RE: RGZPFM with ALWCANCEL(*YES

Ah, language. If only English were as precise as we want it to be (or at least me).

The term synchronous in it's strictest form means at precisely the same time. However in cases such as say education, there is synchronous learning. This would have the students in the same classroom at the same time. However, the learning involves the teacher speaking, handling questions, etc.--not everything happens at exactly the same time. I'll grant that the IBM engineers may not handle every access path at exactly the same time--there's probably an order to rebuilding each access path. (Symmetric Multi-Processing could allow for more than one at once, but I'll leave that out of the discussion.)

The help text for RBDACCPTH(*OPTIMIZE) states "Access paths will either be rebuilt asynchronously at the end of the reorganize operation, or maintained during the reorganize, based on...." So now what do we have synchronously and asynchronously meaning? I personally conclude it means that not only is English imprecise, but peoples understanding of the language is even less precise. I don't want to point fingers because I know I sometimes misuse terms, too.

Regardless of the semantics of the language used, I'm sure that Dan (the OP who started this thread) wants RBDACCPTH(*NO) resulting in " Access paths will be maintained during the reorganize." I doubt that means every access path is instantly handled at the same time, but now his shop can cancel the reorganization and the access paths should match the data. Depending on the size of the data set, synchronous versus asynchronous probably doesn't' make a lot of difference. But if the process can be interrupted "maintaining the access paths during the reorganize" makes the most sense.

One last parting shot. I enjoy Google's AI and often find it helpful. However, AI is only as good as the training and in this case, I think Google's AI definition can be misleading. While the access paths may well be handled one after another, the term synchronous denotes (maybe not connotes) at the same time. My connotation would be that synchronously would mean at approximately the same time, within the same time frame and asynchronously would mean that the timing of one event is not necessarily related to the timing of the other event. Back to the education example. Asynchronous learning could be like a teaching recording the lesson, students view it on their own time (ah, on demand--that's something we should be familiar with), and assignments are turned in. The timing of the lesson, the viewing, and the assignments are not in the same general time. So, it doesn't mean there is no order or relationship between the two.

There's a good blog on synchronous communication and asynchronous communication at Atlassian (https://www.atlassian.com/blog/loom/synchronous-vs-asynchronous).

And at that, I'll bow out of this conversation.

Thanks,
Michael Quigley
Computer Services
www.TheWay.org

-----Original Message-----
message: 3
date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 10:25:56 -0400
from: Gavin Inman <midrangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: RGZPFM with ALWCANCEL(*YES)

"Synchronous means tasks are performed sequentially, waiting for one to
complete before the next begins


This is the way I understood the RGZPFM command to work.? I've never
seen it re-build multiple access paths at the same time.
Do the QDBSRV jobs take over the tasks?? This might be a new feature since
V7R1.

Gavin.


On 10/23/2025 10:08 AM, Charles Wilt wrote:

On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 6:54?AM Michael
Quigley<MichaelQuigley@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

@Charles: Thanks! that makes Synchronously logical.

@Gavin: I would have to agree with Charles. Merriam Webster defines
Synchronous as " happening, existing, or arising at precisely the same
time". If they happened one at a time, that would be serially. If it's
after the reorganization and then one at a time, what's synchronous
about it?

I apparently read that as asynchronous ...

Merriam Webster does indeed define it as quoted...

But Google's AI overview of "define synchronous" includes..
"Synchronous means "at the same time," as information is exchanged in real-
time, like a live video call or in-person meeting. Asynchronous means "not at
the same time," where there is a time lag between sending a message and
receiving a response, such as with email or text messages."

And "synchronous vs asynchronous" returns...
"Synchronous means tasks are performed sequentially, waiting for one to
complete before the next begins, like a single-lane road. Asynchronous
means tasks can run in parallel or be initiated and then left to complete later,
without blocking others, like having multiple workers on different tasks
simultaneously."

I'm sure there's a logical explanation as to how we got here...but

?\_(?)_/?

Charles




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