As was seen in How to Route Messages, message processing can be specified either by text strings (read from an environment variable or routing file, or passed to a routine) or, to a limited degree, by attribute in the message definition or when the message is output. The following table shows all the available types of serviceability message processing; the name by which it is specified in strings, and the attribute (where it exists) by which it is specified in message definitions and calls are both given, along with the meaning of each.
Serviceability Message Processing Specifiers
| Name | Attribute | Meaning |
| BINFILE | Write binary log entry. | |
| TEXTFILE | Write human-readable text. | |
| FILE | Equivalent to TEXTFILE. | |
| DISCARD | svc_c_route_nolog | Do not record. |
| STDOUT | Write human-readable text to standard output. | |
| STDERR | svc_c_route_stderr | Write human-readable text to standard error. |
| GOESTO | Route messages in same way as named level or component. |