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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories IFS (Integrated File System) and Servers
Created by Guest
Created on Jun 18, 2020

RELATED IDEAS

Merged idea
This idea has been merged into another idea. To comment or vote on this idea, please visit IBMI-I-2096 Determine CCSID depending on content of the file.

Let the IFS set the CCSID depending on BOM codes when writing files Merged

Today CCSID on files in IFS has no automatic connection the content, which means that you manually have to change the CCSID with CHGATR or setccsid command. This is not practical if files are made by FTP or NETSERVER.

If you upload a file with FTP or NETSERVER, then the CCSID is set to the values defined by CHGFTPA / netserver attributes.


Use Case:

It will be appreciated if a setting on the folder i.e MKDIR command:

"Set CCSID by BOM code" *YES

will allow the files in that directory to - when created / written to respect the BOM code and the set the CCSID accordingly.

Also have a "Default CCSID" on the directory as well if no BOM code was found. like:

Default ccsid : 1200,1208,1252.... *NO, *INDIR


This will remove the issue from FTP and NETSERVER and all new open source applications that also have no concept of CCSID.


Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jul 30, 2020

    There are three RFEs that have similar requests 143259, 135926, and 143226 related to the fact that the CCSID attribute of a file does not reflect the actual contents, which has a BOM that is expected to identify the encoding.

    These files in general are created on a platform such as a PC that understands only ASCII and/or ASCII-like CCSIDs such as UT-16 or UTF-8. It is much easier for that platform and the applications to make determinations about the encoding based on content of the file without the need for a CCSID attribute. The IBM i does not have that same environment and the content of any file could be EBCDIC or ASCII or ASCII-like so the CCSID attribute is extremely important when an application reads/writes data out of/into the file in text mode. The data could be any string of bits and bytes and we certainly rely on the user/application to inform us of the encoding of that data. What is a BOM in 1208, is something entirely different in 1200 not to mention that 1208 is not the only CCSID that has BOM defined.

    It is important to note that when the CCSID of the file is set correctly there are no problems. As has been noted in at least one of the RFEs, the TYPE command in FTP, the Change Attribute (CHGATR) command, the Qp0lSetAttr()???Set Attributes API, or setccsid Qshell utility are options that can be used to set the CCSID for a file.

    There are different suggestions in these requests.
    - Create a new directory attribute to direct new files created and linked to be assigned the CCSID based on the BOM in the data or inherited from the parent.
    - Determine the CCSID when the file is opened based on the data.
    - Have an option on the CHGATR command to set the CCSID based on the *CONTENT.

    Since all of these RFEs have basically the same goal, 143259 and 135926 are being marked as duplicates and will set 143226 as Under Consideration. Any further commentary should be put under 143226.

    The file system cannot be made to guess at the content nor can we use a CCSID because the data is ???probably' UTF8, etc. Only the users know the content of the files. The file system will need to be extremely careful to not change the current behavior for a solution to work. This means that any solution would most certainly require the users to take some steps to have their desired results.

    The file system team will consider this request for future development.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jun 19, 2020

    See my comments in


    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=143226

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jun 19, 2020

    Setting a CCSID remains a "guess"... the sending party should indicate which CCSID it uses via the TYPE command in FTP.

    PS. This request is a duplicate of 143226.

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