Endevor may remove trailing spaces from element lines with optional feature DELTA_IGNORE_TRAILING_SPACES enabled

Products

• Endevor

Issue/Introduction

DELTA_IGNORE_TRAILING_SPACES is a new option for the Optional Features Table (ENCOPTBL) introduced by fix LU13852

When enabled, it changes the line comparison logic used when producing element delta levels so that a line is not reported as changed if the change only involves the number of trailing spaces while keeping the text of the line unchanged.

An unexpected side effect of this change is that the resulting line in the new delta level has its trailing spaces removed. No element data is lost.

Resolution

The logic for DELTA_IGNORE_TRAILING_SPACES was changed by later fix LU15219. The description of the fix does not mention it, but another effect is that the lines in the new delta level don't have trailing spaces removed.

You need therefore to apply LU15219 to stop new elements from being affected.

If you wish to restore trailing spaces for elements updated after deploying LU13852 and before deploying LU15219 (for example, because you need fixed-length elements with all its trailing spaces) you could do as follows:

1. Retrieve the affected elements into RECFM=F datasets or members
2. Just in case, ensure that the shorter lines have been padded with blanks and not with nulls
3. Temporarily disable the DELTA_IGNORE_TRAILING_SPACES option from ENCOPTBL
4. Add the elements back from the RECFM=F datasets or members. Since the option is disabled, the lines with all their trailing spaces will be considered as changes and will replace those that have the trailing spaces removed,
5. Restore the DELTA_IGNORE_TRAILING_SPACES option