The File Synchronization Facility, when activated for a group of files, assures that any workstation file in the group and its associated Host file are kept in sync, i.e., that their contents are identical. The Host file can be edited and saved or the workstation file can be edited and saved. In either case, the Host file and the workstation file are both updated at save time in order to maintain synchronization.
If the Host file is updated by another user from another workstation or from a 3270 terminal, the Host file and the workstation file on the original user's workstation will be temporarily out of sync. If the original user starts an Edit or List session of the workstation file, BIM-EDIT/XP will determine that the workstation file and its associated Host file are not in sync and automatically refresh the workstation file with the Host file contents.
If the original user attempts to edit the workstation file while another user is editing the Host file, or editing another workstation file synced with the Host file, access will be denied.
A Host file and workstation file are deemed to be in sync if update date and time values are identical and if text and audit line counts are equal.
File Synchronization Facility is also a performance feature. If AUTO is specified (see below), when an Edit or List session of a Host file is ended, a copy of the Host file is stored as a workstation file. If the Host file is subsequently edited or listed again, and if it is determined that the workstation file exists and is in sync with the Host file, lines present in the workstation file are loaded into the session, thus saving the overhead of re-transferring the lines to the workstation. This feature is sometimes referred to as "Hot Restart".
Activation of the File Synchronization Facility is determined by the contents of the File Synchronization Table, held in file "DFNSYNC.CTL". At startup, BIM-EDIT/XP searches for the file first in the Specific User Directory (if user not "DEFAULT"), then in the Default User Directory, then in the Site Directory, and finally in the System Directory.
The DFNSYNC.CTL file contains the following fields:
workstation directory path, entered in the form "d:\dir", where "d" is the disk drive letter and "dir" is the directory name.
Host directory path, entered in the form "(sy\ty)dir", where "sy" is the two-character system id, "ty" is either "Bi" for a BIM directory, "Pd" for a PDS directory, or "Vs" for a VSE directory, and "dir" is the directory name.
File type specifies the type of files for which synchronization is to occur. If file type is specified as "*", all file types in the specified directories are kept in sync.
A file's TYPE is displayed by the FileLibrary command default format. A file's TYPE can be set with the FileAlter command or by overtyping and saving a FileLibrary display. File type for a file is always determined first by the TYPE field. If the TYPE field has not been set, TYPE is then assumed to be the extension part of the file name.
workstation file extension. If specified, the file extension is appended to the Host file name to form a workstation file name. Thus, for example, the Host file GLCLAIMS could be caused to be kept in sync with the workstation file GLCLAIMS.CBL.
This field is reserved for future use. (You'll need to enter a comma so that subsequent fields can be entered.)
AUTO or MANUAL option. If AUTO is specified, if a Host file is edited or listed, when the session ends, a current copy of the Host file is automatically stored in the workstation directory.
If MANUAL is specified, a current copy of the Host file is stored in the workstation directory only if a copy of the file already exists in the workstation directory, presumably having been created with either the FileSync or FileCopy command.
With both AUTO and MANUAL, the copy is created only if necessary. That is, if the file in the workstation directory is deemed to be in sync with the Host file, there is no need to perform any operation.
FULL or PART option. If FULL is specified, when a copy of the Host file is created in the workstation directory when the session ends, the workstation copy will contain all lines of the file. FULL should be specified if this facility is used in conjunction with workstation-based host emulation environments such as those from Micro-Focus and Computer Associates and the files are to be processed at the workstation.
If PART is specified, only those text lines that have been transferred to the workstation by the time the session ends will be written to the workstation copy. PART may be used when the file is always processed on the host, and never on the workstation. PART is specified when the File Synchronization Facility is used for performance reasons only. When an Edit or List session of a Host file begins, the lines in the partial file stored in the workstation directory are read into the session, thus saving the overhead of re-transferring the lines to the workstation.
COPY or NOCOPY option. If COPY is specified, if a workstation file needs to be refreshed with the associated Host file contents, a copy of the workstation file is first made in the \BIMSYNC subdirectory. The name used for the copy is created by appending the date and time of the last update to the original file name. Since the name will not conform to the FAT file system naming conventions, the copy feature is implemented only for HPFS file systems.
Consider the following File Synchronization Table entry:
C:\GL,(SC\Bi)GL,COBOL,,,MANUAL,FULL,COPY
COBOL files in the workstation directory C:\GL are maintained in sync with their counterpart files in the Host directory (SC\Bi)GL. Since MANUAL is specified, files in C:\GL are initially created by using either the FileSync or FileCopy command. Since FULL is specified, COBOL files in C:\GL are complete files, suitable as input for a workstation-based compiler. If a workstation file is refreshed with its associated Host file contents, a copy of the workstation file is first made in the \Sync subdirectory.
Consider the same example except that the workstation file extension field is specified:
C:\GL,(SC\Bi)GL,COBOL,CBL,,MANUAL,FULL,COPY
This will function as the previous example functions except that workstation COBOL files are assumed to have an extension of CBL. Hence, the workstation file GLCLAIMS.CBL will be maintained in sync with the Host file GLCLAIMS.
Consider the following entry:
C:\BI\ED00A,(BI\Bi)ED00A,*,,,AUTO,PART,NOCOPY
All files in the workstation directory C:\BI\ED00A are maintained in sync with their counterpart files in the BI host BIM directory ED00A. Since AUTO is specified, when an Edit or List session of a file in the host ED00A directory is ended, a copy of the Host file is created in the workstation directory C:\BI\ED00A, if the workstation file is not already present and current. Since PART is specified, only those lines already present at the workstation will be stored in the workstation file.
Other Automatic Operations
If a Host file for which file synchronization is active is deleted with the FileDelete command, the corresponding workstation file is deleted as well.
If a Host file for which file synchronization is active is renamed with the FileRename command, the corresponding workstation file is renamed as well.
If a checkout slave Host file for which file synchronization is active is deleted with the FileCheckDelete command (specifying the slave, not the master), the corresponding workstation file is deleted as well.
If a checkout slave Host file for which file synchronization is active is checked in with the FileCheckin command (specifying the slave, not the master), the corresponding workstation file is deleted.
Restrictions
Since BIM files currently do not support periods in file names (support for periods is planned for release 5.1A), the File Synchronization Facility cannot be used with these files UNLESS the workstation file extension field is used. That is, a workstation file GLCLAIMS.CBL can be synced with a BIM file GLCLAIMS by specifying CBL in the workstation file extension field.
If the workstation is using the FAT file system, File Synchronization Facility will work for only those files with names conforming to the FAT limitations, i.e., names of the format nnnnnnnn.xxx where nnnnnnnn is a maximum of 8 characters and xxx is a maximum of three characters. (The HPFS, NTFS, and VFAT file system are much more flexible. See workstation files for details.)