COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs

Program Execution
HP COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs—522555-006
12-19
DEFINEs
DEFINEs
A DEFINE is a named set of attribute/value pairs. DEFINEs are similar to ASSIGN
messages, but more versatile. DEFINEs involve too many commands to be described
completely here.
Topics:
•
DEFINE and ASSIGN
•
Controlling the Propagation of DEFINEs
•
DEFINE Names
•
DEFINE Attributes
•
ADD DEFINE Command
For more information on DEFINEs:
DEFINE and ASSIGN
Both DEFINEs and ASSIGN messages allow you to specify information about a file
before you start the process that uses that file.
Topics Sources
Full documentation TACL Reference Manual
Programmatic use Guardian Programmer’s Guide
Further information Guardian User’s Guide
Table 12-1. Differences Between DEFINE and ASSIGN
DEFINE ASSIGN
Processed by Operating environment HP COBOL program
Propagated to Any process that your HP COBOL
program creates, unless the new
process specifies DEFMODE OFF
Processes that your
HP COBOL program creates
and to which it explicitly
passes ASSIGNs
Accepted for
compiler input and
output files
Yes No for HP COBOL, HP C,
and HP C++; yes for
FORTRAN, Pascal, and TAL
Not accepted by FastSort SQL/MP or SQL/MX
Available from OSS
environment
Yes, but it can be used only to
access a Guardian disk file, tape
device, or spooler location
No