The ENVIRONMENT attribute

You use the ENVIRONMENT attribute of a PL/I file declaration file to specify information about the physical organization of the data set associated with a file, and describe other related information. The format of this information must be a parenthesized option list.


>>-ENVIRONMENT--(--option-list--)------------------------------><

Abbreviation: ENV

You can specify the options in any order, separated by blanks or commas.

The following example illustrates the syntax of the ENVIRONMENT attribute in the context of a complete file declaration (the options specified are for VSAM).

DCL FILENAME FILE RECORD SEQUENTIAL
    INPUT ENV(VSAM GENKEY);

Table 1 summarizes the ENVIRONMENT options and file attributes. Certain qualifications on their use are presented in the notes and comments in the table.

Table 1. Attributes of PL/I file declarations
Data set type	S t r e a m	Record									Legend: C Checked for VSAM D Default I Must be specified or implied N Ignored for VSAM O Optional S Must be specified - Invalid
File Type	C o n s e c u t i v e	Sequential						Direct
		Consecutive
		B u f f e r e d	U n b u f f e r e d	R e g i o n a l	T e l e p r o c e s s i n g	I n d e x e d	V S A M	R e g i o n a l	I n d e x e d	V S A M
File attributes¹											Attributes implied

File	I	I	I	I	I	I	I	I	I	I
Input¹	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	File
Output	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	File
Environment	I	I	I	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	File
Stream	D	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	File
Print¹	O	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	File stream output
Record	-	I	I	I	I	I	I	I	I	I	File
Update	-	O	O	O	-	O	O	O	O	O	File record
Sequential	-	D	D	D	-	D	D	-	-	D	File record
Buffered	-	D	-	-	I	D	D	-	-	S	File record
Keyed²	-	-	-	O	I	O	O	I	I	O	File record
Direct	-	-	-	-	-	-	S	S	S	S	File record keyed

ENVIRONMENT options

Comments

F\|FB\|FS\|FBS\|V\| VB\|VS\|VBS\|\|U	I	S	S	-	-	-	N	-	-	N	VS and VBS are invalid with Stream
F\|FB\|U	S	S	-	-	-	-	N	-	-	N	ASCII data sets only
F\|V\|U	-	-	-	S	-	-	N	S	-	N	Only F for REGIONAL(1)
F\|FB\|V\|VB	-	-	-	-	-	S	N	-	S	N
RECSIZE(n)	I	I	I	I	S	I	C	I	I	C	RECSIZE and/or BLKSIZE must be specified for consecutive
BLKSIZE(n)	I	I	I	I	-	I	N	I	I	N	indexed, and regional files
SCALARVARYING	-	O	O	O	-	O	O	O	O	O	Invalid for ASCII data sets
CONSECUTIVE	D	D	D	-	-	-	O	-	-	O	Allowed for VSAM ESDS
LEAVE\|REREAD	O	O	O	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
CTLASA\|CTL360	-	O	O	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Invalid for ASCII data sets
GRAPHIC	O	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
INDEXED	-	-	-	-	-	S	O	-	S	O	Allowed for VSAM ESDS
KEYLOC(n)	-	-	-	-	-	O	-	-	O	-
ORGANIZATION	D	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
GENKEY	-	-	-	-	-	O	O	-	O	O	INPUT or UPDATE files only; KEYED is required
REGIONAL(1)	-	-	-	S	-	-	-	S	-	-
VSAM	-	-	-	-	-	-	S	-	-	S
BKWD	-	-	-	-	-	-	O	-	-	O
REUSE	-	-	-	-	-	-	O	-	-	O	OUTPUT file only
Notes: A file with the INPUT attribute cannot have the PRINT attribute. Keyed is required for INDEXED and REGIONAL output.

Those ENVIRONMENT options that apply to more than one data set organization are described in the topics that follow. In addition, in the following sections, each option is described with each data set organization to which it applies.