VAX DEC/Code Management System Callable Routines Reference Manual

This document is a reference manual for the VAX DEC/Code Management System (CMS) Callable Routines, version 3.0, released in April 1988. It serves as a guide for programmers who are familiar with CMS and the VMS operating system to use a set of routines for accessing and manipulating CMS libraries from their programs.

The manual is structured into two main chapters and two appendices:

• Chapter 1 (Using CMS Callable Routines): Provides foundational information, including general rules for writing programs that call CMS routines, methods for passing arguments (by reference, by descriptor, by immediate value), explanations of data types, and details on the Library Data Block (LDB) and Fetch Data Block (FDB). It also covers specifying flags and masks, handling condition values and error conditions, and the process of linking with the CMS image. A significant portion is dedicated to callback routines for custom input, output, confirmation, and prompting.
• Chapter 2 (CMS Routine Descriptions): Offers detailed descriptions for over 50 individual CMS routines. These routines enable various operations on CMS libraries, including annotating, terminating asynchronous operations, executing DCL commands, copying elements, creating and deleting classes, elements, groups, and libraries, managing generation history, comparing differences, fetching elements line-by-line, handling strings, inserting and removing elements/generations/groups, modifying attributes of classes/elements/generations/groups/libraries, replacing reserved generations, retrieving archives, reviewing generations, setting access control lists (ACLs) and library contexts, showing information about ACLs/archives/classes/elements/generations/groups/history/libraries/reservations/reviews pending/versions, unreserving elements, and verifying library integrity.
• Appendix A (Summary of CMS Entry Points): Lists all CMS routines with their arguments and parameters.
• Appendix B (Examples of Calling CMS): Provides programming examples demonstrating how to call CMS routines from different languages, including Ada, BASIC, BLISS, C, COBOL, DIBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, PL/I, and SCAN.

Key technical changes introduced in CMS Version 3.0, as highlighted in the document, include new routines for generation management, archive retrieval, and review processes, as well as enhancements such as automatic library recovery, support for Access Control Lists (ACLs), improved reference copy handling, and the ability for multiple reservations.