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Files in the archive have the same names their IBM data set counterparts had, with a few changes. The most obvious change is that the names are in lower case. Another important difference is the way MVS partitioned data sets (PDS) are presented. The closest UNIX analogy to a PDS with various members in it is a subdirectory with various files in it. That's the way a PDS is presented in the archive utilities. PDS member aliases show up with names like member.aka.alias. Characters in the data set or member names which cannot be directly translated from EBCDIC (the character set used by MVS) to ASCII (the character set used by UNIX) get turned into a two digit hex code surrounded by dollar signs.
checklist userID | moreIf you leave off the userID, checklist gives you a list of all the parameters it accepts. This list is also longer than most screens, so again, you will probably want to pipe the output through a file viewer.
We recommend that you create a new subdirectory just for checking out files. Once you get a file checked out and you have convinced yourself that it has undergone the proper transformations to be useful under UNIX, move it to the directory where you will actually use it.
We also recommend that you only check out files you actually need. The migration archive is stored on tapes, meaning that each checkout request requires a tape mount. There are few tape drives available to process requests, so the less demand we all put on the tape subsystem the better off we all will be. We intend to keep the archive around through 2001, so there is no need to checkout files until you want to use them. By the same token, don't wait until December 2001 to start checking out files. There may be a mad rush, and you don't want to get cought up in it.
Checkout prompts you for an MVS userID and password. (If you've never checked out files from the archive before, you won't have a password. In that case you can contact Dan Wingate (962-5269) to get a password.) Each userID has its own password, and checkout will authenticate against that userID/password combination before proceeding.
After authentication, checkout presents a list of all the files in the archive for the userID you entered. Your screen will show a three part display. The upper part gives detailed information about the highlighted file in the file list. The middle part contains the list of files, one of which is highlighted. The lowest part of the screen gives a list of some of the commands available to you. Your main checkout screen should look something like this (Numbers at left are for reference only):
1 LRECL BLKSIZE RECFM DSORG Created Modified Checkout Cnt trks Bytes 1/62 2 255 3600 vb ps 10/15/93 10/15/93 11/17/95 1 5 40 3 (nonv/seq/seq)migflt -e2a -ir v -or s -trim -dd 1-8 4 00001 n uncdfc.$logon.clist 5 00002 uncdfc.a.sas 6 00003 c uncdfc.akers.cntl/hsrc1 7 00004 n uncdfc.archive.master/archive.ssd01 8 00005 uncdfc.asap.source/bill1 9 b select binary d deselect f find - prevpg nextpg o ok 10 n select normal D deselect all j jump < firstpg > lastpg q quit 11 c select custom 12 C repeat last customThe top three lines in this example give details about the highlighted file uncdfc.$logon.clist. You can use your cursor keys to move the highlight up and down. Cursor left and right moves from page to page. Entering any highlighted letter in the command area will take the action indicated. Note that commands are generally case sensitive (that's the UNIX way) so 'd' is distinctly different from 'D'. Let's examine this display in more detail.
Line 1 shows headings for the information presented on line 2. It also indicates that we are on the first page of 62 pages.
Line 2 shows the DCBs for uncdfc.$logon.clist and tells us this copy was last modified in October 1993. The original data set was allocated at 5 tracks, and the actual data occupies only 40 bytes (before compression) in UNIX. The Checkout and Cnt fields tell us this file has already been checked out once, and the most recent checkout was November 17, 1995. (The Checkout and Cnt fields are now obsolete and are no longer updated as files are checked out.)
Line 3 says this data set was marked as a non-VSAM data set in the MVS system catalog, that it was initially treated as a sequential data set by the migration process on MVS, and that it is still treated as a sequential data set by checkout. Sometimes it is useful to know what machinations a data set went through to get to where it is now, and that's what the three fields in parentheses on line 3 indicate. The rest of line 3 indicates additional things that will happen to the file during checkout if it is checked out in "normal" mode. In this case, it will be passed through the program migflt with this command line:
migflt -e2a -ir v -or s -trim -dd 1-8We will look more closely at the various transformation parameters when we go over custom checkouts. For now, it is important to know that checkout makes its recommendations for a "normal" checkout based on the type of data set it appears to be, the DCB characteristics of the file, and what we've learned from past experience as a reasonable thing to do to most files as we check them out.
Lines 4 through 8 show a numbered alphabetical list of files in the archive. The first file is highlighted and is also selected for a "normal" checkout. The file uncdfc.akers.cntl/hsrc1 is a PDS member and is selected for a "custom" checkout. The next file is a SAS data set which is selected for checkout in "normal" mode. Note that for some files (SAS data sets, for example) the normal mode is identical to binary mode because they need no transformation; the form in which they are stored in the archive is directly usable under UNIX. The files on lines 5 and 8 are not selected for checkout, so there is a blank between their sequence numbers and the file names.
Lines 9 through 12 display some of the commands available to you and the keys to select those commands. Select normal (n) and select binary (b) simply mark the highlighted file with 'n' or 'b' and move the highlight to the next file in the list. Select custom (c) brings up a secondary command set which we will examine later. Repeat last custom (C) is not available nor displayed until at least one custom selection is made. Deselect (d) makes the highlighted file not selected, while deselect all (D) makes all the files in the list not selected. Find (f) prompts for a string and moves the highlight to the next file name which contains that string. The search will "wrap around" the end of the list and continue from the beginning if necessary. Jump (j) prompts for a page number and moves the highlight to some file on that page. Prevpg (-) and nextpg (space) move the highlight to the previous or next pages (as does cursor left and cursor right, respectively). Firstpg (<) and lastpg (>) move to the first and last pages. Once you have made all the file selections you want, the ok (o) command changes the file list to show only those files you have selected, summarizes (i.e., counts) the different types of selections, and prompts you again before proceeding. The quit (q) command clears the screen and quits, no questions asked.
One navigational feature not evident from the screen display is that you can use the single digits '2' through '7' to move the highlight forward or backward through the file list. Pressing a digit will move the highlight forward from the currently highlighted file to the next file whose name differs in or before that level. A shifted digit (assuming a standard QWERTY keyboard) will have the same effect, except it moves the highlight up the list. For example, if your highlight is on some file in a group of files that all have names starting with "aaa.bbb.ccc," pressing a '3' will move the highlight forward to the next file in the list that has something other than "aaa.bbb.ccc" as the first three levels of its name. Pressing '#' (a shifted '3') would move the highlight up to the closest previous file name that starts with something other than "aaa.bbb.ccc." For purposes of navigating through the list with digits, the PDS member names count as levels.
Once you enter the ok (o) command and answer affirmatively to the "proceed" question, checkout tells you the selected files will be copied into your current directory, clears the screen (after a few seconds), then exits. You are then free to continue with your work or even log off while checkout continues processing your checkout requests. How long it takes to complete will vary greatly; it depends on the number of files you are checking out, the number of archive tapes needed to process those requests, and the complexity of the transformations required. However, you may run the checkup program at any time to learn the status of all your outstanding checkout requests.
Select custom (c) brings up a secondary command panel that looks like this (Numbers at left are for reference only.):
1 b . Bin | a * EBCDIC>ASCII f - Fixed 0255 k .blocKed 32644 2 | e - ASCII>EBCDIC v - Var 0255 t * Trim spaces 3__________|_d_Drop_line_#s___s_*_Stream_(text)___p_-_Pad_o_00255_bytes_ 4 o Ok c Cancel r Reset to defaultsThis panel is in three parts: the binary area, the migflt parameter area, and the ok/cancel/reset to defaults area. Here again the highlighted letters activate the available commands. Each parameter has an indicator next to it that can have one of three values: a period (.), an asterisk (*), or a dash (-). A period indicates the parameter is not relevant. In figure 2, for example, the binary flag is not relevant because some migflt parameters are set. If the binary flag were on, all the migflt parameter flags would be periods. An asterisk indicates a parameter is on, while a dash says it is turned off.
The binary area has one command (b) that toggles binary selection on and off. Any of the commands in the migflt parameter area will turn off binary mode if it is on. The migflt parameters control the final layout of the data in the checked-out file. Each of the migflt parameter commands (d), (t), and (p) acts as a toggle, so you can turn those parameters on or off independently of the others. The EBCDIC>ASCII and ASCII>EBCDIC options can both be off (no character translation takes place) or either one can be on, but both cannot be on at the same time. Only one of (f), (v), and (s) can be on, and (k) can only be on with (f) or (v). The command (d) drops line numbers from individual records, but only if all the characters in the "normal" line number columns are digits. (MVS typically put line numbers in columns 1-8 in varying input records, and it used columns 73-80 in fixed length 80-byte input records. Other input file formats don't have normal line number columns.) Trim (t) will get rid of trailing spaces, while pad (p) will do just the opposite, padding out records with spaces at least to either the logical record length of the original data set, or a length appropriate for the transported file. Padding never shortens records. Any trimming or padding is done after line numbers are dropped.
The relationship between (f), (v), and (s) output formats and the (k) option for (f) and (v) formats deserves careful consideration. The (f) format pads records with spaces or truncates them, as necessary, to the given length (regardless of the (p) setting), placing no delimiters between the records. Programs reading those records must know how long each record is. The (s) format is how most UNIX text is represented -- strings of varying numbers of characters, with a new line character at the end of each line. The (v) format has varying numbers of bytes in each record, but the first four bytes of each record give the length for that record. With (k), the (f) and (v) formats consist of blocks of one or more (f) or (v) format records, but each block starts with four bytes that give the length of the current block. (The only thing in UNIX that can read (k)-style (v) format files we know of is SAS with the recfm=s370vb option on the infile statement. If you aren't sure you need (k), you probably don't.) If none of the (f), (v), or (s) options is on, the output file is not formatted into records at all, but is treated as a single group of bytes. The block size and record length are chosen automatically to give reasonable performance. If you need other sizes, you will have to checkout the file in binary mode, then run migflt by hand. Look at the command line produced by the custom options (the third line on your screen) for a starting point for running migflt manually.
Cancel (c) will return to the previous menu with no changes made. Restore to defaults (r) will return the custom parameter panel to the default settings selected by the program. Once you get the custom parameters set to your liking, use the ok (o) command to return to the main menu. There you will find that the file you had highlighted is now marked with a "c" and the highlight will have advanced to the next file.
Input phase parameters: