Arguments

 

copies

   OpenVMS usage longword_unsigned
   type          longword (unsigned)
   access        modify
   mechanism     by reference
   Number of subordinates of the specified program to be executed
   concurrently. The copies argument is the address of an unsigned
   longword containing this number. Its value must be positive.
   If you specify a value greater than 1 for the copies argument,
   each copy created will have the same subprocess information (for
   example, standard input and output files). If you want to specify
   different information for each subprocess, call PPL$SPAWN once
   for each subprocess.

   On output, this parameter contains the number of subordinates
   actually created. This value differs from the requested number
   if an individual spawn attempt fails, for example, because of
   insufficient quotas.
 

program-name

   OpenVMS usage logical_name
   type          character string
   access        read only
   mechanism     by descriptor, fixed-length
   Name of the program (image) to be invoked. The program-name
   argument is the address of a descriptor pointing to a character
   string containing the file specification of the image. Program-
   name must have no more than 63 characters. If program-name
   contains a logical name, the equivalence name must be in a
   logical name table that the created subordinate can access. If
   you do not specify a program-name, the default is to execute in
   parallel the image being run by the caller.
 

children-ids

   OpenVMS usage vector_longword_unsigned
   type          longword (unsigned)
   access        write only
   mechanism     by reference, array reference
   Identifiers of each of the newly created subordinates. The
   children-ids argument is the address of a vector of longwords
   into which is written the index within the executing application
   of each subordinate successfully initiated by this call.
 

flags

   OpenVMS usage mask_longword
   type          longword (unsigned)
   access        read only
   mechanism     by reference
   Bit mask specifying options for creating processes. The flags
   argument is a longword bit mask containing the flags. Valid
   values for flags are as follows:

   PPL$M_INIT_      If set, the caller of this routine and
   SYNCH            all subordinates created by this call are
                    synchronized to continue processing only after
                    each and every subordinate created by this call
                    has called PPL$CREATE_APPLICATION. (See the
                    Description section for more information.) A
                    failure of the created subordinate after it
                    successfully starts but before its call to
                    PPL$CREATE_APPLICATION can cause difficulties
                    with the use of this flag value.
   PPL$M_NOCLISYM   If set, the created processes do not inherit CLI
                    symbols from the calling process. The default
                    action is for created processes to inherit all
                    currently defined CLI symbols.
   PPL$M_           If set, prompt strings are not prefixed by
   NOCONTROL        carriage return/line feeds. The default action
                    is to prefix any prompt string specified with a
                    carriage return/line feed.
   PPL$M_NODEBUG    Prevents the startup of the OpenVMS Debugger,
                    even if the debugger was linked with the image.
   PPL$M_NOKEYPAD   If set, created processes inherit the current
                    keypad symbols and state from the calling
                    process. The default action is that created
                    processes do not inherit keypad symbols and
                    state.
   PPL$M_NOLOGNAM   If set, created processes do not inherit process
                    logical names from the calling process. The
                    default is for created processes to inherit all
                    currently defined process logical names.
   PPL$M_NOTIFY     If set, a message is broadcast to SYS$OUTPUT as
                    each process terminates. This flag is ignored if
                    the process is not interactive (for example, run
                    in batch).
 

std-input-file

   OpenVMS usage logical-name
   type          character string
   access        read only
   mechanism     by descriptor
   File name of the file to serve as the standard input file in the
   created subordinates. The std-input-file argument is the address
   of a descriptor pointing to a character string containing the
   file name. If you do not specify a value for this argument, the
   subordinate inherits the creating participant's standard input
   file (SYS$INPUT).
 

std-output-file

   OpenVMS usage logical-name
   type          character string
   access        read only
   mechanism     by descriptor
   File name of the file to serve as the standard output file in the
   created subordinates. The std-output-file argument is the address
   of a descriptor pointing to a character string containing the
   file name. If you do not specify a value for this argument, the
   subordinate inherits the creating participant's standard output
   file (SYS$OUTPUT).