NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Programmer's Guide

8 Executing NCL Procedures
106160 Tandem Computers Incorporated 8–1
An NCL procedure that is executing is called an NCL process. This section discusses
the following topics:
Execution techniques
Using timer commands to execute NCL procedures
Using virtual users to execute NCL procedures
Factors affecting NCL procedure location
Displaying information about NCL processes
Controlling NCL process execution
Note An NCL process executes within a NonStop NET/MASTER MS Guardian process and must be executed
from NonStop NET/MASTER MS. You cannot execute an NCL procedure from TACL or any other
Guardian utility. For more information on NonStop NET/MASTER MS processes, refer to the NonStop
NET/MASTER MS System Management Guide.
Execution Techniques There are two methods you, or an NCL process, can use to execute an NCL procedure:
explicit execution or implicit execution.
Explicit Execution Explicit execution refers to execution using the NonStop NET/MASTER MS START or
EXEC command or the START verb. This subsection discusses the START and EXEC
commands. Section 16, “Environments and Command Processing,” discusses the
START verb.
Note This subsection does not discuss environmental considerations related to explicit execution. These are
discussed in Section 16, “Environments and Command Processing.”
Execution Using the START Command
The START command is used to invoke an NCL procedure for concurrent
(asynchronous) execution in relation to other NCL processes.
An NCL procedure invoked using the START command is executed immediately.
Execution is completely independent of any other NCL procedures that have also been
invoked using a START command. It is also completely independent of NCL
procedures executed using the EXEC command.
Many NCL processes can execute simultaneously in a NonStop NET/MASTER MS
system. The number of NCL processes that can execute simultaneously in a region is
128, by default.
When a START command is issued, an NCL procedure is immediately allocated a
unique identifier. This is called an NCL process identifier (NCL ID).