MPE/iX System Utilities Reference Manual (32650-90908)

Chapter 15
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15 N7MF8CNV
N7MF8CNV converts data in EDIT/XL and other MPE text and data files from a Hewlett-Packard 7-bit national
substitution character set to ROMAN8.
Operation
N7MF8CNV prompts you for language and file type (text or data). For each data file, you enter the starting
position and length of each field (portion of a record) to be converted. For a text file, each record is converted
as one field.
The user is prompted for the name of each file to be converted. Files are read one record at a time; each record
is converted (or certain fields of it are converted for data files), and the result is written to a new temporary
file. When all records have been read, converted, and written to the new file, the old (unconverted) copy is
deleted, and the new one saved in its place. An exception to this is KSAM files, which are converted in place,
rather than written to a new temporary file.
A count of the number of records read and converted is displayed on $STDLIST.
This utility will not convert files containing bytes with the eighth bit set. This situation probably indicates a
misunderstanding or error. The likely causes are:
• File is not a text or data file.
• File is a data file where the fields have been inaccurately located.
• File was created on a terminal configured for 8-bit operation.
• File has already been converted.
The maximum record length supported is 8192 bytes. The maximum number of fields supported in the
records of a data file is 256.
If the file being converted contains user labels, these are copied to the new file without conversion. If a fatal
error is encountered during the conversion (for example, 8-bit data or file system error found) the conversion
stops, the old copy of the file is saved (with the data unchanged), and the new copy is purged.
An exception to this practise occurs with KSAM files. Since these are converted in place, some records may
already have been modified. KSAM files (including key file) should be restored from the backup tape to
ensure a consistent copy.