The command name and parameters are listed using the following conventions:
[par] [par=] Note that the order of keyword specifiers is not significant. Positional parameters may also be specified in keyword form but that precludes the use of positional parameter specifications for parameters with a higher position.
Each parameter is listed in the form
PAR = TYPE (access)
Description
PAR is the parameter name – this also serves as the keyword for HDSTOOLS parameters.
TYPE is the parameter type. Type UNIV means that the type of the parameter will depend on the type of the argument given – an unquoted string is assumed to be an HDS object name (except for ‘INTERNAL’ parameters). If you want the type to be a string, you must enclose it in double quotes (and possibly protect them from the shell with further single quotes – HCOPY has an example of this). Conversely, if the parameter type is ’_CHAR’ and you want to specify an HDS object containing the value, you must force the string to be interpreted as an object name by preceding it with @ (HGET has an example of this).
(In fact the parameter system treats all parameters as HDS objects. If you specify a primitive value on the command line, an HDS object is created to hold the value and that object is used by the parameter system.)
Access is ’Read’ or ’Write’ (HDSTOOLS does not use ’Update’). Note that this refers to the access made to the parameter and not to the access to any file or object represented by the value. For example the OUT parameter of HCOPY is read but its value is the name of an object which is written, whilst HGET actually writes a value to its ATTR parameter.
The parameter description gives a simple description of the parameter. (More information may be provided in the description of the application.) If there is an association with a global parameter, this is indicated by the global parameter name preceded by < if it is used as a suggested value, and followed by > if the global parameter value updated with this parameter’s value on successful completion. If a default will be used without prompting, the default is appended enclosed in [ ]. These defaults will be given as the suggested value if prompting is forced.
Examples are given, in most cases assuming the command is run from the Unix shell – the % represents the Unix prompt and is not typed by the user. Running from ICL will be similar but quotes, parentheses and square brackets etc. do not need special protection.