# Setting up your environment

Derby includes several scripts that run the Derby tools and utilities. How you run those scripts depends on the configuration that you want to use to access the Derby database and tools.

To set up your environment:

1. Choose the method that you want to use to run the Derby tools and utilities.
2. Set the environment variables.

- Choosing a method to run the Derby tools and startup utilities
  There are several ways that you can run the Derby tools and startup utilities.
- Setting the environment variables
  There are several environment variables that must be set depending on the method that you selected to run the Derby tools and startup utilities.
- Syntax for the derbyrun.jar file
  The derbyrun.jar file is a special JAR file that simplifies how you invoke the Derby tools and the Network Server.
- Manually setting the CLASSPATH environment variable
  You can set the CLASSPATH environment variable in the operating system either temporarily, permanently, or at run time when you start your Java application and the JVM.

Parent topic: Installing and configuring Derby