From: Ryan Moore [rmoore@rmoore.dyndns.org]
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 3:25 AM
To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject: Re: Error messages with MESSAGE/sys$putmsg

On Wed, 19 Mar 2003, Steve Young wrote:
>   I'm trying to make use of sys$putmsg from within a .c program of mine.
> I have no problem compiling my .MSG file with MESSAGE to an .obj file,
> however I have no idea how I can determine what numerical code was assigned
> to my error message during compilation for use.

This is a good question.  I've done this before, so I went back and looked
at the code I did.  I don't know where I got this information, but here is
how it's done in C.

Here's an example message file for a DTSS time provider program I created:

========================================================
.TITLE DTSTPCP_MSG
.IDENT /V1.00/

.FACILITY DTSTP, 15/PREFIX=DTSTP_

.SEVERITY INFORMATIONAL
TPSTART         <DECdts time provider started>
TPSHUTREQ       <Shutdown request sent to time provider>
TPDUMPREQ       <Dump request sent to time provider>
TPRELOADREQ     <Configuration reload request sent to time provider>
TPZEROREQ       <Zero counters request sent to time provider>
TPCLOSEREQ      <Log file close request sent to time provider>

.SEVERITY WARNING

.SEVERITY ERROR
TPRUNNING       <Time provider is already running>
NOTPMBX         <No time provider mailbox available>

.SEVERITY FATAL
========================================================

Notice the prefix is "DTSTP_".

Next, create a header file with all of the messages values in it specified
as a "globalvalue".  "globalvalue" has special meaning to the
compiler and linker.  But, honestly, I'm not sure what the magic is.

======================================================
/* message values */
globalvalue DTSTP_TPSTART;
globalvalue DTSTP_TPSHUTREQ;
globalvalue DTSTP_TPDUMPREQ;
globalvalue DTSTP_TPRELOADREQ;
globalvalue DTSTP_TPZEROREQ;
globalvalue DTSTP_TPCLOSEREQ;
globalvalue DTSTP_TPRUNNING;
globalvalue DTSTP_NOTPMBX;
=======================================================

Now you should be able to use those constants in your code.  The linker
will figure out the value for you.

Good luck.

-Ryan