Re: How to undelete records

[PaulMmn <PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rob--

If time is NOT of the essence, you can 'roll your own.'

The key is that the file in question has NOT been reorganized!

How It Works:  The secret is that a deleted record is not really gone 
until you reorganize the file.  The problem is-- how do you read them?

SAVOBJ will save the entire file-- including the deleted records. 
Save the file to a SAVF (save file).

Save files can be read with an RPG program.  I believe the record 
length is 528 bytes...

When you read the SAVF, you'll read all of the data in the file-- 
including both deleted and not-deleted records.  Your program has to 
do the following:  Read the save file as a stream of data.  Chop this 
data stream into chunks the length of your original file, avoiding a 
byte or two that are OS/400 overhead (including, IIRC, a system level 
delete flag).  It's easy enough to figure out which records were 
deleted and which weren't.  Write the deleted records to a copy of 
the original file.  Then you have to pluck out the ones you want.

Of course, this isn't without its complications--  your original 
records are probably NOT 528 bytes (less that overhead byte or two). 
If less, your records will take chunks of a SAVF record until your 
record won't fit entirely into the SAVF record.  That record will 
occupy parts of two SAVF records.  If your record is longer than 528, 
you will need more than one SAVF record to find all of the pieces of 
your record.

That's why the tools mentioned are more convenient-- they do this 
record spanning for you!!

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx




> I have a few thousand records in a file I have to undelete.  It is not
> journalled.  How does one go about this?
>
> Rob Berendt