Document revision date: 19 July 1999

This section describes how to code BLISS calls to library routines. A called routine can return only one of the following:

• No value.
• A function value (typically, an integer or floating point number). For example, MTH$SIN returns its result as an F_floating value in R0 on VAX systems or F0 on Alpha systems.
  On Alpha processors, BLISS cannot access floating point registers.
• A return status (typically, a 32-bit condition value) indicating that the routine has either executed successfully or failed. For example, LIB$GET_INPUT returns a return status in R0. If the routine executes successfully, it returns SS$_NORMAL; if not, it returns one of several possible error condition values. BLISS treats the return status like any other value.

Scalar arguments are usually passed to run-time library routines by reference. Thus, when a BLISS program passes a variable, the variable appears with no preceding period in the procedure-call actual argument list. A constant value can be easily passed by using the %REF built-in function.

The following example shows how a BLISS program calls LIB$PUT_OUTPUT. This routine writes a record at the user's terminal.

MODULE SHOWTIME(IDENT='1-1' %TITLE'Print time', MAIN=TIMEOUT)= BEGIN LIBRARY 'SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET'; ! Defines system services, etc. MACRO DESC[]=%CHARCOUNT(%REMAINING), ! VAX string descriptor UPLIT BYTE(%REMAINING) %; ! definition BIND FMTDESC=UPLIT( DESC('At the tone, the time will be ', %CHAR(7), '!%T' )); EXTERNAL ROUTINE LIB$PUT_OUTPUT: ADDRESSING_MODE(GENERAL); ROUTINE TIMEOUT = BEGIN LOCAL TIMEBUF: VECTOR[2], ! 64-bit system time MSGBUF: VECTOR[80,BYTE], ! Output message buffer MSGDESC: BLOCK[8,BYTE], ! Descriptor for message buffer RSLT: WORD; ! Length of result string !+ ! Initialize the fields of the string descriptor. !- MSGDESC[DSC$B_CLASS]=DSC$K_CLASS_S; MSGDESC[DSC$B_DTYPE]=DSC$K_DTYPE_T; MSGDESC[DSC$W_LENGTH]=80; MSGDESC[DSC$A_POINTER]=MSGBUF[0] $GETTIM(TIMADR=TIMEBUF); ! Get time as 64-bit integer $FAOL(CTRSTR=FMTDESC, ! Format descriptor OUTLEN=RSLT, ! Output length (only a word!) OUTBUF=MSGDESC, ! Output buffer desc. PRMLST= %REF(TIMEBUF)); ! Address of 64-bit ! time block MSGDESC [DSC$W_LENGTH] = .RSLT; ! Modify output desc. RETURN (LIB$PUT_OUTPUT(MSGDESC); ! Return status END; END ELUDOM

3.4.2 Accessing a Return Status in BLISS

BLISS accesses a function return value or condition value returned in R0 as follows:

STATUS = LIB$PUT_OUTPUT(MSG_DESC); IF NOT .STATUS THEN LIB$STOP(.STATUS);

3.4.3 Calling JSB Entry Points from BLISS

Many of the library mathematics routines have JSB entry points. You can invoke these routines efficiently from a BLISS procedure using LINKAGE and EXTERNAL ROUTINE declarations, as in the following example:

MODULE JSB_LINK (MAIN = MATH_JSB, ! Example of using JSB linkage IDENT = '1-001', ADDRESSING_MODE(EXTERNAL = GENERAL)) = BEGIN LINKAGE LINK_MATH_R4 = JSB (REGISTER = 0; ! input reg REGISTER = 0): ! output reg NOPRESERVE (0,1,2,3,4) NOTUSED (5,6,7,8,9,10,11); EXTERNAL ROUTINE MTH$SIND_R4 : LINK_MATH_R4; FORWARD ROUTINE MATH_JSB; LIBRARY 'SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET.L32'; ROUTINE MATH_JSB = ! Routine BEGIN LOCAL INPUT_VALUE : INITIAL (%E'30.0'), SIN_VALUE; !+ ! Get the sine of single floating 30 degrees. The input, 30 degrees, ! is passed in R0, and the answer, is returned in R0. Registers ! 0 to 4 are modified by MTH$SIND_R4. !- MTH$SIND_R4 (.INPUT_VALUE ; SIN_VALUE); RETURN SS$_NORMAL; END; ! End of routine END ! End of module JSB_LINK ELUDOM

The OpenVMS operating system kernel has many services that are made available to application and system programs for use at run time. These system services are procedures that the OpenVMS operating system uses to control resources available to processes; to provide for communication among processes; and to perform basic operating system functions, such as the coordination of input/output operations. The OpenVMS Programming Concepts Manual defines these functions further.

This chapter describes the basic methods and conventions for coding calls to system services from OpenVMS high-level languages or from an assembly language.

For more information about using the system services that support 64-bit addressing and to see example programs that demonstrate the use of these services, refer to OpenVMS Alpha Guide to 64-Bit Addressing and VLM Features.

4.1 Overview

System services are called by using the conventions of the OpenVMS Calling Standard. The programming languages that generate VAX or Alpha native mode instructions provide mechanisms for specifying the procedure calls.

When you call a system service from your program, you must furnish whatever arguments the routine requires. When the system service procedure completes execution, in most cases it returns control to your program. If the service returns a status code, your program should check the value of the code to determine whether or not the service completed successfully. If the return status indicates an error, you may want to change the flow of execution of your program to handle the error before returning control to your program.

When you write a program that calls a system service in the OpenVMS operating system, the operating system views your program as a user procedure. User procedures also can call other user procedures that are either supplied by Digital or written by you. Because an OpenVMS native-mode language compiler program exists outside the operating system, compiler generated programs calling any system service are also defined as a set of user procedures.

If you program in a high-level language, refer to Chapter 5 for information about the SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$LIB_C.TLB file, which is an OpenVMS Alpha library of C header files.

For VAX MACRO, system service macros generate argument lists and CALL instructions to call system services. These macros are located in the system library (see SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET.MLB). When you assemble a source program, this library is searched automatically for unresolved references. (See Appendix A for further details.) Similar macros are available for VAX BLISS and are located in SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET.REQ.

4.2 Preserving System Integrity

As described in the OpenVMS Programming Concepts Manual and the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual, many system services are available and suitable for application programs, but the use of some of these powerful services must be restricted to protect the performance of the system and the integrity of user processes.

For example, because the creation of permanent mailboxes uses system dynamic memory, the unrestricted use of permanent mailboxes could decrease the amount of memory available to other users. Therefore, the ability to create permanent mailboxes is controlled: a user must be specifically assigned the privilege to use the Create Mailbox (SYS$CREMBX) system service to create a permanent mailbox.

The various controls and restrictions applied to system service usage are described in this chapter. The Description section of each system service in the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual lists any privileges and quotas necessary to use the service.

4.2.1 User Privileges

The system manager, who maintains the user authorization file for the system, grants privileges for access to the protected system services. The user authorization file contains, in addition to profile information about each user, a list of specific user privileges and resource quotas.

When you log in to the system, the privileges and quotas assigned to you are associated with the process created on your behalf. These privileges and quotas are applied to every image the process executes.

When an image issues a call to a system service that is protected by privilege, the privilege list is checked. If you have the specific privilege required, the image is allowed to execute the system service; otherwise, a condition value indicating an error is returned.

For a list of privileges, see the description of the Create Process ($CREPRC) system service in the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual.

4.2.2 Resource Quotas

Many system services require certain system resources for execution. These resources include system dynamic memory and process quotas for I/O operations. When a system service that uses a resource controlled by a quota is called, the process's quota for that resource is checked. If the process has exceeded its quota, or if it has no quota allotment, an error condition value may be returned.

4.2.3 Access Modes

A process can execute at any one of four access modes: user, supervisor, executive, or kernel. The access modes determine a process's ability to access pages of virtual memory. Each page has a protection code associated with it, specifying the type of access---read, write, or no access---allowed for each mode.

For the most part, user-written programs execute in user mode; system programs executing at the user's request (system services, for example) may execute at one of the other three, more privileged access modes.

In some system service calls, the access mode of the caller is checked. For example, when a process tries to cancel timer requests, it can cancel only those requests that were issued from the same or less privileged access modes. For example, a process executing in user mode cannot cancel a timer request made from supervisor, executive, or kernel mode.

Note that many system services use access modes to protect system resources, and thus employ a special convention for interpreting access mode arguments. You can specify an access mode using a numeric value or a symbolic name. Table 4-1 shows the access modes and their numeric values, symbolic names, and privilege ranks.

Table 4-1 OpenVMS System Access Modes

Access Mode	Numeric Value	Symbolic Name	Privilege Rank
Kernel	0	PSL$C_KERNEL	Highest
Executive	1	PSL$C_EXEC
Supervisor	2	PSL$C_SUPER
User	3	PSL$C_USER	Lowest

The symbolic names are defined by the symbolic definition macro SYS$PSLDEF.

System services that permit an access mode argument allow callers to specify only an access mode of equal or lesser privilege than the access mode from which the service was called. If the specified access mode is more privileged than the access mode from which the service was called, the less privileged access mode is always used.

To determine the mode to use, the operating system compares the specified access mode with the access mode from which the service was called. Because this operation results in an access mode with a higher numeric value (when the access mode of the caller is different from the specified access mode), the access mode is said to be maximized.

Because much of the code you write executes in user mode, you can omit the access mode argument. The argument value defaults to 0 (kernel mode), and when this value is compared with the value of the current execution mode (3, user mode), the higher value (3) is used.

4.3 System Service Call Entry

The Format section of each system service description in the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual indicates the positional dependencies and keyword names of each argument, as shown in the following format:

$SERVICE arga ,argb ,argc ,argd

This format indicates that the macro name of the service is $SERVICE and that it requires four arguments, ordered as shown and with keyword names arga, argb, argc, and argd.

Arguments passed to a service must be listed in your call entry in the order shown in the Format section of the service description. Each argument has four characteristics: OpenVMS usage, data type, access type, and passing mechanism. These characteristics are described in Chapter 1.

The OpenVMS Alpha SYS$LIBRARY:SYS$LIB_C.TLB file contains C function prototypes for system services. These prototypes are documented in OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual: A--GETMSG and and OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual: GETQUI--Z. For each prototype, the manuals provide the correct syntax (which shows the arguments the function accepts in the order in which it expects them), a description of each argument, and the type of data returned by the function.

Some arguments are optional. Optional arguments are indicated by brackets in the service descriptions. When your program invokes a system service by using a CALL entry point, you can omit optional arguments at the end of the argument list. If the optional argument is not the last argument in the list, you must either pass a zero by value or use a comma to indicate the place of the omitted argument. Some languages, such as C, require that you pass a zero by value for all trailing optional arguments. See your language processor documentation for further information.

In the call statement of a high-level language program, you must prefix the macro function service name with SYS (the system service facility prefix). For example, the call statement in a C program procedure that calls the SYS$GETDVI system service with four arguments is as follows:

return_status = sys$getdvi( event_flagnum, channel, &devnam, &item_list,0,0,0);

Note that in C, you must not omit the optional trailing arguments and should pass a zero by value for these unused parameters. See your language processor documentation for further information.

The OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual provides a description of each service that indicates how each argument is to be passed. Phrases such as "an address" and "address of a character string descriptor" identify reference and descriptor arguments, respectively. Terms like "Boolean value," "number," "value," or "mask" indicate an argument that is passed by value.

In the Alpha and VAX environments, the called routine interprets each argument using one of three standard passing mechanisms: by value, by reference, or by descriptor.

On VAX systems, the calling program passes an argument list of longwords to a called service; each longword in the argument list specifies a single argument.

On Alpha systems, the calling program passes arguments in an argument item sequence; each quadword in the sequence specifies a single argument item. Note that the argument item sequence is formed using R16--R21 or F16--F21 (a register for each argument).

For more detailed information on arguments lists and passing mechanisms, see Sections 2.4 and 2.5.

Some services also require service-specific data structures that either indicate functions to be performed or hold information to be returned. The OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual includes descriptions of these service-specific data structures. You can use this information and information from your programming language manuals to define such service-specific item lists.

4.4 System Service Completion

When a system service completes, control is returned to your program. You can specify how and when control is returned to your program by choosing synchronous or asynchronous forms of system services and by enabling process execution modes.

The following sections describe:

• When synchronous system services return control to your program
• When asynchronous system services return control to your program
• How you can synchronize the completion of asynchronous system services
• How control is returned to your program when special process execution modes are enabled

You can execute a number of system services either asynchronously or synchronously (such as, SYS$GETJPI and SYS$GETJPIW or SYS$ENQ and SYS$ENQW). The W at the end of the system service name indicates the synchronous version of the system service.

The asynchronous version of a system service queues a request and returns control to your program. You can perform operations while the system service executes; however, you should not attempt to access information returned by the service until you check for the system service completion.

Typically, you pass to an asynchronous system service an event flag and an I/O status block or a lock status block. When the system service completes, it sets the event flag and places the final status of the request in the status block. You use the SYS$SYNCH system service to ensure that the system service has completed. You pass SYS$SYNCH the event flag and the status block that you passed to the asynchronous system service; SYS$SYNCH waits for the event flag to be set, then ensures that the system service (rather than some other program) sets the event flag by checking the status block. If the status block is still zero, SYS$SYNCH waits until the status block is filled.

The synchronous version of a system service acts exactly as if you had used the asynchronous version followed immediately by a call to SYS$SYNCH. If you omit the efn argument, the service uses event flag number 0 whether you use the synchronous or asynchronous version of a system service.

Example 4-1 illustrates the use of the SYS$SYNCH system service to check the completion status of the asynchronous service SYS$GETJPI.

Example 4-1 Example of SYS$SYNCH System Service in FORTRAN

! Data structure for SYS$GETJPI . . . INTEGER*4 STATUS, 2 FLAG, 2 PID_VALUE ! I/O status block INTEGER*2 JPISTATUS, 2 LEN INTEGER*4 ZERO /0/ COMMON /IO_BLOCK/ JPISTATUS, 2 LEN, 2 ZERO . . . ! Call SYS$GETJPI and wait for information STATUS = LIB$GET_EF (FLAG) IF (.NOT. STATUS) CALL LIB$SIGNAL (%VAL(STATUS)) STATUS = SYS$GETJPI (%VAL(FLAG), 2 PID_VALUE, 2 , 2 NAME_BUF_LEN, 2 JPISTATUS, 2 ,) IF (.NOT. STATUS) CALL LIB$SIGNAL (%VAL(STATUS)) . . . STATUS = SYS$SYNCH (%VAL(FLAG), 2 JPISTATUS) IF (.NOT. JPISTATUS) THEN CALL LIB$SIGNAL (%VAL(JPISTATUS)) END IF END

4.4.2 System Service Resource Wait Mode

Normally, when a system service is called and a required resource is not available, the process is placed in a wait state until the resource becomes available. Then the service completes execution. This mode is called resource wait mode.

In a real-time environment, however, it may not be practical or desirable for a program to wait. In these cases, you can choose to disable resource wait mode so that when a required resource is unavailable, control returns immediately to the calling program with an error condition value. You can disable (and reenable) resource wait mode with the Set Resource Wait Mode (SYS$SETRWM) system service.

If resource wait mode is disabled, it remains disabled until it is explicitly reenabled or until your process is deleted. For example, if your program has disabled resource wait mode and has exited to the DCL prompt, subsequent programs or utilities invoked by this process continue to run with resource wait mode disabled and might not perform properly because they are not prepared to handle a failure to get a resource. In this case, you should reenable the wait mode before your program exits to the DCL prompt.

How a program responds to the unavailability of a resource depends primarily on the application and the particular service being called. In some instances, the program may be able to continue execution and retry the service call later. In other instances, it may be necessary for the program to wait for the resource and the system service to complete.

4.4.3 Condition Values Returned from System Services

When a service returns control to your program, it places a return status value in the general register R0. The value in the low-order word indicates either that the service completed successfully or that some specific error prevented the service from performing some or all of its functions. After each call to a system service, you must check whether it completed successfully. You can also test for specific errors in the condition value.

Depending on your specific needs, you can test just the low-order bit, the low-order 3 bits, or the entire condition value, as follows:

• The low-order bit indicates successful (1) or unsuccessful (0) completion of the service.
• The low-order 3 bits, taken together, represent the severity of the error. Table 4-2 lists the possible severity code values returned.
  For VAX MACRO, the symbolic definition macro SYS$STSDEF defines the symbolic names. For the C programming language, the SSDEF.H file defines the symbolic names.
• The remaining bits (bits 3 through 31) classify the particular return condition and the operating system component that issued the condition value. For system service return status values, the high-order word (bits 16 through 31) contains zeros.

Table 4-2 Severity Codes of Condition Value Returned

Value	Meaning	Symbolic Name
0	Warning	STS$K_WARNING
1	Success	STS$K_SUCCESS
2	Error	STS$K_ERROR
3	Informational	STS$K_INFO
4	Severe or fatal error	STS$K_SEVERR
5--7	Reserved

Each numeric condition value has a unique symbolic name in the following format:

SS$_code

where code is a mnemonic describing the return condition.

For example, the following symbol usually indicates a successful return:

SS$_NORMAL

An example of an error return condition value is as follows:

SS$_ACCVIO

This condition value indicates that an access violation occurred because a service could not read an input field or write an output field.

The symbolic definitions for condition values are included in the default system library SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET.OLB. You can obtain a listing of these symbolic codes at assembly time by invoking the system macro SYS$SSDEF. To check return conditions, use the symbolic names for system condition values.

The OpenVMS operating system does not automatically handle system service failure or warning conditions; you must test for them and handle them yourself. This contrasts with the operating system's handling of exception conditions detected by the hardware or software; the system handles these exceptions by default, although you can intervene in or override the default handling by declaring a condition handler.

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