I thought you were talking about real files, not programs :-) Besides, there is no such date for files stored on minidisks, so it is essentially useless in that regard. For EXEC usage, I tend to look at the statistics created by my Global REXX Exit, rather than a reference date.
How would one differentiate between scanning a file in a Pipeline and performing the same scan by opening it in XEDIT and using the LOCATE command? How about copying the file to another location? What constitutes a "real" use from one that does not count? It could be argued that any OPEN of the file is a reference. Is not that the difference between a Last Reference timestamp and one for Last Update. Perhaps if the date were maintained for all files and a line could be drawn separating the real uses from the casual ones, don't forget that is is possible for the reading of the file to be a real use, I might agree with you; however, I think that drawing that line will be very difficult. Perhaps you can get a parameter added to FSOPEN and all other macros and routines that open files (OS Simulation comes to mind) to indicate that your opening of the file is casual and should not count. (That or you could maintain a registry associating programs with files ala Windoze. ;-) ) I am content with letting the scan be counted as a reference. After all, the file is being read for some purpose. You are trying to differentiate between purposes, and that is something that cannot be determined by the system. It only knows that the file has been opened. Regards, Richard Schuh ________________________________ From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:ib...@listserv.uark.edu] On Behalf Of Kris Buelens Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:39 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Find command >What is the harm in updating the reference date when one peruses a file to see >if it contains specific data strings? If one uses the last reference date to see if a file (e.g. a program, REXX exec) is still being used, such a scanning process should not update it. It never is a "real" use. At the other hand, we had a discussion with SAS several years ago: they used OLDDATEREF, and running SAS programs surely is "real" usage. GETFILES will not use OLDDATEREF, it has no parameters, and OLDDATEREF would never be a good default. Kris Buelens IBM Belgium, VM customer support
