22681 - What is the most common mistake in creating transport files on MVS/TSO with either PROC CPORT or PROC COPY or a DATA step with the XPORT engine or PROC XCOPY to go to another machine or operating system? What is the most common mistake made in trying to process a transport file made on another operating system and unpacking/importing it on MVS/TSO?

Usage Note 22681: What is the most common mistake in creating transport files on MVS/TSO with either PROC CPORT or PROC COPY or a DATA step with the XPORT engine or PROC XCOPY to go to another machine or operating system? What is the most common mistake made in trying to process a transport file made on another operating system and unpacking/importing it on MVS/TSO?

On MVS or TSO, the transport file must have the correct DCB (Data Control Block) characteristics. The following DCB characteristics must be specified when creating/writing/defining/transferring/uploading a transport file to the operating system:

   LRECL=80 BLKSIZE=8000 RECFM=FB DSORG=PS

If the DCB characteristics are wrong, they are wrong!! There is little/no recovery from this error except to re-create the transport file on MVS. If DCB characteristics are not right, SAS on any platform will not be able to process the tranferred file. In fact, MVS SAS that created the transport file will not be able to process it. If you are transferring or uploading a transport file made on another operating system and you do not declare to MVS that your file is to have the above DCB characteristics, your chances of getting the wrong characteristics are extremely high. In transmitting, transferring, or uploading a transport file, you must specify a binary or image transfer method.

The following errors are produced if either or both the DCB characteristics are wrong or the transport file transferred or uploaded as something other than binary or image:

   WARNING: Truncated record.
   ERROR: Internal error from getting data.

   ERROR: Given transport file is bad.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	z/OS	n/a
		All	n/a

* For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.

Type:	Usage Note
Priority:	low
Topic:	Data Management ==> Administration ==> Migration

Date Modified:	2007-11-28 16:22:26
Date Created:	2002-12-16 10:56:49

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Operating System and Release Information