Control Record Formats

A 32-byte prefix precedes each control record. The format of this prefix is defined in Table 1.

Table 1. Control Record Formats
Field Field Name Position Size Type
0 Record Length 01 - 04 4 Binary
1 Document Type 05 - 12 8 A
2 Item Sequence Number- 12 13 - 24 12 N
3 Reserved 25 - 32 8 B

The record length is a 4-byte integer indicating the size of this record, including these 4 bytes, in big endian format. The document type is an 8-character identifier for this type of record. Tracers have a document type of IBMTRACR. Dividers have a document type of IBMDIVDR. User documents are either USRITEM or USRRECRD, depending on whether or not they have a unique ISN, respectively.