How the Programmable Operator Facility Uses the Routing Table

When the programmable operator facility receives an IUCV interrupt with an incoming message, the active routing table is searched to find a matching entry. When the routing table is searched, all fields are checked. For a match to occur, each field must either match or be blank. If a matching entry is found, that entry contains information pertaining to any action to be taken. The action routine name tells the programmable operator facility which action routine to invoke when a routing table entry matches the incoming message. If no matching entry is found in the active routing table, no action is taken besides logging the message.

The order that the entries are placed in the routing table affects the way the programmable operator facility performs. The routing table is searched from top to bottom until a match is found. As the table is searched, lines that begin with an asterisk (*) in column 1 are ignored, and therefore may be used to place comments in the routing table. Also, lines that are completely blank are ignored in the routing table search and can be used to separate lines of text for easier reading. All entries must be made in upper case.