On Sat, 14 Nov 2020 08:34:15 +1100, Andrew Rowley wrote:

>On 14/11/2020 12:54 am, Kirk Wolf wrote:
>
>> The new commands (getpds and putpds) use BPAM+BSAM along with our existing
>> Co:Z record <-> stream processing framework to allow you to copy PDS
>> members to and from z/OS UNIX files.  Also included are extensive options
>> for ISPF stats processing.
>>
>
>Nice work. I have immediate uses for it.
>
>One question, I see the options:
>
>rdw
>preceed lines with a four byte IBM-style RDW, consisting of a two byte
>network order (big endian) length, followed by two bytes of zeros.
>
>l4
>preceed lines with a four byte network order (big endian) length of the
>record that follows. Note: Unlike the rdw option, this length value does
>not include the size of the length field.
>
>If you are looking at a file, how would you know whether the length
>field is included in the record length?
>
>The common practice seems to be that the length value in the RDW
>includes the length of the RDW itself. This is observed by other
>products e.g. FTP. Is there a reason to have the option to exclude the
>RDW length?
>
Except for UNIX files.  From Using Data Sets:
Record Processing for UNIX Files

When a file is accessed as record-oriented (with FILEDATA=RECORD), your program 
does not see the record prefixes. The PUT macro adds a prefix to each record in 
the same format as with BSAM or QSAM. A GET macro removes the prefix. Each 
record prefix is mapped by the IGGRPFX macro. It is the following four bytes:

Offset  Length Symbol Description
0        1     RPFX00  Reserved.
1        3     RPFXLLL Length of record that follows this prefix.
(FSVO "same".)

>The whole RDW/record length concept causes a lot of confusion - even it
>seems in IBM. Requiring people to choose what type of length field will
>add to the confusion.
>
The wonderful thing about standards is that you get to pick from
among several the one you want!

-- gil

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