Contents

Table of Contents

Introducing Suprtool Version 5.6.01 4

Introduction........................................................................................................... 4

Highlights in Suprtool 5.6.01................................................................................... 4

Highlights in Suprtool 5.5....................................................................................... 4

Highlights in Suprtool 5.4....................................................................................... 5

Known Problems.................................................................................................... 5

Compatibility........................................................................................................ 5

CPU Serial Number and CPU Name (HPSUSAN & HPCPUNAME)............................... 6

Documentation....................................................................................................... 6

Installation 7

Overview............................................................................................................... 7

Ecometry Users...................................................................................................... 7

Installation Instructions............................................................................................ 7

Installation Assistance............................................................................................. 7

Enhancements in Version 5.6 8

Introduction........................................................................................................... 8

Extract Command................................................................................................... 8

$SubCount............................................................................................................ 9

Enhancements in Version 5.5 10

Introduction......................................................................................................... 10

Set XLTRIM....................................................................................................... 10

Escape Command.................................................................................................. 10

Enhancements in Version 5.4 11

Introduction......................................................................................................... 11

Get Command...................................................................................................... 11

Output Command................................................................................................. 11

Bugs Fixed 12

Bugs Fixed In Suprtool 5.5.................................................................................... 12

Bugs Fixed In Suprtool 5.4.01................................................................................ 12

Bugs Fixed In Suprtool 5.3.11................................................................................ 12

Introducing Suprtool Version 5.6.01

Introduction

Suprtool provides fast access to your data on the HP e3000. With Suprtool, you can perform many necessary DP functions easily, with just a few simple commands. At Robelle we are constantly working on your enhancement requests so that we can include them every year when we release an updated version of Suprtool.

Highlights in Suprtool 5.6.01

· Suprtools' extract command now has three special keywords to help with extract using a range, which is designed to make your Suprtool scripts more easily maintained. Suprtool now has $all, $first and $last which respectively means all fields, the first field or the last field. Note that $first and $last may only be used in a range extract.

· $subcount has been added to keep a running count for a given sort break.

· Suprtool would fail at the end of a second chain with update task, if the previous chain with update task was against a master dataset. (5.6.01)

Highlights in Suprtool 5.5

· Set XLTRIM On now tells Suprtool to close a file and release the disc space between EOF and the Flimit.

· STExport's Escape command has been re-engineered to fix some corner cases that didn't work previously.

· Due to an issue with Btrees, Suprtool would incorrectly select records when doing an update or delete, and if using chain with a btree index on a master dataset.

· The $edit function did not work properly with alpha based edit masks and if the target was greater than 32 characters.

· Suprtool now treats KSAM64 files with labels as SD files, in the same manner as KSAMXL files are.

· A warning will print if a non-regular SD file is loaded into a Table with the data option. The data is not loaded into the table.

· An error will print if an extract command attempts to reference data when loaded from table that in turn was loaded when using a non-regular SD file, such as KSAM/XL, KSAM64 and CM KSAM.

· Suprtool did not print out a warning message when attempting to combine sort with output,else.

Highlights in Suprtool 5.4

· Bradmark's DBGeneral can produce Jumbo datasets that are a single chunk, Suprtool did not handle these single chunk master jumbo datasets properly as the last block calculation was done only after opening the last chunk itself. We have adjusted the logic in making sure the calculation is done for this case earlier. Adager does not create these single chunk jumbo datasets. There is an un-documented $control directive in dbschema called $forcejumbo, which will produce one of these single chunk jumbos so we are supporting it in Suprtool 5.3.11.

· The Output command has been enhanced to accept the new verb "else", which when invoked it will write out the records that do not qualify and write them to an external file.

· Suprtool did not properly clear the data field information from a table at the end of a task.

· Suprtool did not properly zero out a packed field target when an table entry was not found when extracting data from a table.

· If $lookup can now return the data portion loaded into a table to use in a comparison.

· STExport HTML command did not calculate the maximum record size properly in some cases.

· Suprtools prefetch default value has been changed from 2 to 0.

Known Problems

Set Itemlock does not work in one particular case.

Compatibility

Suprtool/iX is compatible with MPE V, MPE XL, and MPE/iX, including MPE/iX 6.5, 7.0 and MPE/iX 7.5.

Suprtools default prefetch value has been changed from 2 to zero.

Ksam64 files were not assumed to be Self-describing like CM KSAM and KSAMXL files when it was the input file and had labels.

A warning will print if a non-regular SD file is loaded into a Table with the data option.

An error will print if an extract command attempts to reference data when loaded from table that in turn was loaded when using a non-regular SD file, such as KSAM/XL, KSAM64 and CM KSAM.

CPU Serial Number and CPU Name (HPSUSAN & HPCPUNAME)

Suprtool and its associated products run only on CPUs whose serial numbers have been encoded ("showvar hpsusan" on MPE/iX). They also may be encoded with your HPCPUNAME values. If it fails to run and you get an "invalid HPCPUNAME" or "invalid HPSUSAN" error message, contact Robelle for assistance.

Documentation

The user manual contains the full description of all the Suprtool suite of products including Dbedit, Suprlink, STExport and Suprtool2, as well as usage tips and commands for each. The manuals are up-to-date with all the latest changes. To see only the changes in the latest version, see the "What's New" section of the manual, or see the change notice.

You can download our manuals and change notices in various formats and you can order printed (hardcopy) manuals from our web site at:

http://www.robelle.com/library/manuals/

Installation

Overview

We have two types of Installations, Tape and Download. We provide links to the Installation instructions on our web site for each type of Install.

Ecometry Users

Users of the Ecometry application need to use the installation instructions supplied by Ecometry Corporation. Those instructions have extra steps for updating the Ecometry code accounts.

You will find the Ecometry version of these instructions at http://www.robelle.com/ecometry/

Types of installations, tape, download combined qedit and suprtool tape.

Installation Instructions

If you received a production release tape from Robelle, then you can install using the instructions on this web page:

http://www.robelle.com/support/install/tape/stprod.html

If you downloaded the Suprtool production release from our web site then the instructions can be found here for the ftp download method:

http://www.robelle.com/downloads/install-stprod-ftp.html

and here for the WRQ download method:

http://www.robelle.com/downloads/install-stprod-wrq.html

Installation Assistance

If you have any questions about the upgrade process or run into any problems, please call us. Technical support is available on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pacific time at 289.480.1060 or you can e-mail your question to support@robelle.com.

You can also write the script using $first / $last as your preference, but $first and $last are also useful if you need to add data into the middle of the fields you extract:

Enhancements in Version 5.6

Introduction

Suprtool is constantly being updated with new features. The following section describes the new enhancements to Suprtool since Suprtool 5.5

Extract Command

Suprtool's extract command now has three new keywords, which can be used for extract range feature. You can now say extract $all, extract $first / $last on an SD file or Image/Eloquence dataset. The intention is to make your scripts more easily maintained. If you had a script that you wanted to put a sequence number at the beginning and then extract the rest of the dataset you previously had to specify the starting field and the ending field. For example if the first field in a dataset was order-no and the last field was pst-code you may have a script that looked like this.

base orddb

get customers

def seq-no,1,4,double

ext seq-no=$counter

ext order-no / pst-code

out newfile,link

xeq

If you added any fields to the beginning or end of the dataset you would have to re-write the script. Now you can write the script as being:

base orddb

get customers

def seq-no,1,4,double

ext seq-no=$counter

ext $all

out newfile,link

xeq

You can also write the script using $first / $last as your preference, but $first and $last are also useful if you need to add data into the middle of the fields you extract:

base orddb

get customers

def seq-no,1,4,double

ext $first / zip

ext seq-no=$counter

ext tax-code / $last

out newfile,link

xeq

Please note that if a self-describing file has a fieldname that is a duplicate field and one of the duplicate fields is the last field in the file, then $first / $last and $all, will only extract up to the first occurrence of the duplicate fieldname. This may seem as an issue but it is consistent with what Suprtool does currently with extract from a range. Currently and prior to the $first / $last enhancement Suprtool would have extracted only up to the first occurrence of the field if you had a file such as this:

>form

File: newfile (SD Version B.00.00) Has linefeeds

Entry: Offset

CHAR-FIELD X5 1

INT-FIELD I1 6

DBL-FIELD I2 8

PACKED-FIELD P12 12

PACKED*-FIELD P12 18

QUAD-FIELD I4 24

ID-FIELD I1 32

LOGICAL-FIELD K1 34

DBLLOG-FIELD K2 36

ZONED-FIELD Z5 40

FILLER X36 45

FILLER X36 81

Entry Length: 116 Blocking: 1

Notice that FILLER is a duplicate named field, so if you entered, extract char-field / filler, Suprtool would only extract up to and including the first FILLER field. For consistency, extract $first / $last behaves the same way.

$SubCount

$SubCount has been added to provide a counter that only gets reset at a given sort break.

In file1sd

Sort char-field

Def control-count,1,4,double

Ext $first / $last

Ext control-count=$subcount(char-field)

Out newfile,link

xeq

What Suprtool will do in this case is start incrementing a number starting with 1, and increase by 1 for any given char-field value. This way you can add a counter based on a sort break for a given field.

Enhancements in Version 5.5

Introduction

Suprtool is constantly being updated with new features. The following section describes the new enhancements to Suprtool since Suprtool 5.4.

Set XLTRIM

Suprtool now has the command Set xltrim on, which tells Suprtool to close the output file in a manner in which it releases the disc space between EOF and the Flimit, but the Flimit remains the same. This trim will only occur of set squeeze is not set or if set squeeze is off.

Escape Command

STExports Escape command has been revised to be faster and a couple of corner cases.

Enhancements in Version 5.4

Introduction

Suprtool is constantly being updated with new features. The following section describes the new enhancements to Suprtool since Suprtool 5.3.

Get Command

Bradmark's Adager can produce Jumbo datasets that are a single chunk, Suprtool did not handle these single chunk master jumbo datasets properly as the last block calculation was done only after opening the last chunk itself. We have adjusted the logic in making sure the calculation is done for this case earlier. Adager does not create these single chunk jumbo datasets. There is an un-documented $control directive in dbschema called $forcejumbo, which will produce one of these single chunk jumbos so we are supporting it in Suprtool 5.3.11.

Output Command

The Output command has been enhanced to accept the new verb "else", which when invoked it will write out the records that do not qualify and write them to an external file.

Consider the following task:

base mydb

get customers

if custno >= "50A"

out mycusts,link,else

xeq

Suprtool will create two files one called mycusts and another called else which will be a temporary file. This works for flat files, Image (via get and chain) and KSAM files. The temporary ELSE file will NOT prompt if there is a duplicate. It will simply purge the file prior to creating the new temporary file. You can of course use file equations to re-direct the output to another named temporary file but the user is responsible for insuring that the file equated filename doesn't exist so that the write operation will work.

You cannot combine output ,else with the num or key options. In this case Suprtool will tell you it is ignoring the ,else operation. You cannot combine output,else with any of the dup or nodup options or the duplicate command. Suprtool will generate an error in this case.

Bugs Fixed

Bugs Fixed In Suprtool 5.5

Ksam64 files. Ksam64 files were not assumed to be Self-describing like CM KSAM and KSAMXL files when it was the input file and had labels.

$edit function. The $edit function did not work well with alpha based edit masks and if the target was greater than 32 characters.

Table File Data Load. A warning will print if a non-regular SD file is loaded into a Table with the data option. The data is not loaded into the table.

Table File Data Lookup. An error will print if an extract command attempts to reference data when loaded from table that in turn was loaded when using a non-regular SD file, such as KSAM/XL, KSAM64 and CM KSAM.

BTrees and Chain. Due to an issue with Btrees, Suprtool would incorrectly select records when doing an update or delete, and if using chain with a btree index on a master dataset.

Bugs Fixed In Suprtool 5.4.01

Output, Else. Suprtool would not print a warning when output,else was specified during a sort operation.

Bugs Fixed In Suprtool 5.3.11

GET Command. The Get command would get too many records if the dataset was a single chunk jumbo dataset. Only Dbgeneral and dbschemas $forcejumbo can make these single chunk datasets.

Table Command. Suprtool did not properly clear the data field information from a table at the end of a task.

Extract from Table. Suprtool did not properly zero out a packed field target when an table entry was not found when extracting data from a table and the Packed field was P12 or higher.