Full_Description

   The /SPECIFICATION qualifier identifies the specification file to
   be used in a sort or merge operation. A specification file allows
   you to do the following:

   o  Change the format and length of the records in the output file

   o  Conditionally alter record order and data fields

   o  Omit specified records from the process

   o  Include specified records in the process

   o  Change the way in which characters are ordered

   o  Reassign work files

   o  Define commonly used sort or merge operations

   High-performance Sort/Merge: The high-performance Sort/Merge
   utility does not currently support the use of specification
   files.

   Specification files may be created by any standard editor or the
   DCL CREATE command. The commands within a specification file are
   formatted differently than those on the DCL command line and some
   have different meanings.

   Each command in the specification file should start with a
   slash(/), and continuation characters are not required if a
   command spans more than one line. Comments can be included in
   a specification file by preceding them with an exclamation point
   (!).

   Many of the qualifiers used in the specification file are similar
   to the DCL qualifiers used in the Sort/Merge command line. Note,
   however, that the format of these qualifiers can be different.
   For example, the /KEY qualifier at DCL level has a different
   format than the /KEY qualifier in the specification file.