapshot tab
An environment snapshot is an instance of an environment. The Snapshot tab provides the name of the snapshot. Use this tab to view or change the snapshot name and comments about the snapshot.