Yet in modern times the S for F has its uses. If a C/C++ program is going to use a "seek" for a file, if the file is F/FB, then the file will be read from the start to satisfy the seek (because there may be those embedded short blocks), but if the file is FS/FBS (guarantee, by the person who put the S in the RECFM, to not have embedded short blocks) then the seek is able to calculate the position of he block containing the sought record, and then only have to read within the block.
I'm sure all C/C++ programmers who want to use seek on z/OS know that, since it is documented. Yeah. Right. (at risk of starting war) people who want to code seek to save a bit of thinking are exactly the ones who read the manuals. What this means is "if you are using seek in a C/C++ program to access fixed-length records, ensure RECFM=FS/FBS. If you haven't done that, do it, and compare the resource usage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
