2.3.5 Remote Name Notation

To use AcuServer, your applications must use remote name notation to reference files located on the server. The Acucobol runtime looks for remote name notation to identify requests to AcuServer. Remote name notation has the following format:

@server-name:path-name

For example:

@condor:/usr/acct/inventory

To add a remote path to FILE-PREFIX or CODE-PREFIX, use the format:

FILE-PREFIX  @server-name:path-name
CODE-PREFIX  @server-name:path-name

As an alternative to FILE-PREFIX, you can define file name aliases in the runtime configuration file. A file name alias is a string that will replace the literal name in the ASSIGN TO clause of a SELECT statement. For example:

input-output section.
file-control.
   select idx-file
   assign to disk "IDXDAT"
   binary sequential
   status is idx-status.

To define an alias for "IDXDAT" you could add the following line to your runtime configuration file:

IDXDAT  @condor:/usr/data/index_data

Sites that use the FILE-PREFIX variable to set up paths for multiple directories or multiple servers (either multiple server host machines or multiple instances of the acuserve program on a single host) can improve performance significantly by using name aliasing instead of FILE-PREFIX. This is because a substantial number of network accesses may be needed to search for a file whose path has been defined with FILE-PREFIX. For more information about FILE-PREFIX, CODE-PREFIX, and name aliases, see Section 9.1 Accessing Remote Files.