Hercules command to manipulate (create or read) VMFPLC2 formatted tapes for VM/CMS use.
vmfplc2 [options] VERB [<ctlfile>] <tapein> | <tapeout>
The vmfplc2 utility requires a function (DUMP, SCAN or LOAD) followed by the name of a control file and the name of an input or output tape file.
DUMP The DUMP function allows creating a VMFPLC2 formatted tape.
SCAN The SCAN function allows listing the contents of a VMFPLC2
formatted tape.
LOAD The LOAD function allows importing the contents of a VMFPLC2
formatted tape unto the system.
ctlfile The name of the control file identifying which host file(s)
are to be DUMPed to the tape output file or LOADed from the
tape input file. See the "CONTROL FILE" section below for
the format of the control file.
tapein The name of the input tape file for the SCAN/LOAD functions.
tapeout The name of the output tape file to be created by the DUMP
function.
Surround the name of the control file and/or the name of the input/output tape file with double quotes if it contains any blanks in its name.
-c cp The desired translation code page to be used for ASCII to
EBCDIC translation (and vice versa). For a list of valid
code pages please refer to the Hercules documentation for
the 'codepage' configuration file statement. The default
translation code page is "default". The recommended code
page is "819/1047".
-u Create an uncompressed .AWS output tape.
-z Creates a compressed .HET output tape using zlib (default).
-b Creates a compressed .HET output tape using bzip2.
-n Desired compression level (-1, -2 ... -9). Default is -4.
-v Verbose. (Don't suppress certain informational messages.)
-t Read input tape or create output tape in CMS 'TAPE' DUMP
format. The default is to use the 'VMFPLC2' DUMP format.
The 'TAPE' DUMP format allows tapes to be read by earlier
versions of VM/CMS such as VM/370. The VMFPLC2 format is
only used by later versions of VM/CMS such as e.g. z/VM.
The control file lets the DUMP/LOAD functions to determine which host files are to be dumped or loaded to/from tape and how they should be interpreted on VM. Each statement of the control file has the following format:
[codepage] <fn> <ft> <fm> <recfm> [lrecl] <type> <hostfile>
codepage Is an optional code page specification to be used when dumping
or loading the specified file. If the first word contains a '/'
slash character anywhere in its name it is interpreted as a code
page specification. Otherwise the first word is interpreted
as the 'fn' filename argument and the codepage specified on the
command line is used instead. Code pages are only used to DUMP
or LOAD Text files (refer to the "type" argument further below).
fn Is the 1 to 8 characters that represents the file name. The file
name can be specified as lower case, but will be translated to
upper case to follow CMS conventions. Characters allowed are
[A-Z], [0-9], $ (Dollar), + (Plus), - (Minus), : (Colon), @ (At),
# (Pound/Hash) and _ (Underscore).
The special filename "@TM" (At, "T", "M") is interpreted as a
request to write a tapemark to the output file, and the rest of
the line is ignored.
The special filenames "*" (asterisk), "#" (pound or hash) or ";"
(semicolon) are treated as comment lines causing and the rest of
the line to be ignored. All blank lines are also always ignored.
ft Is the 1 to 8 characters that represents the file type. The file
type can be specified as lower case, but will be translated to
upper case to follow CMS conventions. Characters allowed are
[A-Z], [0-9], $ (Dollar), + (Plus), - (Minus), : (Colon), @ (At),
# (Pound/Hash) and _ (Underscore).
fm Is 1 or 2 characters that represents the file mode. The first
character is a letter from A to Z and represents the "original"
file mode when scanned on VM/CMS. (It does NOT cause the file
to be loaded on that cms disk.) The second character is a digit
from 0 to 6. The file mode number indicates specific behavior
for the file under CMS. Refer to CMS documentation for more info.
recfm Indicates the record format, and should be specified as either
F[ixed] or V[ariable].
lrecl Indicates the logical record length. This should only be spec-
ified for recfm F[ixed] files. For recfm V[ariable] files the
record length varies from one record to the next and thus should
NOT be specified (should be left out from the statement).
type Indicates how the file should be processed. The only supported
values are B[inary], S[tructured] or T[extual]:
Binary The file is not translated and is written as-is.
For RECFM F files, the file is cut into records
of the length specified by the lrecl parameter.
For RECFM V files, the file is cut into records
of 65535 bytes except for the last record which
has a length of the remainder of the file.
Structured The file is in structured format where each record
is preceded with a 16-bit BIG ENDIAN format length
field followed by the bytes of the record itself.
The recfm must always be specified as V[ariable].
Structured files are not translated and are written
as-is.
Textual The file is translated from ASCII to EBCDIC using
the specified translation code page if specified,
or the code page specified on the command line if
not specified. Refer to the "codepage" parameter
further above.
Trailing CR, LF, CRLF line termination characters
are removed by DUMP and added by LOAD.
For RECFM F files the record is truncated if it
is longer than the specified lrecl or padded with
EBCDIC X'40' characters (white space) if shorter.
For RECFM V files records are neither padded nor
truncated and can be up to 65535 characters long.
hostfile The name of the input or output host file to be DUMPed or LOADed.
If the full path of the file is not specified then the file is
treated as being relative to the current directory. Enclose the
file name within double quotes if it contains any blanks.
The following creates a VMFPLC2 formatted tape named "vmfplc2.het" containing three files named "mytest.asm", "profile.xedit.txt" and "synonyms.txt", which can then be loaded onto the guest system as CMS files MYTEST ASSEMBLE A1, PROFILE XEDIT A1 and MY SYNONYM A1:
command: vmfplc2 DUMP myfiles.txt vmfplc2.het
myfiles.txt: MYTEST ASSEMBLE A1 Fixed 80 Text mytest.asm
PROFILE XEDIT A1 Variable Text profile.xedit.txt
USER SYNONYM A1 Fixed 80 Text synonyms.txt
The following example reads a VMFPLC2 formatted input tape named "vmfplc2.het" and lists all of the files that are found on the tape:
command: vmfplc2 SCAN vmfplc2.het
The following example reads a VMFPLC2 formatted tape named "vmfplc2.het" and restores onto the host system any files found on the tape that match one of the entries listed in the "myfiles.txt" control file:
command: vmfplc2 LOAD myfiles.txt vmfplc2.het
myfiles.txt: MYTEST XEDIT A1 Variable Text mytest.rexx
MYTEST DATA A1 Fixed 80 Text mytest.dat
Bug reports (together with your diagnosis of the fault, please!) should be either entered into our Github issue tracker (preferred) at https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/, or else reported via message to the main hercules-390 discussion group at https://hercules-390.groups.io/g/group.
The Hercules emulator homepage at: http://www.sdl-hercules-390.org/
2010-08-07 Originally written by Ivan S. Warren
2019-02-29 Program completely rewritten by "Fish" (David B. Trout)
Any typos or bugs are purely my own fault and not Ivan's.