FILE ACCESS UTILITY
                         Release Level 1.0 




This application consists of one runfile: PAG.Run

Product Name   : File Access Utility
Supported On   : B24, B26, B27, B28, B38, B39, and all SuperGen hardware
Supported OS   : BTOS II, CTOS I, CTOS II, CTOS III

Description    : The current implementation of Batch does not directly allow 
                 JCL files to  access and use the contents of text files.  The
                  File Access utility and accompanying source module (in CTOS 
                  Pascal) demonstrate a method of accessing text file contents.

Directions/Use : The File Access utility may be enhanced to make use of 
                 additional CTOS.lib string calls; for example, LookUpString 
                 and LookUpNumber.  The following instructions detail use of 
                 the File Access Utility:
                 Execution of the utility with a command case of '00' will 
                 place a string into a file.  Command case '01' extracts the 
                 string from a file, places the string into the ASCB 
                 ExitString field and allows Batch access to the string with 
                 its ErcMsg variable.  

                 The application executed with a command case '00' accepts up 
                 to two parameters.  The first being the string, the second 
                 being a file name to which the string will be written.  The 
                 second parameter is optional, with a default value of 
                 '[Scr]<$000>MsgFile.tmp'.  

                 The application executed with a command case '01' accepts 
                 one optional parameter, the filename of the file containing 
                 the string to access, again the default being 
                 '[Scr]<$000>MsgFile.tmp'.  
                 
                 NOTES: As the CTOS.lib function RgParam subparameters are 
                        sbstrings, the length of any string being 
                        passed to the PAG.run is 255 characters.  Reading of a 
                        string using case '01' is currently set to a limit of 
                        1024 characters.  
                        
                        Currently, Batch places a linefeed at the end of the 
                        ErcMsg string.  This linefeed will be removed in a 
                        future release of Batch.  Therefore, the JCL 
                        programmer must place a check for the linefeed in the 
                        JCL (as shown in the sample JCL file) and then remove 
                        the linefeed only if it is present.  Error checking 
                        within this application is limited since the 
                        implementation is intended for use by programmers.  
                        
                        Also, it is important for the JCL programmer to copy 
                        the ErcMsg variable to a another variable since any 
                        application which uses the ErrorExitString call will 
                        write to the ASCB and ErcMsg will be overwritten with 
                        the new contents of the ExitString field in the ASCB.  
                        A sample JCL is provided to demonstrate using the 
                        utility.
                        
                        SAMPLE JCL
                        
                        JOB Test
                        
                          VarA = 'This is a test string'
                        
                          Run ([sys]<Sys>PutStr.run,, '00'), VarA, &
                          [Sys]<Sys>StrTemp.fl
                        
                          Run ([Sys]<Sys>PutStr.run,, '01'), & 
                               [Sys]<Sys>StrTemp.fl
                        
                          VarB = ErcMsg
                        
                          StrLen = stringlength(VarB)
                        
                          StrEnd = SubString('\\0Ah', VarB)
                        
                          If (StrEnd NE 65535)
                            StrLen = StrLen - 1
                          EndIf
                        
                          VarB = CopyString(VarB, 0, StrLen)
                        
                          DisplayLine('The String is: ', VarB)
                        
                        END