Pairing Files

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SuperC pairs files in two stages. First, SuperC uses the LISTFILE command to collect the group of file names. Second, from this collection, SuperC pairs the new with the old based upon the asterisk-mask.

The asterisk-mask can be up to 16 characters long, 8 from the fn and 8 from the ft. Intervening spaces are discarded. The effects of this can be seen with the following example.

File Group ID	File ID	Asterisk-mask
`* * A`	`XYZ ABC A`	`XYZABC`
`* ABC A`	`XYZ ABC A`	`XYZ`
`XYZ * A`	`XYZ ABC A`	`ABC`
`YZ BC A`	`XYZ ABC A`	`XA`

The matching of pairs involves only the asterisk-masks. If the asterisk-masks are equal, the files are paired.

For example, if you had the following files on your A minidisk:

SUP PLI A

BKSUP PLI A

BKBKSUP PLI A

and specified *SUP PLI A on the New File ID field and *BKSUP PLI A on the Old File ID field, then SuperC generates the following collections using LISTFILE:

For *New* File	Asterisk-mask	For *Old* File	Asterisk-mask
`BKBKSUP PLI A`	`“BKBK”`	`BKBKSUP PLI A`	`“BK”`
`BKSUP PLI A`	`“BK”`	`BKSUP PLI A`	`“”`
`SUP PLI A`	`“”`

For the new file BKBKSUP PLI A, SuperC substitutes BKBK for the asterisk-mask. Similarly, for new files BKSUP PLI A and SUP PLI A, SuperC substitutes BK and the null string for the asterisk mask. For the old files BKBKSUP PLI A and BKSUP PLI A, SuperC substitutes BK and the null string.

SuperC pairs the files when the asterisk-mask of the new file is the same as the asterisk-mask of the old file. Continuing with our example, SuperC pairs the following files:

New File		Old File
`BKSUP PLI A`	paired to	`BKBKSUP PLI A`
`SUP PLI A`	paired to	`BKSUP PLI A`

The first 2 files are paired together because the character string BK replaces the asterisk-mask of both files. The second 2 files are paired together because the null string is substituted for the asterisk-mask of both files.