Peter,

The confusion stems from the fact that "; out" was part of the "listf"
command before "command output redirection" was implemented.  Thus that
format adheres to the pre-existing behavior, as described in the help
catalog:

LISTF

     Displays information about one or more permanent files.
     (CM)

SYNTAX

     LISTF [fileset][,listlevel][;listfile]
.....
.....
listfile            The name of the output file on which the file
                    descriptions are to be written.  If you omit this
                    parameter, the output appears on $STDLIST.  If you
                    specify listfile, the output is sent to a temporary
                    file created for this purpose.  The temporary file
                    is a new ASCII file with variable length records,
                    closed in the temporary domain, and with user
                    supplied carriage control characters (CCTL), OUT
                    access mode, and EXC (EXCLUSIVE access) option.
                    All other characteristics are identical to the FILE
                    command default specifications. You may specify a
                    different kind of file or backreference an existing
                    file.

                    When you direct LISTF output to $STDLIST from a job,
                    or when you direct the output to any non-disk
                    device, a date and time stamp precedes the data,
                    and listlevel 0 data appears as one file per record
                    rather than in the standard multi-column format.
.....

Regards
Paul Christidis


HP-3000 Systems Discussion <[log in to unmask]> wrote on 05/20/2004
01:49:03 AM:

>  I can't really call myself a newbie after a year at this but MPE is
> always doing something slightly odd which makes me feel all stupid
> again!
>
> If I create a file using "listf > out" I get a 256 byte file.  If I
> create it using "listf ; out" I get a 258 byte file.
>
> I know one of those extra bytes is down to it deciding to create a CCTL
> file in the second case but why the extra byte?  What's that for?
>
> Thanks
>
> Peter
> --
> http://www.beluga.freeserve.co.uk
>
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