Thanks again for the quick and informative reply.


-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Perdue [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 6:54 PM
To: Serrano, Marianne
Cc: HP3000 List
Subject: Re: COBOL Sort Max Recs

Quoting ianne <[log in to unmask]>:

> Oh I have a follow up question.. So the maximum sort file size depends
on the
> available disc space? I mean as long as there is available space for
sort
> file, I can allot that much space or there's still limit?
>
> Thanks!

There is a maximum to the size of a file, including number of records,
record
size, blocks and extents and of course the available disc space. Each is
somewhat a function of the other, in that the size of a record will
affect the
maximum number of records you can specify for a file. It seems to be a
dying
art over the past few years but you should also take time to calculate a
blocking factor (the number of records per block).

Take a look at the FILE and BUILD commands either in the MPE/iX Commands
reference manual or the online HELP facility. For the online help just
do a
HELP FILE or HELP BUILD and you'll get some good info on the two
commands and
the parameters.

Under no circumstances should you *ever* build a file that will consume
either
eventually or immediately all the available disc space on a system. The
system
will hang as processes need to acquire disc space for one reason or
another and
can't because your file is taking all available space. You can actually
end up
with a system that won't boot due to a lack of disc space. One way to
avoid
this is to have a log on udc for OPERATOR.SYS that includes the command
BUILD
TAKESPAC;DISC=20000,1,1;DEV=1;TEMP - this way you're always sure the
system
will be able to boot because the file created is temporary to the
operator's
session and does not exist when the system is rebooted thereby leaving
enough
space for the system to properly boot up. That available space must be
on ldev
1.

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