How REXX EXECs receive information
For a REXX EXEC to perform its tasks, it must receive and retain information about the system.
This information is passed to EXECs through
- Statements called ARG statements
The first statement in an BMC AMI Ops Automation REXX EXEC must state that this EXEC is a REXX EXEC. The next statement is usually the ARG statement and it is coded with positional parameters that take values from the input that schedules the EXEC and makes those values available to the EXEC itself.
How-data-is-passed-to-the-EXEC contains examples of ARG statements and the information that gets passed to them depending on the way the EXEC is scheduled. - Variables in variable pools
Variables reside in four categories of variable pools and they receive and retain information that the EXEC requires to complete its tasks.
Variables-in-REXX-EXECs contains a discussion about variables and variable pools.
The following table summarizes the different possible values for the positional parameters on an ARG statement for the seven different EXEC types. You can have more than the 11 positional parameters shown in the tables (up to 255 bytes).
Positional parameters for the ARG (or CLIST PROC) statement
Positional parameter | Rule-initiated EXEC | ALERT-initiated EXEC | User-initiated EXEC | EXEC-initiated EXEC | Time-initiated EXEC | Externally initiated EXEC | End-of-Memory EXEC or IMFEOM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | EXEC name | EXEC name | EXEC name | EXEC name | EXEC name | 1 | |
2 | First optional parameter | First optional parameter | Target name | First optional parameter | NORMAL or ABNORMAL | ||
3 | Second optional parameter | Second optional parameter | IMS ID - used only for the BMC AMI Ops Automation for IMS option | Second optional parameter | NA | ||
4 | Third optional parameter | Third optional parameter | BBI-SS PAS subsystem identifier | Third optional parameter | NA | ||
5 | Fourth optional parameter | Fourth optional parameter | Current Gregorian date | Fourth optional parameter | NA | ||
6 | Fifth optional parameter | Fifth optional parameter | Time the EXEC is scheduled | Fifth optional parameter | NA | ||
7 | Sixth optional parameter | Sixth optional parameter | Day of the week | Sixth optional parameter | NA | ||
8 | Seventh optional parameter | Seventh optional parameter | Current Julian date | Seventh optional parameter | NA | ||
9 | Eighth optional parameter | Eighth optional parameter | Elapsed time of the active IMS/VS–used only for BMC AMI Ops Automation for IMS | Eighth optional parameter | NA | ||
10 | Ninth optional parameter | Ninth optional parameter | IMS/VS restart type–used only for theBMC AMI Ops Automation for IMS option | Ninth optional parameter | NA | ||
11 | Tenth optional parameter | Tenth optional parameter | Number of times the EXEC has been scheduled–used only for BMC AMI Ops Automation for IMS | Tenth optional parameter | NA |