For RECFM VBA, Take for instance, RECFM=VBA,LRECL=137,BKSIZE=882
The first 4 bytes will be the BDW, then 4 bytes for the RDW, then 133 characters, so 132 characters for the print line and 1 character for the carriage control. Each block only has one BDW. If you do the math, 6 *137 = 878, then 4 more for the BDW = 882. Joe On Thu, Jan 1, 2026 at 9:29 PM Joseph Reichman < [email protected]> wrote: > Jon > > I’m not sure but I think what you are mentioning is a qsam vb put > > But for BSAM I think one would need to account for the block > > As that is the big difference between bsam and qsam > > Qsam you don’t have to worry about blocking > while BSAM you do > > > Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> > ________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf > of Jon Perryman <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, January 1, 2026 10:07:52 PM > To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Question on RECFM=VBA > > On Thu, 1 Jan 2026 21:07:31 -0500, Joseph Reichman <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >So first comes the BDW for 4 bytes > > It's been many years but if I remember correctly the BDW (Block Descriptor > word) is not your responsibility and is maintained internally by write. > > >then comes next 4 bytes RDW > > While the RDW is 4 bytes, it is 2 bytes containing the length followed by > x'0000'. > > >The 9 th byte would then be the control character > > The 5th byte is a carriage control character which has meaning to the > printer. > > >If I move a 0 to BDW+8 it should space 2 lines > >before writting the record > > No spacing occurs at write. Instead, the "0" will be the first byte of the > record you are writing. > > >going to ISPF browse doesn’t seem that way as > >the record appears right after ******** TOP OF DATA ***** > > I'm guessing that by "the record", you mean the first snap output line. > I'm guessing that you placed x'00000001' in your BDW field which would be > processed as the RDW where the length = 0 (first 2 bytes). Essentially an > empty record. Even if you had x'00010000', realize the first byte of your > rdw is x'00' and ISPF should show you a ".". > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
