I tried posting this yesterday but it doesn't look like it made it. Here it is
again...

I  use the following for serially reading a file. It only opens the file once and
keeps it open if you invoke it using CIOR. Works for fine for flat files.

:FORREC <MYFILE  'XEQ MYCMDFL !!FORREC_BUF'


PARM CMD='ECHO ![!BUF]', BUF=FORREC_BUF #FORREC
#Serial read a file and execute a CMD for each record. SETVAR HPAUTOCONT_PREV
HPAUTOCONT
SETVAR HPAUTOCONT  FALSE
ERRCLEAR
CONTINUE
WHILE CIERROR = OK
SETVAR HPMSGFENCE 2
INPUT !BUF
SETVAR HPMSGFENCE 0
SETVAR !BUF  RTRIM (LTRIM (!BUF))
CONTINUE
!CMD
ENDWHILE
SETVAR HPMSGFENCE 0
SETVAR HPAUTOCONT  HPAUTOCONT_PREV
DELETEVAR HPAUTOCONT_PREV
#end