Search/Update Utility function

The Search/Update utility enables you to view and modify files of any standard MVS access method. It processes records up to 32,760 bytes (32 KB) long and data sets of unlimited size. Three Search/Update options give you powerful methods for searching or updating one or multiple data sets:

  • PDS Find/Change and member list processing (option M) lists selected members, finds data stored in PDS, PDSE, CA Panvalet, and CA Librarian data sets, and changes data stored in a PDS or PDSE. Its features include:
    • File-AID’s PDS processing options to filter members based on member name masks, name ranges, creation date, modification date, and user ID of last modification.
    • File-AID’s selection criteria which can isolate specific members based on data content.
    • Easy-to-use FIND and CHANGE commands that enable you to perform repetitive scans and updates across selected members. Options that let you preview and print your results and condense the list of members based on data found.
    • Line commands for individual member browsing (B) and editing (E) using ISPF or File-AID depending on the format of the data set.
    • Optional batch processing.

  • Browse globally (option B) finds and reports on data in one or more selected files regardless of access method. File-AID copies found records to a temporary work file which is displayed with ISPF browse.

    When searching one or more selected PDS, File-AID treats the entire data set selection as one file and inserts data set and member identification lines in the report. Optional record information displays show record number and other information about each record found.

  • Preview and Update globally (option U) lets you preview and confirm changes to any one or more selected files. Enter your update request on the Change criteria screens. Option U allows you to specify several changes to apply in one pass. Changes can be applied using the in-place update for any type of data set including Sequential, PDS, PDSE, VSAM, IAM, BDAM, CA Panvalet, and CA Librarian (CA Panvalet and CA Librarian are only eligible for single data set processing). Other features of option U include:

    • Option to print preview of changes
    • Option to limit the number of changes to preview or perform
    • Optional audit trail report of changes applied online
    • Option to perform the change in batch
    • Standardized update processing that works with existing security packages.

    Important

    For Version 2 PDSE only, Option B (Browse) recognizes all member generations (see also Maximum number of generations to include in search) when your selected files include one or more Version 2 PDSEs. All other Search/Update options only recognize the current member (0 generation).

  • Options B (Browse) and U (Update) allow specifying a file containing a list of files in the Dataset Name field for multiple file processing if preceded by special character >.

This section provides information about the following topics: 

 

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