Re: QSS1MRI Data Area Question

[Scott Klement <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Rich,

This has come up in previous conversations, and according to Bruce 
Vining (who was an IBMer at the time) the only officially supported 
means of determining the operating system version is the QSZRTVPR API.

The data area you're looking at -- IBM has stated several times that 
they don't consider that to be a formal programming interface.  In fact, 
they removed it in one release (I don't remember which one).  Many 
people complained about them removing it, and they added it back, but 
said something to the effect of "We're only putting this back as a 
temporary solution until you fix your programs to do it properly". 
Though, so far, they haven't removed it again.

Here's a previous discussion from the System iNetwork forums.  In that 
discussion you'll find a sample CL program that calls the aforementioned 
API to get the OS version.  Feel free to use that CL program in your 
projects.

http://www.systeminetwork.com/isnetforums/showthread.php?t=44854


Rich Loeber wrote:
> For years I have used this data area, which appears in QGPL and in
> QUSRSYS, to determine the installed version of OS on the system.  Does
> anyone know if this is rock solid reliable?
>
> Another method would be to create an object in QTEMP and then retrieve
> the object attributes, but that is not as easy as a simple check of the
> data area.
>
> Rich Loeber
> Kisco Information Systems
> http://www.kisco.com