Oh for gosh sakes! Every operating system is different. There is no eleventh commandment "filenames shall be 44 uppercase characters" that UNIX violated. Tell him a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Or that the inability to learn new things is a sign of old age.
Or point out that z/OS is case-dependent. Don't think so? Try referencing 'sys1.maclib'. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John McKown Sent: Friday, May 11, 2018 6:04 AM To: [email protected] Subject: CONTROVERSY! z/OS UNIX: is it an enhancement or a tool of the Devil? OK, I bet I got your attention on that {grin}. But, seriously, I am wondering what the "person in the trenches" thinks about the increasing use of UNIX files and commands becoming more prevalent on z/OS. I am basically asking because my manager absolutely despises UNIX files. And hates the current maintenance processes from IBM and CA which force him to use it. One of his reasons is the case sensitivity of the UNIX file names. Of course, like most people in the world, his mind has been corrupted by the case insensitivity of Windows. As well as the very prevalent use of space characters in Windows file and directory names. This case sensitivity of names may be another reason why new people, likewise corrupted by Windows, will take an instant dislike for z/OS. OTOH, Linux might find it minimally interesting. And maybe even quite interesting, if IBM would adopt and maintain a port of the GNU infrastructure software. What I think, and I am likely stupid on this, is that the Apple HFS+ approach might work. Just like, at present, when you create a zFS filesystem, the default for filenames on an HFS+ filesystem are, like Windows, case _in_sensitive. However, when an HFS+ filesystem is initialized, it can be set as "case sensitive". This is done on a filesystem-by-filesystem basis. What might be nice is to enhance(?) zFS so that it can be made case _in_sensitive (reverse default of HFS+). This might be very helpful for "naive" z/OS UNIX users. Put the ${HOME} directory (usually /u) under automount and set the parameters so that when automount creates & initializes a ${HOME} directory, it is case-insensitive. And, of course, they should be a way to "flip the switch" back an forth between case sensitivity and case insensitivity. Of course, the "make insensitive" conversion will need to check & abort if there two names in the same directory which are equivalent when case is ignored. I would think this would be simple; check for possible problems and if none, just flip the switch in some sort of "header" data area. Regardless of case sensitivity or insensitivity, it should be case preserving, like ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
