Technical Notes

MVS South System

The following Technical Notes apply to the NIH Computer Center and the software and hardware available via MVS on the IBM 370 system at NIH and may not necessarily reflect similar implementations at other installations. For additional technical details or clarification, consult the NIH Computer Center User’s Guide, or contact TASC. Information presented in this publication supersedes all documentation with earlier publication dates. To contact any of the groups mentioned in these articles, please refer to the telephone listing at the back of this INTERFACE.

New Version of TCPaccess Scheduled for April 6, 1998

Version 4.1 of TCPaccess (formerly called SNS/TCPaccess) will be installed on the MVS South system on April 6, 1998. This is the software that supports access to the South system via hostnames tn3270.cu.nih.gov and ftp.cu.nih.gov. Access to the MVS South system via hostnames tso.cu.nih.gov and wylbur.cu.nih.gov is not affected by this software.

The only noticeable change for users will be that edit-format data sets will no longer be automatically converted to non-edit format when downloaded from the MVS South system via FTP. Edit format is a method of data storage compression that was developed specifically for use by WYLBUR. If an edit-format data set is downloaded from the South system after the new TCPaccess has been installed, the transfer will complete with no error indication—but the downloaded file will be left in edit format and, hence, will be unintelligible.

This change in the conversion of edit-format data sets was originally announced in INTERFACE 201 (June 1997) but will not be effective until April 6.

What Should Users Do?

Users should be careful to do an FTP transfer of only non-edit format data sets. The best way to do this is to save in non-edit format all data sets that you intend to access via FTP. Use the WYLBUR save (or resave) command with the variable option to specify non-edit format rather than the default (edit format). For example:

save as myfile variable

The owners of anonymous FTP directories on the MVS South system should take note of this change and check that all files in those directories are stored in non-edit format.

Test Version of TCPaccess 4.1 Now Available

The new 4.1 version of TCPaccess is now available for testing. Users—particularly those who reference hostnames tn3270.cu.nih.gov or ftp.cu.nih.gov in scripts for automated systems—are encouraged to test their systems before April 6.

To access the test version, use the host name snst1.cu.nih.gov instead of tn3270.cu.nih.gov or ftp.cu.nih.gov. The host name snst1.cu.nih.gov will be removed on April 6, when TCPaccess 4.1 becomes the production version.

Users who have any questions or experience any problems with the new version should contact TASC.

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