Is there any way to find the PPB for a file programatically ?

I couldn't find anything in either of these 2 manuals (Getstatus or MCP System Interfaces inthe ASeries_Info section), which is where I would have expected to find it.

I am doing a directory search, and after we identify the file, is there any way to get at its PPB ?

Thanks
Chai

On 9/21/2022 4:23 PM, CR wrote:
> Is there any way to find the PPB for a file programatically ?
>
> I couldn't find anything in either of these 2 manuals (Getstatus or MCP System Interfaces inthe ASeries_Info section), which is where I would have expected to find it.
>
> I am doing a directory search, and after we identify the file, is there any way to get at its PPB ?
>
> Thanks
> Chai

The getstatus/setstatus manual (8600 0346–420), page 3–26 contains the
need info.
extraindex+7 points to the PPB.

https://public.support.unisys.com/c71/docs/fs6200-2.0/86000346-420.pdf

Good luck.....

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com

On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 6:18:21 AM UTC-4, TKosfeld wrote:
> On 9/21/2022 4:23 PM, CR wrote:
> > Is there any way to find the PPB for a file programatically ?
> >
> > I couldn't find anything in either of these 2 manuals (Getstatus or MCP System Interfaces inthe ASeries_Info section), which is where I would have expected to find it.
> >
> > I am doing a directory search, and after we identify the file, is there any way to get at its PPB ?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Chai
> The getstatus/setstatus manual (8600 0346–420), page 3–26 contains the
> need info.
> extraindex+7 points to the PPB.
>
> https://public.support.unisys.com/c71/docs/fs6200-2.0/86000346-420.pdf
>
> Good luck.....
>
> --
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> www.avast.com

Thank you Thomas ! I was looking for "PPB" instead of "program parameter block" :-). I am going to try it out.

On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 8:06:45 AM UTC-4, CR wrote:
> On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 6:18:21 AM UTC-4, TKosfeld wrote:
> > On 9/21/2022 4:23 PM, CR wrote:
> > > Is there any way to find the PPB for a file programatically ?
> > >
> > > I couldn't find anything in either of these 2 manuals (Getstatus or MCP System Interfaces inthe ASeries_Info section), which is where I would have expected to find it.
> > >
> > > I am doing a directory search, and after we identify the file, is there any way to get at its PPB ?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Chai
> > The getstatus/setstatus manual (8600 0346–420), page 3–26 contains the
> > need info.
> > extraindex+7 points to the PPB.
> >
> > https://public.support.unisys.com/c71/docs/fs6200-2.0/86000346-420.pdf
> >
> > Good luck.....
> >
> > --
> > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> > www.avast.com
> Thank you Thomas ! I was looking for "PPB" instead of "program parameter block" :-). I am going to try it out.

The Getstatus documentation says the following about the PPB:

ARY [EXTRAINDEX + 7] Link to an image of the program parameter block of a code
file. The program parameter block contains an encoded
version of attributes to be applied to the task when a code
file is run.

What kind of "encoding" does it use ? I am going to run it with TADS and see what it actually contains. The only reason I am doing all this is because a customer asked for it in a report.

On Friday, September 23, 2022 at 9:08:45 AM UTC-4, CR wrote:
> On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 8:06:45 AM UTC-4, CR wrote:
> > On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 6:18:21 AM UTC-4, TKosfeld wrote:
> > > On 9/21/2022 4:23 PM, CR wrote:
> > > > Is there any way to find the PPB for a file programatically ?
> > > >
> > > > I couldn't find anything in either of these 2 manuals (Getstatus or MCP System Interfaces inthe ASeries_Info section), which is where I would have expected to find it.
> > > >
> > > > I am doing a directory search, and after we identify the file, is there any way to get at its PPB ?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > > > Chai
> > > The getstatus/setstatus manual (8600 0346–420), page 3–26 contains the
> > > need info.
> > > extraindex+7 points to the PPB.
> > >
> > > https://public.support.unisys.com/c71/docs/fs6200-2.0/86000346-420.pdf
> > >
> > > Good luck.....
> > >
> > > --
> > > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> > > www.avast.com
> > Thank you Thomas ! I was looking for "PPB" instead of "program parameter block" :-). I am going to try it out.
> The Getstatus documentation says the following about the PPB:
>
> ARY [EXTRAINDEX + 7] Link to an image of the program parameter block of a code
> file. The program parameter block contains an encoded
> version of attributes to be applied to the task when a code
> file is run.
>
> What kind of "encoding" does it use ? I am going to run it with TADS and see what it actually contains. The only reason I am doing all this is because a customer asked for it in a report.

Just an update on my findings. There does not seem to be any documented way to decode the PPB for a file. Unisys Support confirmed this for me. The only option when spinning through
a directory search was to use SYSTEM/FILEDATA as follows:

RUN *SYSTEM/FILEDATA ("ATTRIBUTES:TITLE=<object file name> PPB FILENAME=PPBOUT"). The results of the PPB are written to the PPBOUT file which I will parse to get the PPB data.

I need to use this for a report for potentially hundreds of files in a directory. Running FILEDATA as an external process for every single file is going to be inherently slow and the reporting
program will take a long time to run, particularly if the directory of files that is being processed is very large. At the moment, I don't have any choice in the matter. I have requested a
New Feature Request to be created, to allow the PPB to be decoded.

That is, unless somebody in this group suggests an alternative.

On 9/28/2022 6:19 AM, CR wrote:
> On Friday, September 23, 2022 at 9:08:45 AM UTC-4, CR wrote:
>> On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 8:06:45 AM UTC-4, CR wrote:
>>> On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 6:18:21 AM UTC-4, TKosfeld wrote:
>>>> On 9/21/2022 4:23 PM, CR wrote:
>>>>> Is there any way to find the PPB for a file programatically ?
>>>>>
>>>>> I couldn't find anything in either of these 2 manuals (Getstatus or MCP System Interfaces inthe ASeries_Info section), which is where I would have expected to find it.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am doing a directory search, and after we identify the file, is there any way to get at its PPB ?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> Chai
>>>> The getstatus/setstatus manual (8600 0346–420), page 3–26 contains the
>>>> need info.
>>>> extraindex+7 points to the PPB.
>>>>
>>>> https://public.support.unisys.com/c71/docs/fs6200-2.0/86000346-420.pdf
>>>>
>>>> Good luck.....
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
>>>> www.avast.com
>>> Thank you Thomas ! I was looking for "PPB" instead of "program parameter block" :-). I am going to try it out.
>> The Getstatus documentation says the following about the PPB:
>>
>> ARY [EXTRAINDEX + 7] Link to an image of the program parameter block of a code
>> file. The program parameter block contains an encoded
>> version of attributes to be applied to the task when a code
>> file is run.
>>
>> What kind of "encoding" does it use ? I am going to run it with TADS and see what it actually contains. The only reason I am doing all this is because a customer asked for it in a report.
>
> Just an update on my findings. There does not seem to be any documented way to decode the PPB for a file. Unisys Support confirmed this for me. The only option when spinning through
> a directory search was to use SYSTEM/FILEDATA as follows:
>
> RUN *SYSTEM/FILEDATA ("ATTRIBUTES:TITLE=<object file name> PPB FILENAME=PPBOUT"). The results of the PPB are written to the PPBOUT file which I will parse to get the PPB data.
>
> I need to use this for a report for potentially hundreds of files in a directory. Running FILEDATA as an external process for every single file is going to be inherently slow and the reporting
> program will take a long time to run, particularly if the directory of files that is being processed is very large. At the moment, I don't have any choice in the matter. I have requested a
> New Feature Request to be created, to allow the PPB to be decoded.
>
> That is, unless somebody in this group suggests an alternative.

Potentially stupid question:

If you need PPB info for a lot of files in one directory, could you run
FILEDATA with "ATTRIBUTES:DIRECTORY=<directory name> ..."?

Louis

On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 2:21:42 PM UTC-4, Louis Krupp wrote:
> On 9/28/2022 6:19 AM, CR wrote:
> > On Friday, September 23, 2022 at 9:08:45 AM UTC-4, CR wrote:
> >> On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 8:06:45 AM UTC-4, CR wrote:
> >>> On Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 6:18:21 AM UTC-4, TKosfeld wrote:
> >>>> On 9/21/2022 4:23 PM, CR wrote:
> >>>>> Is there any way to find the PPB for a file programatically ?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I couldn't find anything in either of these 2 manuals (Getstatus or MCP System Interfaces inthe ASeries_Info section), which is where I would have expected to find it.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I am doing a directory search, and after we identify the file, is there any way to get at its PPB ?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Thanks
> >>>>> Chai
> >>>> The getstatus/setstatus manual (8600 0346–420), page 3–26 contains the
> >>>> need info.
> >>>> extraindex+7 points to the PPB.
> >>>>
> >>>> https://public.support.unisys.com/c71/docs/fs6200-2.0/86000346-420.pdf
> >>>>
> >>>> Good luck.....
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> >>>> www.avast.com
> >>> Thank you Thomas ! I was looking for "PPB" instead of "program parameter block" :-). I am going to try it out.
> >> The Getstatus documentation says the following about the PPB:
> >>
> >> ARY [EXTRAINDEX + 7] Link to an image of the program parameter block of a code
> >> file. The program parameter block contains an encoded
> >> version of attributes to be applied to the task when a code
> >> file is run.
> >>
> >> What kind of "encoding" does it use ? I am going to run it with TADS and see what it actually contains. The only reason I am doing all this is because a customer asked for it in a report.
> >
> > Just an update on my findings. There does not seem to be any documented way to decode the PPB for a file. Unisys Support confirmed this for me. The only option when spinning through
> > a directory search was to use SYSTEM/FILEDATA as follows:
> >
> > RUN *SYSTEM/FILEDATA ("ATTRIBUTES:TITLE=<object file name> PPB FILENAME=PPBOUT"). The results of the PPB are written to the PPBOUT file which I will parse to get the PPB data.
> >
> > I need to use this for a report for potentially hundreds of files in a directory. Running FILEDATA as an external process for every single file is going to be inherently slow and the reporting
> > program will take a long time to run, particularly if the directory of files that is being processed is very large. At the moment, I don't have any choice in the matter. I have requested a
> > New Feature Request to be created, to allow the PPB to be decoded.
> >
> > That is, unless somebody in this group suggests an alternative.
> Potentially stupid question:
>
> If you need PPB info for a lot of files in one directory, could you run
> FILEDATA with "ATTRIBUTES:DIRECTORY=<directory name> ..."?
>
> Louis

Louis,

Yes we could, and it does work. But our Directory Scanner has some other filters as well, so we really need to select each file based on that filter and then apply the PPB option (if specified) for the file.
Parsing the PPBOUT file to pull out only the PPB for the file I am looking for was a little tricky. The output is exactly like what would result from an LFILE <directory>:PPB. If a filename is also a directory,
then you have the file as well as the underlying nodes. What I have implemented works fine, and the customer is okay with the performance hit. They need the PPB for some internal QA auditing, and
they are happy to have an automated solution.

Chai