NetBatch Management Programming Manual
Glossary
NetBatch Management Programming Manual—522462-003
Glossary-14
SPI
SPI. A set of procedures and associated definition files used to define common message-
based interfaces for communication between requesters and serversfor instance, in
a management application. It includes procedures to build and decode specially
formatted messages (as described under SPI message); definition files in TAL, C,
COBOL, and TACL format for inclusion in programs, macros, and routines using the
interface procedures; and definition files in DDL for programmers writing their own
subsystems.
SPI buffer. A sequence of memory locations used for a message produced by the SPI
procedures. See also buffer; message.
SPI control code. A special token code, passed to one of the SPI procedures, that directs
SPI to perform a specified action on the buffer (such as a positioning operation). The
ZSPI-TKN-DATAFLUSH, ZSPI-TKN-DELETE, and ZSPI-TKN-CLEARERR token
codes for SSPUT are examples of SPI control codes. An SPI control code is a type of
special operation. See special operation.
SPI definitions. See SPI standard definitions.
SPI error number. A number that indicates whether a call to an SPI procedure completed
successfully and why it failed if it did. This number is returned in the status parameter
on calls to the SPI procedures. The SPI error number does not reflect the success or
failure of a command. It applies only to errors in the building and decoding of a
message in an SPI buffer.
SPI message. A message specially formatted by the SPI procedures for communication
between a management application and a subsystem, or between one subsystem and
another. An SPI message consists of a collection of tokens. To retrieve a token from
the message, the application passes a token code to SPI, which scans for the
appropriate token and returns its value to the application. An SPI message is a single
block of information sent at one time as one interprocess message. The two types of
SPI messages are distinguished by two different SPI message header types:
command and response messages, and event messages. See header type
.
SPI message header. The initial part of an SPI message. The first word of the header
always contains the value -28. The remainder of the header contains descriptive
information about the SPI message, most of which is accessible as header tokens. The
tokens in the header differ according to the header type. The header of a message that
contains a command or response differs from the header of an event message. An
application can use SSGET or EMSGET calls to retrieve the values of header tokens,
and can use SSPUT calls to change the values of some. However, there are basic
differences between header tokens and other tokens. See header
.
SPI procedures. Guardian procedures that build and decode buffers for use in system and
network management and in other applications. These procedures are SSINIT,
SSNULL, SSPUT, SSPUTTKN, SSGET, SSGETTKN, SSMOVE, and SSMOVETKN.