Configuring a client using a configuration file

You configure your IBM® WebSphere® MQ MQI client using a text file, similar to the queue manager configuration file, qm.ini, used on UNIX and Linux® platforms. The file contains a number of stanzas, each of which contains a number of lines of the format attribute-name=value .

In this documentation, this file is referred to as the WebSphere MQ MQI client configuration file; its file name is generally mqclient.ini, but you can choose to give it another name. Configuration information in this file applies to all platforms, and to clients using the MQI, IBM WebSphere MQ classes for Java, IBM WebSphere MQ classes for JMS, IBM WebSphere MQ classes for .NET, and XMS.

Although the attributes in the IBM WebSphere MQ MQI client configuration file apply to most IBM WebSphere MQ clients, there are some attributes that are not read by managed .NET and XMS .NET clients, or by clients that use either the IBM WebSphere MQ classes for Java or the IBM WebSphere MQ classes for JMS. For more information, see Which IBM WebSphere MQ clients can read each attribute.

The configuration features apply to all connections a client application makes to any queue managers, rather than being specific to an individual connection to a queue manager. Attributes relating to a connection to an individual queue manager can be configured programmatically, for example by using an MQCD structure, or by using a Client Channel Definition Table (CCDT).

Environment variables which were supported in releases of IBM WebSphere MQ earlier than Version 7.0 continue to be supported, and where such an environment variable matches an equivalent value in the client configuration file, the environment variable overrides the client configuration file value.

For the .NET client, you can also override the client configuration file and the equivalent environment variables using the .NET application configuration file.

Note that you cannot set up multiple channel connections using the client configuration file.