CA Datacom Record Control Element (RCE)?

Products

• Datacom/DB

Issue/Introduction

What is the size of the CA Datacom Record Control Element (RCE)?

Is this the same as the RCE in a BACKUP file?

 

Environment

Release : 15.1

Component : CA DATACOM/DB

Resolution

The Datacom Record Control Element (RCE) is the information stored in front of each row in a block on the data area.

It is either 4 or 12 bytes depending on whether RECOVERY is on or not.

The control area that is put out in front of each record in a BACKUP file is not the same as what is in the data area. It is variable in length and contains several different pieces of information used internally when loading the file. 

Currently, the record control area for a  BACKUP of an area with URI and RECID=NO is 13 bytes and with RECID=YES  is 17 bytes.

The BACKUP file is only for use as input to the LOAD function, so there is no reason for clients to use this record control area. 

To extract the data from the backup file, use the EXTBKUP function with FORMAT=EXTRACT.

 

Additional Information

See CA Datacom documentation on BACKUP and EXTBKUP.