Browsing a remote file

Browsing a file opens it in read-only mode.

You must be connected to the system and locate the file you want to browse.

You can choose the default editor action for MVS files by setting the Default action for opening MVS files preference on the MVS Files preference page. This preference setting determines whether a file is opened for editing, viewing, or browsing when you double-click the file name. If you drag a file from the Remote Systems view to the editor, however, the file is opened in edit mode in the default editor that is associated with the file extension. Setting the Default action for opening MVS Files preference does not change this behavior.

Note: Opening large files (greater than 2500 kilobytes) can cause out-of-memory errors and a forced shutdown of the workbench. Use the Show warning message on opening files setting of the z/OS Solutions preference page to enable IBM® Explorer for z/OS® to check the size of any file that is being opened and display a warning if it is larger than the specified threshold. For more information about this setting, see z/OS Solutions preferences.

You can check the size of a file before you open it by opening the Properties view. This view shows the file size for remote resources in bytes (for resources that are less than 1000 bytes) or in kilobytes (for resources that are greater than or equal to 1000 bytes).

  1. Select the file in the Remote Systems view. 1
  2. From the menu, click Browse.
    The file is opened in read-only mode for you to view.
    Note: If you browse a load module file, nondisplayable characters that range from 0x00 to 0x3F and 0xFF are replaced with a dot (.). CRLF characters are added to the file records. All editor browse functions are available when you browse a load module file.
1 For IDz users, you can also select the file in the z/OS Projects view.
2 For IDz users, the MVS Files subsystem Properties view also displays the following information:
Property Group Name
The name of the property group that is associated with the subsystem.
Property Group Overrides
Whether any values in the property group were overridden: Yes or No.