Environment variables

The following environment variables are used by IDA:

TMP or TEMP     Specifies the directory where the temporary files will
                be created.
                Default: C:\TEMP

EDITOR          The name of the preferred text editor.

IDALOG          Specifies the name of the log file. Everything appearing
                in the message window will be dumped there.
                Default: none

IDALOG_SILENT   Suppress all output to the message window.
                If the IDALOG variable is set, messages will continue to
                be written to the log file. Otherwise, they will be lost.

IDADIR          Specifies the IDA directory.
                Default: the directory where IDA executable is located

IDA_LOADALL     The selected loader will load all segments without asking

IDAUSR          Specifies the directory for user-specific settings.
                Default: Windows:  %APPDATA%/Hex-Rays/IDA Pro
                         Linux:    $HOME/.idapro
                         Mac OS X: $HOME/.idapro

                This variable can contain multiple paths, in which case they must
                be separated by the platform's path separator character (i.e., ';'
                on Windows, and ':' on Linux & Mac OS X.)

          NOTE: Using %IDAUSR% for loading plugins.

                %IDAUSR% will be considered when scanning for plugins: for
                each directory component of %IDAUSR%, IDA will iterate on
                files in its "plugins" subdirectory, in alphabetical order.

                Plugins with the same case-insensitive file name (without
                extension) are considered to be duplicates and are ignored;
                only the first plugin with a given name will be considered.
                Thus, let's say %IDAUSR% is set to "C:\my_idausr", and a file
                "C:\my_idausr\plugins\DWARF.py" exists, then
                "C:\my_idausr\plugins\DWARF.py" will be picked up first while
                "%IDADIR%\plugins\dwarf.dll" will be considered conflicting,
                and thus ignored.

                In addition, in each directory, IDA first looks for plugins
                with the native extension (e.g., ".dll" on Windows) and only
                then looks for files with extensions corresponding to
                extension languages (e.g., ".idc", ".py", ...)
                Consequently if two files, say "foo.dll" and "foo.py", are
                present in the same directory, "foo.dll" will be picked first,
                and "foo.py" will be considered conflicting, and thus ignored.

          NOTE: Using %IDAUSR% for overriding configuration.

                %IDAUSR% will be considered when looking for configuration
                files, after the config file found in %IDADIR%\cfg has been
                read.

                After %IDADIR%\cfg\<filename> has been read & applied, for
                each directory component of %IDAUSR%, IDA will look for
                cfg/<filename> in it, and, if found, read & apply its
                contents as well.

                This enables users to have their own small, fine-tuned
                configuration files containing just the bits they wanted to
                override, stored in one (or more) folder(s) of their choosing.

          NOTE: Using %IDAUSR% for specifying themes

                %IDAUSR% will be considered when scanning for themes: for
                each directory component of %IDAUSR%, IDA will iterate on
                subdirectories in its "themes" subdirectory.

          NOTE: Using %IDAUSR% for providing additional loaders, processor
                modules, .til files, .sig and .ids files

                %IDAUSR% will also be considered when building the list of
                existing loaders, processor modules, .til, .sig and .ids files.
                The following directories will be inspected:
                       %IDAUSR%\loaders
                       %IDAUSR%\procs
                       %IDAUSR%\til\<arch-name>
                       %IDAUSR%\sig\<arch-name>
                       %IDAUSR%\ids\<platform-name>

IDA_MINIDUMP (Windows only) If IDA crashes, it creates a minidump file with the MiniDumpWrite(). Use this environment variable to specify MiniDump flags (a combination of MINIDUMP_TYPE flags as a hexadecimal number). If set to "NO", IDA will not write a dump.

IDA_MDMP_INIT (Windows only) Let IDA load dbghlp.dll on startup so it is used for crash dump file generation in case of a crash. If not set, IDA will load dbghlp.dll dynamically (if needed). Using this option may cause the Windbg debugger plugin to malfunction in case its dbghlp.dll does not match the one loaded by IDA.

IDA_NOEH If set, disable IDA's own exception handler and let all possible crashes to be handled by the OS or active debugger. It is useful if you're debugging a crash in a plugin or processor module.

IDAIDS Specifies the directory with the IDS files. Default: %IDADIR%\IDS

IDASGN Specifies the directory with the SIG files. Default: %IDADIR%\SIG

IDATIL Specifies the directory with the TIL files. Default: %IDADIR%\TIL

IDAIDC Specifies the directory with the IDC files. Default: %IDADIR%\IDC

IDA_LIBC_PATH Useful only on Android remote host. Specifies the exact path to the system libc.so

IDA_SKIP_SYMS Useful only on Linux host. Turns off loading of exported symbols for the main executable file at the start of a debugging session

IDA_NONAMES Disables the name resolution

IDA_NO_HISTORY Disables updating file history

IDA_NORELOC Disables processing of the relocation information for some file formats

IDA_NOEXP Disables processing of the export information for some file formats

IDA_NOTLS Disables processing of the TLS entries for some file formats

H8_NOSIZER Disables the display of the operand sizes for H8 module

IDA_LOADALL Load all segments of the input file without further confirmations

IDA_DEBUGBREAKPROCESS (Windows only) IDA debugger will use the DebugBreakProcess() API to break into the process. Otherwise it will instead attempt to set temporary breakpoints for all threads.

IDA_NO_REBASE IDA Debugger will not rebase the program when debugging. (This will be in effect even if the debugger plugin implements the rebase_if_required_to callback)

IDABXPATHMAP Variables related to the Bochs debugger. IDABXENVMAP See plugins/bochs/startup.* for more details.

IDA_NOWIN (Text MS Windows version only) Bypass the code trying to find out the foreground window. This code causes problems under WINE.

IDA_DONT_SWITCH_SCREENS (text version only) Tells IDA to keep only one screen even during local debugging sessions. For local debugging sessions, IDA keeps by default one screen for the debugged application and one screen for itself.

IDA_NOAUTOCOMP Do not autodetect compiler for name demangling. If this variable is absent and the current compiler is one of MS, Borland and Watcom, the compiler is autodetected.

IDA_ELF_PATCH_MODE Overrides patch mode for the new ELF files. If this variable is defined, it must contain a number. Each bit of this number corresponds to an option from the following list:

   0: Replace PIC form of 'Procedure Linkage Table' to non PIC form
   1: Direct jumping from PLT (without GOT) regardless of its form
   2: Convert PIC form of loading '_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_[]' of address
   3: Obliterate auxiliary bytes in PLT & GOT for 'final autoanalysis'
   4: Natural form of PIC GOT address loading in relocatable file
   5: Unpatched form of PIC GOT references in relocatable file
   6: Mark 'allocated' objects as library-objects (MIPS only)

IDA_DYLD_SHARED_CACHE_SLIDE Mach-O loader: specify the dyld shared cache image ASLR slide value (hexadecimal) or 'search' for automatic detection. If not set, slide is assumed to be 0 (unslid image).

The following variables are used to fine-tune the Linux version of IDA:

TVLOG the name of the log-file if it is not defined, use syslog with LOG_WARNING priority

TERM the terminal definition (see terminfo)

TVHEADLESS disable all output (for i/o redirection) if this variable defined, the TVOPT variable is ignored This environment variable also works also in graphical versions of IDA. When set, the graphical interface will not restore desktops, toolbars or show the main window.

TVOPT the enduser flags. Has many subfields delimited by commas ','. noX11 - when libX11.so is not compatible noGPM - when libgpm.so is not compatible ansi - OR mono - when the terminfo data of your display does not declare it as having the ANSI-color support ign8 - ignore '8bit as meta key' in the terminfo description xtrack - if your xterm-emulator in telnet client does not support mode 1002 (only 1000), set this flag alt866 - do not encode pseudographic symbols (for the console with alt-font loaded) cyrcvt= - cyrilic conversion (oem/koi8r). possible values are: linux - for linux russian users and PuTTY (in/out koi8r) kwin - output in koi8 and input in cp1251 - any telnet windows - for many telnet and any linux users (in/out 1251)

 Client name | Terminal   | TVOPT  | Client settings
 ------------|------------|--------|---------------------------------------
             |            |        |
 SecureCRT   |xterm-scokey| xtrack | Emulation->Terminal: xterm,
             |            |        | Emulation->keyboard: either the
             |            |        |   built-in keyboard, either custom
             |            |        |                  'xt-sco.key' file
             |            |        | Advanced->Terminaltype: xterm-scokey
             |            |        |
 SecureCRT   |   xterm    | xtrack | Emulation->Terminal: xterm+internal kbd
             |            |        |
             |            |        |
 Putty       |xterm-scokey|   -    | Terminal,Keyboard: Control?, Standard,
             |            |        |                    SCO, Normal, Normal
             |            |        |
 Putty       |   xterm    |   -    | Terminal,Keyboard: ControlH, Standard,
             |            |        |                    ~num, Normal, Normal
             |            |        |
 Console     |   linux    |   -    | default
             |            |        |
 X11:xterm   |   xterm    |   -    | default

We recommend to use the 'xterm-scokey' terminal type for remote clients.

When the terminal type is xterm-scokey, add the following string to /etc/inputrc (or to ~/.inputrc):

"\e[.": delete char

When working on the console without GPM installed, append "noGPM" to TVOPT.

Russian users should append the following settings to the above:

                  | APPEND  TO TVOPT  | APPEND TO Client Settings
 -----------------|---------------------|----------------------------
 Console          | alt866,cyrcvt=linux |
                  |                     |
 X11              | cyrcvt=linux        |
                  |                     |
 Putty            | cyrcvt=linux        | Window,Translation: use font in
                  |                     |           both ANSI and OEM modes
                  |                     |
 SecureCRT        |                     |
   with koi8font  |                     |
    and kbd-hook  | cyrcvt=linux        |
    with koi8font | cyrcvt=kwin         |
   with ANSI-font | cyrcvt=windows      |
                  |                     |
    The best settings for russian users on the console are:
         setfont alt-8x16.psf.gz -m koi2al
         loadkey ru-ms.map
         export TVOPT=cyrcvt=linux,alt866