Section 2 Commands-Job Feature and CJLI Interpreter
The "Commands-Job" feature of LISTSERV was designed in an attempt to allow for powerful inter-LISTSERV (and more generally, program-to-LISTSERV) command transmission with message redirection and multi-line arguments capability, while still allowing inexpert users to send commands to LISTSERV for execution in a very simple, intuitive" way.
The implementation of Commands-Jobs has therefore been split into two different layers: the 'core' command job language interpreter, with its exacting, powerful but stern control cards syntax, and the 'outer' interface to the user which provides the required default control cards whenever they have been omitted, translating an "intuitive" series of commands to execute into an actual commands-job that can be processed by the 'core' interpreter.
Since this documentation is primarily intended for postmasters and LISTSERV applications programmers, it will be oriented towards a description of the 'core' interpreter. The work of the 'outer interface' will only be mentioned for better understanding. The 'core' interpreter will be referred to as 'Commands Job Language Interpreter' (CJLI) in the following discussion.
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Warning: If you are familiar with MVS and JCL, you will probably notice some similarity between command job control cards and JCL. This similarity is purposeful and was intended to make CJLI easier to understand for JCL adepts and to make MVS users more comfortable with CJLI (MVS users who do not have any mailing system such as UCLA mail and have difficulties sending/receiving messages are often forced to use (basic) CJLI control cards to send commands to LISTSERV). However, there are a number of differences between CJLI and JCL and you should not assume that a given JCL card has the same meaning and syntax as its CJLI counterpart. Some JCL features which were deemed to be unnecessary (e.g. dataset concatenation with a blank DD card) have not been implemented, and new features have been implemented whenever required. |
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