Re: Moving to QSECURITY 40

"As long as you don't remove *CRTDTA observability, the program can be
recreated by the system."

No longer the case...it changed at v5r1.. (
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.6.0?topic=ssw_ibm_i_76/cl/chgpgm.html#CHGPGM.RMVOBS
)

- Creation data (either observable or unobservable) is required to
convert programs to a different hardware technology, for example, between
CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) and RISC (Reduced Instructions Set
Computer) technology.
- Some programs retain unobservable creation data even when observable
creation data is removed. OPM programs created for release V5R1M0 or later
(TGTRLS parameter when the program was created) will always contain
creation data even when *ALL observability is removed. ILE programs created
only from modules created for release V5R1M0 or later will always contain
creation data even when *ALL observability or *CRTDTA observability is
removed.
- If the program was created for a release earlier than V5R1M0, or if it
contains bound modules created for a release earlier than V5R1M0, *ALL
observability and *CRTDTA observability cannot be removed.

My point is that if you have a program created prior to v1r3, running on a
7.5 or 7.6 system, that program must have been recreated at v3r6 and again
at v6r1 ( and wasn't there a more recent upgrade that also required program
conversion?)

I suspect that those recreations would have added the validation value.

Especially since the whole sentence in the doc is "If you have any programs
that were created before Version 1 Release 3, use the CHGPGM command with
the FRCCRT parameter to create validation values for those programs."

I'm thinking the bullet point is simply out-dated.

Charles


On Thu, Nov 6, 2025 at 9:24 AM David Gibbs via MIDRANGE-L <
midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, Nov 5, 2025 at 3:24 PM Charles Wilt <charles.wilt@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"programs that were created before Version 1 Release 3..."

Is that even possible? Given CISC to RISC at 3.6 and the one (two?)

other

version upgrades that required program recreation...

I'm pretty sure that's not only possible, but one of the major value
propositions of IBM i.

As long as the program template exists, it can be rebuilt for the current
release & hardware.

IIRC, the biggest issue was when you removed observability from a program
(which many SW vendors did, to prevent debugging), the template was
removed.

Now the CHGPGM command allows you to specify what observability data is
removed. As long as you don't remove *CRTDTA observability, the program
can be recreated by the system.

david

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