Form Command [F]
Display the fields in a self-describing file.
FORM [filename]
If no file name is specified, the fields in the input file are displayed. The display shows the field type and field length in IMAGE notation. An I1-field is a single integer. Packed-fields show the number of nibbles (subtract one to obtain the number of digits). Byte and zoned-decimal fields show the byte length.
When showing the form of a self-describing file, STExport shows the byte offset of each field after the subcount, type, and sublength. The first field always appears at offset one.
There are two types of self-describing files. One type is produced with Suprtool's
Query output option. You produce the other type with the Link output option. The
Form command shows the internal self-describing version number, enabling you to tell the difference.
A.00.00 - Query Output Option
Compound fields have a question mark for the type, and the length is the number of bytes in the field. Sort information about the file is missing. Here is an example form listing:
$form custfile
File: custfile (SD Version A.00.00) Has linefeeds
Entry: Offset
CHARACTER X5 1 {length is five bytes}
ZONED Z5 6 {room for five digits}
INTEGER I1 11 {single integer}
DOUBLE I2 13 {double integer}
PACKED P6 17 {room for five digits}
QUAD I4 20 {eight-byte integer}
REPEATINT ?6 28 {compound field}
LOGICAL K1 34 {single logical}
DBLLOG K2 36 {double logical}
Entry Length: 44 Blocking: 1
B.00.00 - Link Output Option
These self-describing files contain information about how the file was sorted.
Compound fields are handled correctly, so the Form command shows compound fields just as you would see them in IMAGE. The Item command in Suprtool identifies the date format or the number of decimal places of an item. The Link output option saves the date and decimal attributes as part of the field description:
$form custfile
File: datafile (SD Version B.00.00) Has Linefeeds
Entry: Offset
CHARACTER X5 1 <<Sort #1 >>
REPEATINT 3I1 6 {compound field}
DATE J2 12 <<YYYYMMDD>>
DOLLAR P6 16 << .2 >>
Entry Length: 16 Blocking: 1
210
• STExport Commands
Suprtool 4.6.01 for HP-UX User Manual
