STOW does not ever operate by hosing the directory. It assumes the directory exists and is valid. It finds the proper place in the directory for the member being STOWED and manipulates the directory as per the STOW parameters (add, delete, etc.). If the directory has already been hosed before STOW is invoked, STOW will fail. This is probably what Shmuel meant when he dogmatically stated that the services, i.e., STOW, cannot be used or misused to clobber a directory.
Neither is a directory clobbered because of any failure in IEBGENER. The clobbering occurs because the user is invoking some kind of access method to OPEN a file for output, the file is a PDS, and the user has not specified a member name. I think the real culprit is the lack of user-friendliness in whatever OPEN executor module is blindly following the user's request to overwrite an entire file without checking for certain file types for which overwriting the whole file might not be appropriate. This module, whichever one it is, could easily check if the user is attempting to use any access method other than BPAM to write into a PDS and has not specified a member name, and, if so, then this module should return an error condition. Perhaps IBM reasoned that if a user really, really, seriously wants to do something this strange, they should let him. Bill Fairchild -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rick Fochtman Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 2:22 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: STOW macro Location -----------------------------------<snip>-------------------------------- >Ok, I must be confusing (having too much decaying braincells :D ) STOW with >something else which can destroy a PDS / PDSE directory if used incorrectly. > >Please educate and correct me what that thing was which was discussed on >IBM-MAIN. I remember that if you don't use the services correctly you can >damage the directory which could render a PDS unusable. > >Thanks Binyamin and Shmuel for your help. > > -----------------------------------<unsnip>------------------------------------ Just my two cents' worth: trying to IEBGENER a member into a PDS and forgetting to specify the member name on the SYSUT2 DD statement will certainly clobber a PDS very effectively by over-writing the directory. Rick ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
