todsn overwrites DCB parameters on old datasets

Jeno · Post by **Jeno** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:59 am

Hello,

just noticed that instead of using existing DCB parameters on old datasets, todsn still overwrites with his defaults if no dcb parameters explicitly specified. In contrast, /bin/cp leaves existing DCB parameters intact when overwritting.

Thank you very much in advance
Best regards Jenö

Post by **dovetail** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:04 am

This is the default behavior of fopen. If you want to use the existing DCB characteristics, you can add the fopen option -o 'recfm=*'.

Do you think that this should be the default if no other fopen options are specified?

Jeno · Post by **Jeno** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:39 am

Well, IMHO it would be better to keep existing attributes. With existing datasets, I never expected such behaviour (admitting I am no C programmer

), that's why I checked with /bin/cp. Furthermore, I see no advantage of forcing the default overwrite existing. Anyway, I am afraid I would forget to specify this extra parameter all over again. And, as I asked my collegaues (we are quite aged, you know

) - no one ever heard about this parameter before.

Thank you for the quick assistance.
Have a nice week-end - Jenö

Post by **dovetail** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:49 am

I agree with you - the behavior of the C library is strange with respect to merging DCBs. We will look at making "recfm=*" the default.

Post by **dovetail** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:17 am

We have changed the todsn command per your suggestions.
Thanks for your input.

See: http://www.dovetail.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695