Directories and Lists

RLS has one root directory. You access the RLS system by reading its anchor address from a CICS temporary storage queue named *CICREX*. This queue contains one item after the first access of RLS. This item contains the address of an area of 6 fullwords. It contains RLS control information and a pointer to the root directory. The root directory RLS is named \. This directory can contain lists, saved variables, or special lists called queues as well as subdirectories. A subdirectory is a directory within another directory. Subdirectories can be created within any other directory. A new directory can be created with the RLS MKDIR command. All directories, except the root, are distinguished by a one to 250 character directory file name. This is called the directory ID.

One RLS directory that always exists is the USERS directory. This directory contains several subdirectories which correspond to the users on the system. When you save a list into the RLS for the first time, a new subdirectory may be created in the USERS directory. This new directory is named with your user ID if you are signed onto CICS. Otherwise, the directory name defaults to the value in CICS DFLTUSER. After this directory is created, you can create any number of subdirectories within that personal directory. You can place lists in any of the directories that you create.

Lists are always data files. They use the same naming conventions as directories.

A fully qualified list ID consists of a \, each directory's ID in the path followed by a \, and the list ID.

The following example shows a fully qualified list ID. USERS and USER1 are directory ID's, and TEST.DATA is the list ID.

Example:
\USERS\USER1\TEST.DATA

The following example shows RLS directories and lists.

Example:
       \                                 Root Directory
        TEST1.DATA                       File
        USERS\                           Subdirectory
              USER1\                     Subdirectory
                    TEST2.DATA           File
                    DOCS\                Subdirectory
                         TEST3.DOCUMENT  File
              USER2\                     Subdirectory
                    LETTER.DOCUMENT      File
        PROJECT1\                        Subdirectory
                 PROD1.INFO              File
                 DATA\                   Subdirectory
                      PROD1.DATA         File

     \                                   Root Directory
      TEST1.DATA                         File
      CHARTS\                            Subdirectory
             CHART1.DATA                 File
             CHART2.DATA                 File

This example shows a list directory structure. The root directory contains a file (TEST1.DATA) and two subdirectories (USERS and PROJECT1). Inside the USERS subdirectory are two subdirectories (USER1 and USER2) that correspond to user IDs (USER1 and USER2). User USER1 has a list (TEST2.DATA) and a subdirectory (DOCS) inside its directory. Inside the DOCS subdirectory there is another list (TEST3.DOCUMENT). User USER2 has a file (LETTER.DOCUMENT) inside its directory. The root directory contains a file (TEST1.DATA) and a subdirectory (CHARTS). Inside subdirectory CHARTS are two files (CHART1.DATA and CHART2.DATA).