The system returns the directory information to your local cache buffers. You can receive information in either a single buffer (the BUFFER keyword) or in multiple buffers (the BUFLIST keyword). Both methods enable you to receive up to 65536 (64K) bytes of data. For information about whether to use a single buffer or multiple buffers and for information on selecting buffer attributes, see Design Considerations for Choosing the Buffer Format.

If your local cache buffer is not large enough to hold all of the available information, the system fills the buffer, ends the request, and returns a specific return and reason code that indicates that the buffer has been filled. After you finish processing the information that is in the buffer, you can restart the request to have the system return the remaining information to the buffer. For information on restarting a request, see Restarting a Request that Ends Prematurely.