How Message Retrieval Works

When an application requests the message retriever for text associated with a message number, a test is made to determine if there is a bound message segment with this executable file. If true, each bound message segment is searched for a match with the current session's code-page number.

If a match is made, then the message number is searched for. If it is found, the message will be returned to the caller. Otherwise, the search of remaining bound message segments will continue.

If no match results from a search of all message segments, the message file on the disk is searched. DosGetMessage will access the message file under any of the following conditions:

• The message file is in the current directory.
  
• The message file is in the path specified in the DPATH environment variable (protect mode).
  
• The message file is in the path specified in the APPEND environment variable (real mode).
  
• The fully-qualified file name is specified in DosGetMessage.