Copyright Digital Equipment Corp. All rights reserved.
Qualifiers
/ATTRIBUTE
/ATTRIBUTE=(file-attribute[,...])
Sets the attributes associated with a file. The following table
lists possible keywords and the relationship to both ACP-QIO and
OpenVMS RMS File attributes:
OpenVMS RMS File
Keyword ACP-QIO File Attribute Attribute
ATTDATE=dateFAT$C_ATTDATE XAB$Q_ATT
ACCDATE=dateFAT$C_ACCDATE XAB$Q_ACC
BAKDATE=dateFAT$C_BAKDATE XAB$Q_BDT
BKS:value FAT$B_BKTSIZE=byte FAB$B_BKS=byte
CREDATE=dateFAT$C_CREDATE XAB$Q_CDT
DEQ:value FAT$W_DEFEXT=word FAB$W_DEQ=word
EBK:value FAT$L_EFBLK=longword XAB$L_EBK=longword
EXPDATE=dateFAT$C_EXPDATE XAB$Q_EDT
FFB:value FAT$W_FFBYTE=word XAB$W_FFB=word
FSZ:value FAT$B_VFCSIZE=byte FAB$B_FSZ=byte
GBC:value FAT$W_GBC=word FAB$W_GBC=word
HBK:value FAT$L_HIBLK=longword XAB$L_HBK=longword
LRL:value FAT$W_RSIZE=word XAB$W_LRL=word
MODDATE=dateFAT$C_MODDATE XAB$Q_MOD
MRS:value FAT$W_MAXREC=word FAB$W_MRS=word
ORG:IDX FAT$V_FILEORG=FAT$C_INDEXED FAB$B_ORG=FAB$C_IDX
ORG:REL FAT$V_FILEORG=FAT$C_RELATIVE FAB$B_ORG=FAB$C_REL
ORG:SEQ FAT$V_FILEORG=FAT$C_SEQUENTIAL FAB$B_ORG=FAB$C_SEQ
RAT:BLK FAT$B_RATTRIB=FAT$M_NOSPAN FAB$B_RAT=FAB$M_BLK
RAT:CR FAT$B_RATTRIB=FAT$M_IMPLIEDCC FAB$B_RAT=FAB$M_CR
RAT:FTN FAT$B_RATTRIB=FAT$M_FORTRANCC FAB$B_RAT=FAB$M_FTN
RAT:MSB FAT$B_RATTRIB=FAT$M_MSBVAR FAB$B_RAT=FAB$M_MSB
RAT:NONE FAT$B_RATTRIB=0 FAB$B_RAT=0
RAT:PRN FAT$B_RATTRIB=FAT$M_PRINTCC FAB$B_RAT=FAB$M_PRN
REVDATE=dateFAT$C_REVDATE XAB$Q_RDT
RFM:FIX FAT$V_RTYPE=FAT$C_FIXED FAB$B_RFM=FAB$C_FIX
RFM:STM FAT$V_RTYPE=FAT$C_STREAM FAB$B_RFM=FAB$C_STM
RFM:STMCR FAT$V_RTYPE=FAT$C_STREAMCR FAB$B_RFM=FAB$C_STMCR
RFM:STMLF FAT$V_RTYPE=FAT$C_STREAMLF FAB$B_RFM=FAB$C_STMLF
RFM:UDF FAT$V_RTYPE=FAT$C_UNDEFINED FAB$B_RFM=FAB$C_UDF
RFM:VAR FAT$V_RTYPE=FAT$C_VARIABLE FAB$B_RFM=FAB$C_VAR
RFM:VFC FAT$V_RTYPE=FAT$C_VFC FAB$B_RFM=FAB$C_VFC
VRS:value FAT$W_VERSIONS=word XAB$W_VERLIMIT=word
/BACKUP
/BACKUP
/NOBACKUP
Specifies that the Backup utility (BACKUP) records the contents
of the file. The /NOBACKUP qualifier causes BACKUP to record the
attributes of the file but not its contents. This qualifier is
valid only for Files-11 Structure On-Disk Level 2 and 5 files.
The /NOBACKUP qualifier is useful for saving files that contain
unimportant data, such as SWAPFILES.
/BEFORE
/BEFORE[=time]
Selects only those files dated prior to the specified time.
You can specify time as absolute time, as a combination of
absolute and delta times, or as one of the following keywords:
BOOT, LOGIN, TODAY (default), TOMORROW, or YESTERDAY. Specify
the /CREATED or the /MODIFIED qualifier to indicate the time
attribute to be used as the basis for selection. The /CREATED
qualifier is the default.
For complete information on specifying time values, see the
OpenVMS User's Manual or the online help topic Date.
/BY_OWNER
/BY_OWNER[=uic]
Selects only those files whose owner user identification code
(UIC) matches the specified owner UIC. The default UIC is that of
the current process.
Specify the UIC by using standard UIC format as described in the
VSI OpenVMS Guide to System Security.
/CACHING_ATTRIBUTE
/CACHING_ATTRIBUTE=keyword
Use this qualifier to control which files are cached by the
Extended File Cache. It sets the caching attribute for a file
or directory in a Files-11 ODS-2 or ODS-5 volume.
The caching attribute of a file is the default caching option
that is used by the Extended File Cache when an application
accesses the file without specifying which caching option it
wants to use.
The keyword can be either WRITETHROUGH or NO_CACHING. Use
WRITETHROUGH for files that you want to be cached. Use NO_CACHING
for files that you don't want to be cached.
The Extended File Cache does not cache directories. The caching
attribute of a directory controls only how the caching attribute
is inherited by new files and subdirectories created in the
directory:
o When you create a new directory or file, it inherits its
caching attribute from its parent directory.
o When you create a new version of an existing file, the new
file inherits its caching attribute from the highest version
of the existing file.
When you use the INITIALIZE command to create a new Files-
11 volume, the caching attribute of its root directory
(000000.DIR;1) is set to write-through. This means that by
default, all the files and directories you create in the volume
will inherit a caching attribute of write-through unless you use
SET FILE /CACHING_ATTRIBUTE.
When you change the caching attribute of a directory, it does
not affect the caching attribute of any existing files and
subdirectories in the directory.
When you change the caching attribute of a file, it does not
affect the type of caching being used by any applications that
are currently accessing the file.
/CONFIRM
/CONFIRM
/NOCONFIRM (default)
Controls whether a request is issued before each SET FILE
operation to confirm that the operation should be performed on
that file. The following responses are valid:
YES NO QUIT
TRUE FALSE Ctrl/Z
1 0 ALL
<Return>
You can use any combination of uppercase and lowercase letters
for word responses. Word responses can be abbreviated to one or
more letters (for example, T, TR, or TRU for TRUE), but these
abbreviations must be unique. Affirmative answers are YES, TRUE,
and 1. Negative answers include: NO, FALSE, 0, and pressing
Return. Entering QUIT or pressing Ctrl/Z indicates that you want
to stop processing the command at that point. When you respond by
entering ALL, the command continues to process, but no further
prompts are given. If you type a response other than one of
those in the list, DCL issues an error message and redisplays
the prompt.
/CREATED
/CREATED (default)
Modifies the time value specified with the /BEFORE or the /SINCE
qualifier. The /CREATED qualifier selects files based on their
dates of creation. This qualifier is incompatible with the
/MODIFIED qualifier, which also allows you to select files
according to time attributes. The /CREATED qualifier is the
default qualifier.
/DATA_CHECK
/DATA_CHECK[=([NO]READ,[NO]WRITE)]
Specifies whether a read data check (rereading each record), a
write data check (reading each record after it is written), or a
combination of the two is performed on the file during transfers.
By default, a write data check is performed.
/END_OF_FILE
Resets the end-of-file (EOF) mark to the highest block allocated.
/ENTER
/ENTER=new-filespec
The new-filespec parameter is used to create either an alias or
a hard link for the file specified in the SET FILE command. For
detailed information about using hard links and aliases, see the
VSI OpenVMS System Manager's Manual.
Normally you would use /ENTER to create an alias or a hard link
in a directory different from the one where the original filename
resides. If the names are not in different directories, you or
another user could subsequently lose data during a delete or
purge operation. The DELETE and PURGE commands and the file
version limit feature can behave unpredictably if the original
name and the new name are in the same directory.
To remove an alias or hard link, use the SET FILE /REMOVE
command. Exercise caution when using the DELETE and SET FILE
/REMOVE commands, or you could end up with either an inaccessible
file that has no name or a name that does not refer to a file.
Follow these guidelines to avoid such problems:
o Use SET FILE /REMOVE to remove an alias; do not use the DELETE
command to remove an alias.
o Do not use SET FILE /REMOVE to remove the original file name.
If you do not follow these guidelines and encounter problems, use
ANALYZE /DISK /REPAIR to move inaccessible files to the SYSLOST
directory and remove names that no longer refer to files.
/ERASE_ON_DELETE
Specifies that the specified files are erased from the disk (not
just written over) when the DELETE or PURGE command is issued for
the files. See the DELETE/ERASE command for more information.
/EXCLUDE
/EXCLUDE=(filespec[,...])
Excludes the specified file from the SET FILE operation. You
can include a directory name but not a device name in the file
specifications. The asterisk (*) and the percent sign (%)
wildcard characters are allowed in the file specification;
however, you cannot use relative version numbers to exclude a
specific version. If you specify only one file, you can omit the
parentheses.
/EXPIRATION_DATE
/EXPIRATION_DATE=date
/NOEXPIRATION_DATE
Requires read (R), write (W), and control access. Being the owner
of the file is one way to get control access.
Controls whether an expiration date is assigned to the specified
files.
Specify the date according to the rules described in the OpenVMS
User's Manual or the online help topic Date. Absolute date
keywords are allowed. If you specify zero as the date, today's
date is used.
/EXTENSION
/EXTENSION[=n]
Sets the extend quantity default for the file. The value of
the parameter n can range from 0 to 65,535. If you omit the
value specification or specify a value of 0, OpenVMS Record
Management Services (OpenVMS RMS) calculates its own value for
the /EXTENSION qualifier.
See the SET RMS_DEFAULT command for a description of the /EXTEND_
QUANTITY qualifier.
/GLOBAL_BUFFER
/GLOBAL_BUFFER[=keyword[=n]]
/NOGLOBAL_BUFFER
For OpenVMS versions prior to Version 8.3, sets the OpenVMS
Record Management Services (OpenVMS RMS) global buffer count (the
number of buffers that can be shared by processes accessing the
file) for the specified files. The value n must be an integer in
the range from 0 to 32,767. A value of 0 disables buffer sharing.
The /SHARE qualifier can be used to enable or disable global
buffers on a file currently being accessed; however, any new
global buffer settings will only be applied to new accessors of
the file. If a file is already open with global buffers, any new
number of global buffers will not take effect until the file is
closed by all accessors of the file.
For OpenVMS V8.3 and later, sets the OpenVMS RMS global buffer
count for the specified files. Note, you can specify only one
type of global buffer qualifier in the same command string.
The keyword can be:
o COUNT=n-The value n sets the longword count of the number of
global buffers.
o PERCENT=p-The value p expresses the size of the global cache
as a percent of the total number of used blocks currently used
in the file.
o DEFAULT-Requests RMS at runtime to recalculate the global
cache size based on an algorithm that makes use of two global
buffer SYSGEN parameters, GB_CACHEALLMAX and GB_DEFPERCENT.
The following qualifiers can also be used with the /SHARE
qualifier:
o /GLOBAL_BUFFER=n
o /GLOBAL_BUFFER=COUNT=n
o /GLOBAL_BUFFER=PERCENT=n
o /GLOBAL_BUFFER=DEFAULT
o /NOGLOBAL_BUFFER
o /[NO]STATISTICS
/LOG
/LOG
/NOLOG (default)
Displays the file specification of each file modified as the
command executes.
/MODIFIED
/MODIFIED
Modifies the time value specified with the /BEFORE or the /SINCE
qualifier. The /MODIFIED qualifier selects files according to
the dates on which they were last modified. This qualifier is
incompatible with the /CREATED qualifier, which also allows
you to select files according to time attributes. If you do not
specify the /MODIFIED qualifier, the default is the /CREATED
qualifier.
/MOVE
/MOVE
/NOMOVE
Controls whether movefile operations are enabled on the specified
file.
When you create a file, movefile operations are enabled on that
file. You should disable movefile operations on specialized
files that are accessed other than through the XQP (such as files
accessed through logical I/O to a disk).
Note that movefile operations are automatically disabled on
critical system files. Do not enable movefile operations on these
files.
/NODIRECTORY
Use with extreme caution. Requires SYSPRV (system privilege).
Removes the directory attributes of a file and allows you to
delete the corrupted directory file even if other files are
contained in the directory. When you delete a corrupted directory
file, the files contained within it are lost.
Use ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE/REPAIR to place the lost files in
[SYSLOST]. You can then copy the lost files to a new directory.
This qualifier is valid only for Files-11 On-Disk Structure Level
2 files. For more information about the Verify utility, see the
VSI OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual.
/OWNER_UIC
/OWNER_UIC[=uic]
This qualifier has been superseded by the SET SECURITY/OWNER
command.
/PROTECTION
/PROTECTION[=(ownership[:access][,...])]
This command has been superseded by the SET SECURITY/PROTECTION
command.
/REMOVE
Use with caution.
Enables you to remove one of the names of a file that has more
than one name, without deleting the file. If you have created an
additional name for a file with the /ENTER qualifier of SET FILE,
you can use the /REMOVE qualifier to remove either the original
name or the alias. The file still exists and can be accessed by
whatever name or names remain in effect.
However, if you accidentally remove the name of a file that
has only one name, you cannot access that file with most DCL
commands; use the ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE utility to retrieve the
file.
/SEMANTICS
/SEMANTICS=semantics-tag
/NOSEMANTICS
Use the /SEMANTICS qualifier to create or change a semantics
tag. Use the /NOSEMANTICS qualifier to remove a semantics tag
from a file. For more information, see the Guide to OpenVMS File
Applications.
/SHARE
Allows you to enable or disable global buffers or statistics on a
file currently being accessed by other users.
Requires SYSPRV privilege.
Only new accessors of the file acquire the new settings. For
example, if a file is opened with no global buffers specified and
the SET FILE/GLOBAL=n/SHARE command is issued, only new accessors
of the file will use global buffers. If /STATISTICS is enabled on
an active file, only operations performed by new accessors of the
file are measured.
If a file is already open with global buffers, any new number of
global buffers will not take effect until the file is closed by
all accessors of the file.
The /SHARE qualifier is valid only with the following qualifiers:
o /[NO]GLOBAL_BUFFER=n
o /[NO]STATISTICS
/SHELVABLE
/SHELVABLE
/NOSHELVABLE
Controls whether the file is shelvable.
/SINCE
/SINCE[=time]
Selects only those files dated on or after the specified time.
You can specify time as absolute time, as a combination of
absolute and delta times, or as one of the following keywords:
BOOT, JOB_LOGIN, LOGIN, TODAY (default), TOMORROW, or YESTERDAY.
Specify the /CREATED or the /MODIFIED qualifier to indicate
the time attribute to be used as the basis for selection. The
/CREATED qualifier is the default.
For complete information on specifying time values, see the
OpenVMS User's Manual or the online help topic Date.
/STATISTICS
/STATISTICS
/NOSTATISTICS (default)
Enables the gathering of RMS statistics on the specified file.
These statistics can then be viewed by using the Monitor
utility, which is invoked with the DCL command MONITOR. The
SET FILE/STATISTICS command applies an application ACE to the
specified file. The ACE does not affect access control and is
only meaningful to the application assigning it.
The /SHARE qualifier can be used to enable or disable statistics
on a file currently being accessed. However, only statistics of
new accessors of the file will be measured.
/STYLE
/STYLE=keyword
Specifies the file name format for display purposes.
The valid keywords for this qualifier are CONDENSED and EXPANDED.
Descriptions are as follows:
Keyword Explanation
CONDENSED Displays the file name representation of what is
(default) generated to fit into a 255-length character string.
This file name may contain a DID or FID abbreviation
in the file specification.
EXPANDED Displays the file name representation of what is
stored on disk. This file name does not contain any
DID or FID abbreviations.
The keywords CONDENSED and EXPANDED are mutually exclusive. This
qualifier specifies which file name format is displayed in the
output message, along with the confirmation if requested.
File errors are displayed with the CONDENSED file specification
unless the EXPANDED keyword is specified.
See the OpenVMS User's Manual for more information.
/SYMLINK
/SYMLINK=keyword
/NOSYMLINK (default)
If an input file is a symbolic link, the file referred to by the
symbolic link is the file that is set.
The /SYMLINK qualifier indicates that the symbolic link itself is
set.
The valid keywords for this qualifier are [NO]WILDCARD,
[NO]ELLIPSIS, and [NO]TARGET. Descriptions are as follows:
Keyword Explanation
NOWILDCARD Indicates that symlinks are disabled during directory
wildcard searches.
WILDCARD Indicates that symlinks are enabled during wildcard
searches.
NOELLIPSIS Indicates that symlinks are matched for all wildcard
fields except for ellipsis.
ELLIPSIS Equivalent to WILDCARD (included for command
symmetry).
TARGET Indicates that if the target file of the file
specification is a symlink, then the target file
is followed.
NOTARGET Indicates that the command operates on the target
file even if it is a symlink.
If the file named in the SET FILE command is a symlink, the
command by default operates on the symlink target.
/TRUNCATE
Truncates the file at the end of the block containing the end-of-
file (EOF) marker, that is, the qualifier releases allocated but
unused blocks of the file.
/UNLOCK
Clears a file marked as deaccess locked. Deaccess locking is
required by and used by those few applications that maintain
their own locking and consistency, typically without the use
of the OpenVMS distributed lock manager, and potentially also
without the use of RMS. When an application using deaccess
locking does not correctly deaccess the file (often due to an
application or system failure), the file is marked as locked, and
is thus inaccessible until the integrity of the contents of the
file are verified and the SET FILE/UNLOCK command is used.
This command does not affect the state of files that are locked
using RMS or the distributed lock manager.
For details on file deaccess locking, see the VSI OpenVMS I/O
User's Reference Manual, the ACP-QIO interface documentation, and
specifically the FIB$V_DLOCK option available on the IO$_CREATE
and IO$_ACCESS functions.
The SET FILE/UNLOCK command can clear the cause of the following
error message:
%SYSTEM-W-FILELOCKED, file is deaccess locked
However, this command cannot resolve the cause of the error
message:
%RMS-W-FLK, file currently locked by another user
/VERSION_LIMIT
/VERSION_LIMIT[=n]
Sets the maximum number of versions that a specified file can
have in a directory. If you do not set a version limit, a value
of 0 is used, indicating that the number of file versions is
limited only to the Files-11 architectural limit of 32,767.
When creating a file, if the total number of versions of that
file name exceeds the specified version limit, then the file
with the lowest version number is deleted from the directory
without notification to the user.
If you set the version limit to 3 when there are already five
versions of that file in a directory, there will continue to be
five versions of that file unless you specifically delete some
or purge the directory. Once the number of file versions is
equal to or less than the current version limit, this version
limit is maintained.
The version limit applies to all existing versions of a
specified file in a directory regardless of whether or not
you specified any version in the command.
To view the version limit on a file, use the DIRECTORY/FULL
command on a file name and look at the File Attributes field
of the output or use the F$FILE_ATTRIBUTES(filename,"VERLIMIT")
lexical function.