EGL maintains the variable for compatibility only. It has no effect on I/O statements that do not involve DL/I. New code should use standard exception handling. If you must run in V6 exception mode, you can get the same effect by setting vgVar.handleHardIOErrors.
If either vgVar.handleHardIOErrors or dliVar.handleHardDLIErrors is set to 1 and you include an onException block within the try block, the program does not end when a hard DL/I I/O error occurs. Instead, the program gives control to the onException block to handle the hard error by checking the dliVar variables.
If both vgVar.handleHardIOErrors and dliVar.handleHardDLIErrors are set to 0 or an onException block is not specified within the try block, the program ends when a hard error occurs on a DL/I I/O call.
The default value of dliVar.handleHardDLIErrors is 1, unless you set the program property handleHardDLIErrors to NO, which sets the variable to 0. The property handleHardDLIErrors is available for programs and other main logic parts.
For more information, see Exception handling.