SYS$ERROR

SYS$ERROR is a process-permanent logical name that refers to the default device or file to which the system writes messages.

Defaults

In an interactive session, SYS$ERROR points to the terminal. In command procedures executed interactively, SYS$ERROR points to the terminal. In command procedures executed in batch mode SYS$ERROR points to the batch job log file.

You can redefine SYS$ERROR to direct error messages to a specified file. However, if you redefine SYS$ERROR so it is different from SYS$OUTPUT (or if you redefine SYS$OUTPUT without also redefining SYS$ERROR), DCL commands send informational, warning, error, and severe error messages to both SYS$ERROR and SYS$OUTPUT. Therefore, you receive these messages twice — once in the file indicated by the definition of SYS$ERROR and once in the file indicated by SYS$OUTPUT. Success messages are sent only to the file indicated by SYS$OUTPUT.

DCL commands and images, which use standard error display mechanisms, send error messages to both SYS$ERROR and SYS$OUTPUT even when SYS$ERROR is different from SYS$OUTPUT. However, if you redefine SYS$ERROR, then run an image that references SYS$ERROR, the image sends error messages only to the file indicated by SYS$ERROR. This is true even if SYS$ERROR is different from SYS$OUTPUT.