MPE/iX Glossary of Terms and Acronyms (32650-90887)

Chapter 1 59

Glossary of Terms

span To spread related data across volume sets.

spoolﬁle A ﬁle awaiting printing. This ﬁle can reside on disk or can be moved to

tape. A spoolﬁle may be either OPEN, ACTIVE, READY, or LOCKED. These

states describe different stages of the spooling process depending upon

whether the ﬁle is an input or output spoolﬁle.

spool SPOOL is an acronym for "simultaneous peripheral operations online".

Spooling allows many processes to simultaneously write output for a

single printer.

spreadsheet A program that allows the user to enter data into row and column

positions (known as "cells"). A spreadsheet program provides

mathematical manipulation of the values in the cells.

stack A data structure in which items are added at the end of a sequential list

and can only be retrieved from the same end.

standard input A system-deﬁned ﬁle that provides input for programs. This ﬁle can be a

device (for example, a keyboard or printer), or an actual data ﬁle. The

formal ﬁle designator for standard input is $STDIN or $STDINX.

standard output A system-deﬁned ﬁle that holds output from a batch job (including the

job statements and error messages). This ﬁle can be a device (for example,

a terminal screen or printer), or an actual ﬁle. The formal ﬁle designator

for standard output is $STDLIST.

star network A point-to-point network topology. The star topology is often used for

centralized data collection or supervisory control. It is also used when a

central node has a large database or control program that is accessed by

the other nodes. In a star network, there is at most one intervening node

between any two nodes. Star networks are vulnerable to failure of the

central node. If the central node fails, no network communication is

possible.

START An initial system loader (ISL) utility, and its options, used to start the

system from disk, building the system data structures. This utility is used

to recover from a hang or failure or to reboot the system after scheduled

downtime. The START RECOVERY option is equivalent to the MPE V/E

WARMSTART procedure, and the START NORECOVERY option is

equivalent to the MPE V/E COOLSTART procedure.

static backup Backup is static when the ﬁles and structures are inaccessible during the

time that they are being stored. That is, they are locked exclusively by the

backup subsystem.

status bits or words Bits (or words, if status words are used) that indicate the condition

of a device. The status bits or word can be checked by a program or

microcode and, based upon the value, a speciﬁc sequence of instructions

executed.

$STDIN A system-deﬁned ﬁle name referring to the standard input "ﬁle" (which

can be an actual ﬁle or a device). $STDIN often refers to the keyboard for

interactive sessions and a ﬁle for batch jobs or programs. $STDIN treats a

colon (:) appearing in the ﬁrst column of input data as an end-of-ﬁle. See