The DELIMITERS command specifies delimiters other than spaces (the default delimiters), thereby creating a nonstandard pattern. AMS uses delimiters to separate a message into tokens.

Format

DELIMITERS delimiter-spec

Delimiter sets and delimiter lists are described in 1.3.1.

where delimiter-spec is a delimiter list or delimiter set to be used by AMS when separating a message into tokens.

Delimiter List

You specify a delimiter list enclosed in quotation marks (" "). To include a quotation mark in a delimiter list, precede it with a backslash. A delimiter list is a string of character delimiters specified in the order in which they must appear in the message.

AMS automatically strips leading and trailing spaces from a message. The delimiter list should not include characters that are automatically stripped from a message.

Delimiter Set

You specify a delimiter set enclosed in braces ({ }). To include a brace in a delimiter set, preceded it with a backslash. A delimiter set consists of delimiter characters that can occur in any order in the message. Delimiter characters that appear more than once in a message need to be specified only once in the delimiter set.

Examples

The following example defines message text for pattern number 20 in group newplant. It assigns the pattern a priority of 120. By specifying the delimiters space and colon in a delimiter set, AMS creates these tokens from the MESSAGE command: "hostname", "filesystem", "server", "not", and "responding".

DEFINE  "newplant" 20
   MESSAGE  "hostname:filesystem server not responding"
   PRIORITY  120
   DELIMITERS  { :}

The following example defines message text for a test pattern, and also assigns the next pattern number in group2. It assigns the pattern the lowest priority available, and so the pattern is searched last. By specifying delimiters space, space, A, R, space, S in a delimiter list, AMS creates these tokens from the MESSAGE command: "THIS", "IS", " USE", "ME", and "AGE".

DEFINE  "group2"
   MESSAGE  "THIS IS A USER MESSAGE"
   TYPE   TEST
   PRIORITY  255
   DELIMITERS  "  AR S"

Treating an Entire Message as One Token

If you want an entire message treated as one token, specify the delimiter list as two consecutive quotation marks (""). AMS considers this the null delimiter list.

DEFINE "group3"
		MESSAGE "Console Login"
		DELIMITERS ""
			

This example defines message text for an automatically generated pattern number in group3, with a pattern priority of 128. By specifying the null delimiter list, AMS treats the entire message as a single token.

Including Spaces in a Delimiter Set or Delimiter List

When you include a space in a delimiter set or delimiter list, the space matches any characters that result in a blank space in the message (for example, a space or tab character). For the message

This is a list: x, y, z and d

you could use the delimiter list "   : , ,   " (three spaces, colon, space, comma, space, comma, and three spaces), or you could use the delimiter set { :,} (space, colon, comma), either of which would result in these tokens:

This
is
a
list
x
y
z
and
d