COBOL Manual for TNS/E Programs (H06.03+)

Glossary
HP COBOL Manual for TNS/E Programs—520347-003
Glossary-11
external reference
external reference. The call to a routine that is not present in the source file that a compiler
is translating.
external switch. A software device, defined and named by HP, that is used to indicate that
one of two alternate states exists.
Fast I-O. See HP COBOL Fast I-O.
fault-tolerant facility. The software provided by HP and used by a process to cause the
process to execute as a fault-tolerant process pair.
figurative constant. A compiler-generated value that you can reference by one or more
specific reserved words.
file. An object to which data can be written or from which data can be read. A file has
attributes such as access permissions and a file type. In the Open System Services
(OSS) environment, file types include regular file, character special file, block special
file, FIFO, and directory. In the Guardian environment, file types include disk files,
processes, and subdevices.
file connector. A storage area that contains information about a file; the linkage between a
file name and a physical file and between a file name and its associated record area.
FILE-CONTROL. The name of an Environment Division paragraph that declares the data
files for the program.
file-control entry. An entry in the FILE-CONTROL paragraph in the Input-Output Section of
the Environment Division composed of a SELECT clause followed by one or more
clauses that declare the relevant physical attributes of a file.
file description entry. An entry in the File Section of the Data Division composed of the
level indicator FD followed by a file name and a set of file clauses, as required.
file name. A string of characters that uniquely identifies a file.
In the PC environment, file names for disk files normally have at least two parts (the
disk name and the file name); for example, B:MYFILE.
In the Guardian environment, disk file names include an Expand node name, volume
name, subvolume name, and file identifier; for example,
\NODE.$DISK.SUBVOL.MYFILE.
In the Open System Services (OSS) environment, a file is identified by a pathname; for
example, /usr/john/workfile. See also filename and file-name.
file-name. A user-defined word that names a file described in a file description entry or a
sort-merge file description entry in the File Section of the Data Division.
file organization. The permanent logical structure established for a file when a process
creates it.