PI94823: WHEN RUNNING WITH JAVA8, EBCDIC STRINGS DATA CONVERSION SHOWS WRONG BEHAVIOR.

Obtain the fix for this APAR.

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• In data marshalling library shipped in WAS (marshall.jar), it
  has been using the same code to convert DBCS EBCDIC strings
  to/from COBOL/C/PL/I programs running on z/OS (MVS) ever since
  Java 2.  The issue comes in when using Java 8 and a 'null'
  terminated string on the host that needs to be converted to a
  Java string on the client.
  
  This is expected behavior from IBM JDK 8 which is inline with
  the Cp935 converter specification.
  
  Older JDK releases (before IBM Java 8) use IO converters and the
  behavior observed with those releases is due to a bug with IO
  converters.
  
  This means the marhall.jar needs to provide a
  -Dsome.java.system.property so that the Java 8 behavior can be
  tolerated by existing applications.
  

Local fix

• n/a
  

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED: All users of IBM WebSphere Application       *
  *                 Server V7.0                                  *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: Data marshalling null terminated DBCS   *
  *                      EBCDIC strings contain Unicode          *
  *                      replacement characters                  *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
  ****************************************************************
  Running under Java 8, using the marshall.jar library to data
  marshall null terminated DBCS EBCDIC strings from
  COBOL/C/PL/I programs running on z/OS, the strings are returned
  with Unicode replacement characters where the null characters
  are in the data stream. Prior to Java 8, the null characters
  were removed from the returned string.
  

Problem conclusion

• A behavior change the Java 8 runtime has been accounted for,
  and a fix is provided.
  The fix for this APAR is currently targeted for inclusion in
  fix pack 7.0.0.45. Please refer to the Recommended Updates
  page for delivery information:
  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg27004980
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

  PI87069

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Modules/Macros

•    BBGUBINF BBOUBINF
  

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  WEBSPHERE FOR Z

• Fixed component ID

  5655I3500

Applicable component levels

• R700 PSY UI54707

     UP18/04/28 P F804

Fix is available

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