Guardian Programmer's Guide

Table Of Contents
Using the File System
Guardian Programmer’s Guide 421922-014
2 - 5
Permanent Disk-File Names
The syntax definition for a permanent disk file is shown below. (Temporary disk files
are described later.)
Permanent disk-file names must follow these rules:
A permanent disk-file name must be made up entirely of alphanumeric characters,
except for the backslash (\) that begins the node name, the dollar sign ($) that
begins the volume name, and the periods that separate the pieces of the file name.
The second character of node-name and volume-name and the first character of
subvolume-name and file-id must be alphabetic characters.
Disk-file names have a maximum length of 35 characters, of which 8 characters
are reserved for the node-name (including the backslash). The volume-name,
subvolume-name, and file-id fields can have up to 8 characters each. (Note
that the 8 characters of volume-name includes the dollar sign.) The following
example illustrates the maximum sizes of each piece of a disk-file name:
\nnnnnnn.$vvvvvvv.ssssssss.ffffffff
8 + 1 + 8 + 1 + 8 + 1 + 8 = 35 characters
A fully qualified file name contains a node-name, a volume-name, a
subvolume-name, and a file-id. A partially qualified file name contains at
least the file-id but does not contain all four parts. The file-id is the only
mandatory part of a permanent disk-file name. The operating system provides
default values for all other unspecified parts of the file name:
²
If the volume-name is omitted, the default volume name is used in its place.
²
If the subvolume-name and volume-name are both omitted, the default
volume-name and subvolume-name are used.
²
If the node-name is omitted, the default system is assumed.
The default values are passed to the process from the user’s =_DEFAULTS
DEFINE. This DEFINE contains default values for the node name, volume name,
and subvolume name. Its contents change when the user changes the current
default values by issuing VOLUME, SYSTEM, and LOGON TACL commands. See
Section
7, Using DEFINEs, for details of programmatic use of DEFINEs.
The following are all valid disk-file names; if \SWITCH.$DATA.MESSAGES is the
default subvolume, then they all refer to the same file:
\SWITCH.$DATA.MESSAGES.ARCHIVE
$DATA.MESSAGES.ARCHIVE
MESSAGES.ARCHIVE
\SWITCH.ARCHIVE
Permanent disk-file name:
[node-name.][[volume-name.]subvolume-name.]file-id