Program-to-Program Interface › Access PPI Facilities › Access PPI from NCL Processes

Access PPI from NCL Processes

To access PPI facilities in NCL, use the &PPI NCL verb and two NCL system variables, &ZPPI and &ZPPINAME.

Note: For more information about these verbs and system variables, see the Network Control Language Reference Guide.

After an &PPI verb is executed from an NCL process, the &RETCODE NCL system variable contains the return code that indicates success or failure. This value can be used as a quick test to check whether the operation worked or not. Generally, 0 indicates that there are no problems, 4 is a warning, 8 or 12 indicate errors of some sort. Return code 20 is only returned after &PPI RECEIVE WAIT=NOTIFY if a notification message arrives later.

If an error code is returned in &RETCODE, the &ZFDBK system variable can be used to investigate the error further. &ZFDBK contains the actual PPI return code as returned in the RPB after a call, or a simulated return code if NCL detected an error condition itself.

Any NCL process in the system can use PPI services with the following restrictions:

• To receive data, a process must register itself to PPI with a unique name, using the &PPI DEFINE option.
• If a process does not register itself, and sends data, the PPI sender ID used is the 6-digit NCLID (leading zeros) prefixed with a hash (#) character.
• An NCL process can be defined as only one receiver at a time.