>I do believe that I should be able to point DFSORT at any file (Unix or not) >where performing the functions of DFSORT make sense, and not be required to >specify in JCL the physical attributes of LRECL, RECFM and most especially >BLKSIZE. These should all be derivable from the physical dataset at open time.
When accessing a z/OS UNIX file with JCL PATH allocation, OPEN will setup everything to read the data from the file system and return it as if it was a data set record when READing thereafter. The difficulty for this process is to invent RECFM, LRECL, and BLKSIZE, because all of this is unknown to a UNIX file. How would OPEN know whether all "records" in the file are of same length without reading the whole file, so it can set RECFM=F? How would OPEN know how long the longest record is without reading the whole file, so it can set LRECL? DFSMS Using Data Set says the defaults are: RECFM=U, LRECL=80, BLKSIZE=80. So it is up to the program to setup the DCB as expected, or to specify all of this in JCL (or SVC99). Just my $0.02 -- Peter Hunkeler ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
