Re: FTP weirdness -- MIDRANGE-L

If you look at the help for CHGFTPA, right up at the top it says:
The Change FTP attributes (CHGFTPA) command changes the
configuration for the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers.

In an FTP transfer there are always two applications running, the server, and the client. The server is the side that sits and listens for requests, the client is the side that is making the requests. Based on the OP question, the server in this case in on the Sterling Integrator FTP server side, and the client is on the IBM i side. I am also guessing that the files with CCSID(500) is already there, and is also on the IBM i side. If this is indeed the case, then CHGFTPA will do nothing since it affects only the FTP server on the IBM i side, and the FTP server is not involved in this transfer on the IBM i side, the server is on the Sterling Integrator side.

I also looked at the help for the FTP command (the client piece of this transfer). For the CCSID parameter it says:
Coded character set identifier (CCSID) - Help

Specifies the ASCII coded character set identifier (CCSID) that is used
for single-byte character set (SBCS) ASCII file transfers when the FTP
TYPE mode is set to ASCII. ASCII file transfers are also assumed when
no TYPE subcommand has been issued. The CCSID value chosen is the
default used by the FTP client for ASCII-to-EBCDIC and EBCDIC-to-ASCII
mapping. Mapping is determined using the specified ASCII CCSID and the
EBCDIC CCSID of the job.

So the ASCII CCSID is the one specified, or if *DFT is specified it uses 819 (further down in the help). And the EBCDIC CCSID is the Job CCSID. Nothing tells what CCSID is used if the file already exists, in my experience it has always been the file CCSID. Of course if the file was pre-existing, and has a CCSID of 500, how did it get that in the first place if your system CCSID is 65535/37? Do you have multiple languages? Did you restore the file from a system with CCSID(500)? Did someone manually set it that way? If you are creating the files each time, check the job description of the job that runs the FTP command.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: -----
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Luis Rodriguez
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 08/26/2011 03:42PM
Subject: Re: FTP weirdness

Scott,

I overlooked the part about Sterling Integrator in my response, as I thought
it was a software running in the other server (the "PC" side). As I have
just posted, it has been a somewhat complicated afternoon.

I'm just a little curious about your assertion that the CHGFTPA parameters
don't do any difference here. As I see it (and it could be an error of
my part interpreting the help text of the command), CRTCCSID works every
time the file is created (in the "library" file system), regardless of who
the client is.

Regards,

Luis Rodriguez
IBM Certified Systems Expert — eServer i5 iSeries
--

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Scott Klement
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

Hello,

I'm not going to pretend that I understand why you're getting a file
marked with CCSID 500.

However, the info from CHGFTPA that you posted isn't relevant to this
transfer, is it? Didn't you say the server was running Sterling
Integrator?!

If you are using the IBM FTP *client*, then the relevant settings are
specified on the FTP (or STRTCPFTP) command.

CHGFTPA designates the settings for the IBM-supplied FTP *server*, not
the client.

Also, please be aware that if the file already exists, it'll retain it's
CCSID. If you're letting FTP create a new file (not recommended for
physical files) then it should assign the job's CCSID (which would be 37
in your case, which is why I said I don't pretend to understand.)

On 8/26/2011 9:16 AM, sjl wrote:

Background:

=======================================
System is Power 6, V5R4, QCCSID = 65535
=======================================

PC 5250 5.9 session configured to use Host code-page 37:

Display Job Definition Attributes
Job: XXXXXXXXXX User: WINBLOWS Number: 161946

Job switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 00000000
Inquiry message reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *SYSRPYL
Accounting code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :
Print text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : '

'

DDM conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *KEEP
Break message handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *NORMAL
Status message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *NORMAL
Device recovery action . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *ENDJOBNOLIST
Time slice end pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *NONE
Print key format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *PRTHDR
Sort sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *HEX
Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :
Language identifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ENU
Country or region identifier . . . . . . . . . . : US
Coded character set identifier . . . . . . . . . : 65535
Default coded character set identifier . . . . . : 37
Character identifier control . . . . . . . . . . : *DEVD
Job message queue maximum size . . . . . . . . . : 64
Job message queue full action . . . . . . . . . . : *PRTWRAP
Allow multiple threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *NO
Auxiliary storage pool group . . . . . . . . . . : *NONE
Spooled file action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *KEEP

=======================================
When prompting the CHGFTPA command, I see:

Change FTP Attributes (CHGFTPA)
Type choices, press Enter.

Autostart servers . . . . . . . AUTOSTART> *YES
Number of initial servers . . . NBRSVR> 3
Inactivity timeout . . . . . . . INACTTIMO 300
Coded character set identifier CCSID 00819
Outgoing EBCDIC/ASCII table: TBLFTPOUT
Outgoing EBCDIC/ASCII table . *CCSID
Library . . . . . . . . . .
Incoming ASCII/EBCDIC table: TBLFTPIN
Incoming ASCII/EBCDIC table . *CCSID
Library . . . . . . . . . .
Initial name format . . . . . . NAMEFMT *LIB
Initial directory . . . . . . . CURDIR *CURLIB
Initial list format . . . . . . LISTFMT *DFT
New file CCSID . . . . . . . . . CRTCCSID *CALC
Subsystem description . . . . . SBSD QSYSWRK
Library . . . . . . . . . . . QSYS

=======================================

Question:

When I interactively run an FTP script from the Power system to do an

MGET

from a Sterling Integrator FTP server, I notice that the file(s) received
get tagged with CCSID(500).

Given the above information, why is the system determining that

CCSID(500)

is the correct CCSID to use? I would expect CCSID(37)...

Regards,
sjl

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