ACF2 - Update field definitions in @CFDE Macro

Products

• ACF2 - z/OS

Issue/Introduction

Updating field definitions in installation's @CFDE macro. It might involve expending or shrinking the length of some field within this.

What should be done to the value of existing IDs for the fields that have shrunk, (for example from 4 characters to 3), should there be any errors if the field is left as is or would the field be truncated. Or should the field be removed from existing IDs and re-added after the update and IPL.

 

Environment

Release : 16.0

Component : CA ACF2 for z/OS

Resolution

The process of adjusting the length of fields in the logonid record is
quite complicated and there are rules that need to be followed.
When defining a field it must be remembered that the data will always be at the same offset in the logonid
record.
if you have a 4 byte character field, it will be defined in userlid as
field1  ds cl4

if you only want to use the first 3 bytes of this field  it will be redefined in the same location as...

field1   ds cl3
filler1   ds cl1

whatever was in the first 3 bytes will remain in the first 3 bytes.
The 4th byte (filler1) will contain whatever was originally in the 4th byte.

The easiest way to deal with these changes is to redefine the original fields as "filler" fields
and redefine the new fields with their new lengths after all other fields in userlid or userxlid.
Assuming you know what values are supposed to be in the new field.