On Mon, 13 Nov 2023 09:11:19 -0600, Paul Gilmartin <paulgboul...@aol.com> wrote:

>>On Mon, 13 Nov 2023 01:10:14 -0600, Jon Perryman <jperr...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>z/OS Unix filesystems are linear datasets. 

>No.  BLKSIZE is not ignored. 

Incorrect, BLKSIZE has no meaning for VSAM linear datasets. By definition, "All 
linear data set bytes are data bytes" which is how a Unix filesystem functions.

> It is merged into the DCB by OPEN, 
> or supplied by SDB if not otherwise specified. 

A Unix file is always 1 logical record. BLKSIZE has no meaning in this context. 
While BLKSIZE is stored in the DCB the subsystem ignores it. Any part of that 
logical record can be processed or in its entirety (e.g. read or write at 
offset 1000 for 100 bytes).   

> for BSAM it affects how many times the WRITE/CHECK is issued, 

This is conjecture because logic for BSAM communications to the Unix file 
subsystem is not made publicly. I suspect that CHECK is a simple BR14 but maybe 
IBM bypassed this logic. BSAM CHECK has no meaning because the subsystem will 
determine to do VSAM CHECK because it must remain compatible with UNIX. As for 
the WRITE, we don't know if every program write causes a transfer to the file 
subsystem or if BSAM buffers according to the BLKSIZE before sending to the 
subsystem. I'm not willing to venture a guess because there are pro's and con's 
to both methods. 

> and probably has some effect on performance for QSAM.

I'm guessing that performance benefit is insignificant. More important is the 
adverse effect of buffering by BSAM / QSAM. It violates the UNIX standard of 
concurrent writes to a file. Most people don't think about the impact of this 
logic which says you have a file open 20 times, the records will be interleaved 
according to the time the write occurred. Instead of immediately adding each 
record, BSAM / QSAM buffering would delay adding the records to the file 
causing them to be out of sequence. I simply can't see IBM enabling BSAM / QSAM 
buffering that would confuse Unix programmers, but I could be wrong.

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