Re: CLP to decide if DDM file is available?

[Simon Coulter <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday, February 12, 2004, at 02:33  AM, Art Tostaine, Jr. wrote:

> We are using DDM over TCP/IP.  I need to know if the file is available.
> Mostly we are interested in communications issues, we already handle
> times the file might not be available.
>
> Previously with SNA I would just check the device status.
>
> Now I guess I need to check PING results?

Ping just tells you TCP is up. Maybe that's enough. PING lets you 
control how its messages are returned. You could set MSGMODE(*QUIET 
*ESCAPE) and monitor for the failure messages.

> Any better ideas appreciated.

I don't know about better but since you want to know if the remote file 
is available why not just attempt to open it?

pgm (&method)
dcl &method *char 4
if (&method *eq '*SNA') do
  opndbf ddmf_sna option(*inp) opnid(thefile)
enddo
else if (&method *eq '*TCP') do
  opndbf ddmf_tcp option(*input) opnid(thefile)
enddo
else do
  sndpgmmsg msgid(cpf9898) msgf(qcpfmsg) msgdta('Method must be *SNA or 
*TCP) +
     msgtype(*escape)
enddo
clof thefile
endpgm

This will verify communications, network, and file availability. 
Although my example distinguishes between SNA and TCP there is no need 
to do that. T=You can see the OPNDBF doesn't care about the transport 
mechanism.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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