Re: move an IFS file

Mel Rothman
Mel Rothman, Inc.

Hi Mel,

See the Move Stream File (QHFMOVSF) API at
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/iseries/v5r2/ic2924/index.htm?info/apis/qhfmovsf.htm

The API, most likely will perform better than calling QCMDEXC to run the
MOVOBJ command.  If you are not moving large numbers of files in short
periods of time, there's probably nothing wrong with calling QCMDEXC.

The QMFMOVSF API is one of the old "Hierarchical File System" APIs that
only works with /QDLS and /QOPT.  IMHO, you shouldn't use these APIs
in new work -- they reduce the flexibility of your program.

Aside from the obvious restriction of using 8.3 filenames, /QDLS is much
than the "root' or '/QOpenSys" filesystems.  It also requires users to be
enrolled in the system distribution directory, which is awkward, IMHO...

Since the IFS APIs will work with /QDLS (in case you need to use /QDLS for
the time being) but will also work elsewhere, I really recommend using
them instead.

The downside to using QCMDEXC with the MOV command (not MOVOBJ, which
is a traditional LIB/OBJ type command) is that you may have to make sure
that the filenames are properly escaped in order to include them in a
command string.  You have to double-up any quotation marks in the
pathname, etc.  Not a big deal, but something to think about.