Using QShell and CL to work with Stream files in the IFS

It turns out that there is no simple way of generating a list of files currently residing in a folder on the IBM i IFS. Simple, in this case, would be a command like DSPLNK OUTPUT(*FILE). An API does exist, but a combination of not enough time and too much lazy proved to be quite a disincentive for me going down that route.

The issue was that we recieve a number of very big files and, to save a bit of bandwidth, these files were being zipped before being sent to the IBM i. Dropping the file into the IFS and unzipping it was easy enough but then I found myself with an archive folder containing one of more files. While I can set the name of the folder into which the files should be extracted, I have no way of determining beforehand what the file names will be.

Here’s a solution:

/* -------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
/* Program     : EXTRACTZIP                                                   */
/* Description : Retrieve and unpack a zipped archive                         */
/* Written by  : Paul Pritchard                                               */
/* Date        : 27/05/2015                                                   */
/* -------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
pgm
dcl &library *char 10 value('MYLIB')
dcl &fromfile *char 50
dcl &tombr *char 50 value('/qsys.lib/qtemp.lib/IMPORTP.file/IMPORTP.mbr')
dcl &dltfile *char 50
dclf EXTRACTP

/* Retrieve and the zipped file and unzip it.                                 */
/* I won't bore you with the details here, but the the production program is  */
/* retriving the ZIP file from an FTP server and using PKZIP to unzip it.     */
/* The extract directory is /home/EXPATPAUL/EXTRACTFLR which now contains one */
/* or more stream files                                                       */

/* Retrieve a list of extracted files                                         */
/* First, I use QShell to list the files in EXTRACTFLR. The output of this is */
/* redirected to ExtractedFiles.TXT.                                          */
/* In order to use this information, I copy the ExtractedFiles.TXT stream     */
/* to an ad-hoc physical file (QTEMP/EXTRACTP)                                */
qsh cmd('ls /home/EXPATPAUL/EXTRACTFLR/ > /home/EXPATPAUL/ExtractedFiles.TXT')
crtpf file(QTEMP/EXTRACTP) rcdlen(20)
cpyfrmstmf fromstmf('/home/EXPATPAUL/ExtractedFiles.TXT') +
           tombr('/qsys.lib/qtemp.lib/EXTRACTP.file/EXTRACTP.mbr') +
           mbropt(*REPLACE)

/* And now I can use QTEMP/EXTRACTP to drive my way through EXTRACTFLR and    */
/* copy each of the files in the archive into the IMPORTP physical file.      */
dowhile '1'
    rcvf
    monmsg msgid(CPF0864) exec(LEAVE)

    /* Copy the next sream file from the archive                              */
    chgvar &fromfile value('/home/EXPATPAUL/EXTRACTFLR/' *tcat &EXTRACTP)
    cpyfrmstmf fromstmf(&fromfile) tombr(&tombr) mbropt(*add) +
               STMFCCSID(*PCASCII)

    /* and then delete the stream file                                        */
    chgvar &dltfile value('rm /home/EXPATPAUL/EXTRACTFLR/' *tcat &EXTRACTP)
    qsh cmd(&dltfile)

    enddo

/* Clean up and exit                                                          */    
qsh cmd('rm /home/EXPATPAUL/ExtractedFiles.TXT')
dltf qtemp/EXTRACTP

endpgm

It should go without saying that some of the names have been changed and that the above program should be treated as a sample only.

Being able to move information between the QShell/IFS and traditional i5/OS environments is both useful and (in my experience) increasingly important. Although it does take a bit of thinking about, it isn’t difficult which is why I find that the oft-seen solution of “buy this tool” is both disappointing and (often) overkill.