The GETMSG service obtains a message and related information from the message file. The short and long message text, help panel name, and alarm indicator can be obtained for a specified message-id. Values for all variables defined in the message are substituted when the message text is retrieved. If the desired message information is not present for the short message text, long message text, or help panel name, the corresponding variable name specified in the GETMSG service request is set to a null value. If the alarm indicator is not present on the message, a value of "NO" is returned in the alarm-name variable.
A message type of critical (.TYPE=CRITICAL) on the message definition statement overrides the values specified for the alarm and window keywords. For critical messages, the dialog manager sounds the alarm and places the message in a message pop-up window that requires a response. If GETMSG asks for the .ALARM value to be returned, the value returned will be YES, reflecting the fact that .TYPE=CRITICAL has forced that value. This is the case if .ALARM was not specified (which would normally default to NO) or if .ALARM=NO is actually defined for the message.
All the parameters except the message-id are optional. If the optional parameters are omitted, GETMSG simply validates the existence of the specified message.