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Utilities and Tools

This section describes the MPE/iX user in terface to show how user programs can programmatically access MPE/iX features and pro vides an introduction to utilities and tools. The information is presen ted as an overview on a conceptual lev el. For detailed information on programmatic access, refer to Command Interpreter Access and Variables Programmer's Guide (32650-90011).

Programmatic access to MPE/iX allo ws you to use command in terpreter (CI) features in a program without ha ving to enter break mode. With the a vailable techniques, you can develop sophisticated, automated subsystems to run under MPE/iX. The tec hniques include:

Using MPE/iX programmatic in terfaces, command ￿les, and user-de￿ned commands (UDCs).

Performing variable dereferencing, concatenation, string substitution, recursiv e dereferencing, and expression ev aluation.

Using Job Control Words (JCWs) and variables.

Using the MPE/iX Help facilit y for commands, command ￿les, and UDCs.

Programmatic Access to the Command Interpreter

Three intrinsics, COMMAND , HPCICOMMAND , and MYCOMMAND , allow programmatic use of the MPE/iX command in terpreter (CI). They allow a program other than the CI to:

Perform system services (for example, building and purging ￿les).

Use the entire MPE/iX CI command set, command ￿les, and UDCs.

Parse MPE/iX commands.

Some interactive subsystems can programmatically perform these functions without ￿rst having to exit their speci￿c subsystem en vironment (that is, enter break mode).

The intrinsics for programmatic use of the CI are:

COMMAND , which provides access to the MPE V/E subset of CI commands.

HPCICOMMAND , which provides programmatic access to most of the MPE/iX CI command set, command ￿les, and UDCs.

MYCOMMAND , which provides a programmatic abilit y to parse a line and return one or more of its parameters.

Command ￿les and user-de￿ned commands (UDCs) are ￿les that allo w programmers to develop their own environment. These are discussed in Chapter 1. F or detailed information on command ￿les and UDCs, refer to Command Interpreter Access and Variables Programmer's Guide (32650-90011).

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