TAL Reference Manual

Compiler Directives

TAL Reference Manual—526371-001

16-80

Usage Considerations

SEARCH can appear in the compilation command or anywhere in the source code. A

SEARCH directive can extend to continuation lines, each line beginning with ? in

column 1.

Search List

The compiler sends the list of object files from each SEARCH directive to BINSERV.

BINSERV appends the file names in the order specified to the master search list for

the current source file.

You can clear the search list at any point in the source file by specifying SEARCH with

no file names.

At the end of compilation, BINSERV uses the files that remain on the search list to

resolve external references. BINSERV searches the files in the order in which they

appear in the search list. If a procedure or entry-point name that resolves an external

reference appears in more than one file, BINSERV binds only the first occurrence, so

the order in which you specify the files is important.

After a successful compilation, BINSERV binds the new object file. During binding,

BINSERV uses procedures from object files in the master search list to resolve any

unsatisfied external references in your program. If the external procedures also contain

references to other external procedures or to data blocks, BINSERV resolves them

from object files in the master search list.

Retrieving Global Initializations and Template Structures

You also use SEARCH to retrieve previously saved global initializations and template

structure declarations. For example, in the following compilation command,

USEGLOBALS retrieves global data declarations saved in file TALSYM by

SAVEGLOBALS in a previous compilation, and SEARCH retrieves the initialization

values from object file MYOBJ, which was also created in the SAVEGLOBALS

compilation:

TAL /IN myprog/ newobj; USEGLOBALS talsym, SEARCH myobj

As an alternative, you can place the SEARCH directive in the source code anywhere

before the BEGINCOMPILATION directive.

For more information on saving global data declarations, see the SAVEGLOBALS

Directive on page 16-75.