A service program is a bound program (type *SRVPGM) consisting of a set of procedures that can be called by procedures in other bound programs.
Service programs are typically used for common functions that are frequently called within an application and across applications. For example, the ILE compilers use service programs to provide run-time services such as math functions and input/output routines. Service programs enable reuse, simplify maintenance, and reduce storage requirements.
A service program differs from a program in two ways:
When you bind a service program to a program, the contents of the service program are not copied into the bound program. Instead, linkage information of the service program is bound into the program. This is called 'binding by reference' in contrast to the static binding process used to bind modules into programs.
Because a service program is bound by reference to a program, you can call the service program's exported procedures using bound procedure calls. The initial call has a certain amount of overhead because the binding is not completed until the service program is called. However, subsequent calls to any of its procedures are faster than program calls.
The set of exports contained in a service program are the interface to the services provided by it. You can use the Display Service Program (DSPSRVPGM) command or the service program listing to see what variable and procedure names are available for use by the calling procedures. To see the exports associated with service program PAYROLL, you would enter:
DSPSRVPGM PAYROLL DETAIL(*PROCEXP *DATAEXP)