PCFORMAT User's Guide

3 COPY Command
066374 Tandem Computers Incorporated 3–1
General This section contains a detailed description of the COPY command, the only
command used with PCFORMAT. Prior to the command description, the
input database file and record requirements and the output formats
produced by COPY are discussed. Examples of the COPY command follow
the description. The section closes with a discussion of the restrictions on
the Tandem database records and files processed by PCFORMAT.
Command Inputs To perform a data conversion on a database file, the COPY command
requires the name of a record that has been defined with the DDL RECORD
statement and compiled into a database dictionary. The file to be converted
may be the file named in the record definition, or it may be explicitly
named with a COMINT ASSIGN command or the DATAFILE option of the
COPY command (see command description later in this section. In any
case, the database file must have fixed-length records and be one of the four
ENSCRIBE file types:
Key-sequenced (structured)
Entry-sequenced (structured)
Relative (structured)
Unstructured
The file for conversion is opened by PCFORMAT as read-only with
protected access. If the file is structured, its records are accessed
sequentially by the primary key. If the file is unstructured, the records are
accessed sequentially starting with the first byte.
When the record definition from the database dictionary does not match the
organization of the records in the file, PCFORMAT displays a warning or
error message, depending on the type of mismatch. Appendix A lists all
error and warning messages.