export CLIENT_LOCALE=EN_US.UTF8: ensures any client can correctly connect to the server (see: UNIX setup guide)
export DB_LOCALE=EN_US.UTF8
oninit: starts the server
onmode -ky: kills the server
onstat -: display server online status
oncheck -pr: displays detailed status including dataspace info
onstat -g env all: displays database server start-up environment settings
Executing:
cd /opt/IBM/informix
mkdir dbspaces
cd dbspaces
touch chunk1
chmod 660 chunk1
onspaces -c -d datadbs -p /opt/IBM/informix/dbspaces/chunk1 -o 0 -s 204800
will create a data space named chunk1 with size 204800 but will give a warning message like below which you can ignore.
Verifying physical disk space, please wait ...
Space successfully added.
** WARNING ** A level 0 archive of Root DBSpace will need to be done.
UPDATE: Here's a useful IBM article on Informix usage: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/zones/informix/library/techarticle/0305parker/0305parker.html