Hi Folks,
I was very heartened by the response to my previous post about our
writing the EMPTYTST program (CBT Tape File 971 on the Updates page,
www.cbttape.org). This is a batch program which was designed to run in
a jobstream where some data in a dataset may, or may not, have been
produced by a previous job step. And you now want to test that dataset
to see whether any data is really there, or whether the dataset is
actually empty.
The EMPTYTST program, as it now is, produces the following return
codes:
RETURNS CODE = 0 IF DATASET IS NOT EMPTY.
RETURNS CODE = 4 IF DATASET IS EMPTY.
JCL ERROR IF A SEQUENTIAL DATASET (DSORG=PS)
DOES NOT EXIST.
RETURNS CODE = 8 IF PDS MEMBER DOES NOT EXIST.
RETURNS CODE = 12 IF SYSUT1 DDNAME IS MISSING.
RETURNS CODE = 16 IF SYSUT1 POINTS TO A DATASET
CONCATENATION.
Much of this action, which the EMPTYTST program now performs, was
suggested by readers of this forum, and that is why I am writing this
note, to give them the credit that is due them, and to thank the readers
of this list in general, for being interested.
I want to thank Sri Kolusu of IBM (DFSORT development), for letting
us know (in a private email) that the program might be confused if the
SYSUT1 DDNAME (the input file) is a concatenation. Really, we only want
to be concerned with a single dataset, if data was produced in it or
not. A concatenation would confuse and muddle the issue. If, for
example, one jobstep produced two datasets to check, we could have two
EMPTYTST steps after that in the jobstream, one checking each dataset
separately, and each step producing the appropriate return code. Thank
you, Sri. Because of you, the program now checks for a concatenation,
and produces a severe error (code 16) if there is one.
I want to thank one of the dear readers of this forum, who took it
upon himself to dig into the EMPTYTST source code, as a result of my
post. His name is clearly mentioned in the file (thank you Gerhard).
He produced a much-improved program that took care of quite a few
deficiencies, adding several hundred lines of code.
Upon further testing, we still found a few flaws, so this person
teamed up with the original author to have "both pairs of eyes" on the
program, and to clear up even more problems. Finally, I stepped in and
added a description of all of their improvements, to the program
documentation and to the help file.
All of this stuff, came about directly as a result of my previous
post regarding the EMPTYTST program on this forum. So you see, that
besides being useful for answering people's questions, this forum also
contributes directly to the quality of software which is being made
available for the public's use. (Of course, all disclaimers apply.)
Thanks to all of you, folks....!!!!
All the best of everything to all of you.
Sincerely, Sam
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