I use the intrinsic GETINFO to get the run ";PARM=" numeric value, and
the ;INFO=" string

Like this:

    01  Ginfo-Len                Pic S9(4) Comp.
    01  Ginfo-Str                Pic X(128).
    01  Ginfo-Parm               Pic S9(4) Comp.


     Move 128 To Ginfo-Len.
     Initialize Ginfo-Str Ginfo-Parm.
     Call Intrinsic "Getinfo" Using Ginfo-Str Ginfo-Len
                                    Ginfo-Parm.


--
Michael Anderson
Spring Independent School District
16717 Ella Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77090-4299
office: 281.586.1105
fax: 281.586.1187
-

>>> "Emerson, Tom" <[log in to unmask]> 03/30/05 01:14PM >>>
Greetings -- I'm feeling moderately dense this morning, trying to
use/remember a feature of COBOL that I haven't touched in years (nor can
I find in the docs), and digging through tons of source [mostly not my
own] to find an example to trigger the "Aha!" memory is not proving very
fruitful...

     How do I get the value of the "parm=" passed on the run
command?(*)

I know that (via the "special names" SW0-SW15) I can get specific BITS
of the run parm, but I thought there was a way to get the run-parm
proper.

basically I'm writing a utility program to retrieve some chunk of data
based on a single 3-digit key value; rather than force my jobstreams to
look like:

   !run getdata.prog
   123

[which means my program has to deal with display/accept statements and
error handling], I want to use

   !run getdata.prog;parm=123

[which will automatically be "available" and of the proper
type/range/etc.]

Am I nuts to think that the parm/info values are easily available in
HP-COBOL, or did I write some long-lost utility chunk of code to
manually reconstruct the "runparm" based on the SWn values and simply
forgot "it's not part of what HP offers..."?

Tom

(*) by the same token, how does one get the "info=" string?  Not that I
need it for this program, but I might as well "refresh" that section of
cranial-core :)

p.s.  Where did the (slightly better) 5.5 version of the mpe/ix docs
page go?  I had it bookmarked, but it comes up with a page-not-found;
the current 6/6.5/7 version actually went a bit "backwards" with the
functionality [and, for that matter, the 6/6.5/7 version points to a 5.0
version of the COBOL manuals...]