The Default Search Order for Environment Objects

When you use an environment symbol, REXX performs a series of searches to see if the environment symbol has an assigned value. The search locations and their ordering are:

• The directory of classes declared on ::CLASS directives within the current program file.

• The directory of PUBLIC classes declared on ::CLASS directives of other files included with a ::REQUIRES directive.

• The program local environment directory. The local environment includes process-specific objects such as the .INPUT and .OUTPUT objects. You can directly access the local environment directory by using the .Local environment symbol.

• The global environment directory. The global environment includes all "permanent" REXX objects such as the REXX supplied classes (.ARRAY and so on) and constants such as .TRUE and .FALSE. You can directly access the global environment by using the .environment environment symbol or using the VALUE built-in function with a null string for the selector argument.

• REXX defined symbols. Other simple environment symbols are reserved for use by REXX for built-in objects. The currently defined built-in objects are .RS and .METHODS.

If an entry is not found for an environment symbol, then the default character string value is used.

Note: You can place entries in both the .local and .environment directories for programs to use. To avoid conflicts with future REXX defined entries, it is recommended that entries you place in either of these directories include at least one period in the entry name.

Example:

/* establish a global settings directory */.local~setentry('MyProgram.settings', .directory~new)