What to Do With a VMARC File

Brian, you sent me an e-mail with a .vmarc file as an attachment. What do I do with the attachment?

A .vmarc file is to CMS as a .tgz or .zip file is to a Windows or Linux system. In other words, a .vmarc file is a file that contains other files. To use the .vmarc file, you need to upload it to CMS and then unpack it.

To deal with the .vmarc file I sent, you need to do these things.

  1. Make sure your CMS user ID can see the file VMARC MODULE, which is the executable tool needed to manipulate .vmarc files.
  2. (Optional) Make sure your CMS user ID can see the file VMARC HELPCMS, which is the help file for the VMARC tool.
  3. Upload the .vmarc file to your CMS user ID, using binary transfer mode.
  4. Reblock the uploaded file so the VMARC tool can read it.
  5. Unpack the .vmarc file.

Making Sure You Have the VMARC Tool

The CMS program that deals with files of filetype VMARC is called VMARC MODULE. Look around on your CMS user ID and see whether you have a file called "VMARC MODULE" somewhere in your search order. (Try this: FILELIST VMARC MODULE *) If you already have the file VMARC MODULE, that's great. If you do not have the file VMARC MODULE, here is how you can get it:

  1. Click here,
  2. Tell your browser to save the file vmarc.module to disk,
  3. Upload vmarc.module to your CMS user ID using binary transfer mode, to file VMARC MODULE A,
  4. Issue this CMS command:
    PIPE < VMARC MODULE A | deblock cms | > VMARC MODULE A

After doing those steps you will have a usable VMARC MODULE on your A-disk.

(Optional) Making Sure You Have the VMARC Help File

If you want to read more about how to use the VMARC program,

  1. Download its help file, saving it to your local disk as vmarc.helpcms,
  2. Upload vmarc.helpcms to your CMS user ID using binary transfer mode as file VMARC HELPCMS A,
  3. Issue this CMS command:
    PIPE < VMARC HELPCMS A | deblock cms | > VMARC HELPCMS A

After doing those steps you will have a usable VMARC HELPCMS on your A-disk. To read it, just issue HELP VMARC.

Upload, Reblock, and Unpack

Now, assuming the file I attached is called my.vmarc, here is what you do with it.

  1. Detach my.vmarc from the e-mail and save it to your local PC disk.
  2. Upload the file my.vmarc to your CMS user ID using binary transfer mode. Let's assume you put it onto your 191 disk, sometimes known as your A-disk. The result of your upload will be a file on your A-disk, MY VMARC A.
  3. Reblock MY VMARC A to F 80. Issue this CMS command:
    PIPE < MY VMARC A | fblock 80 00 | > MY VMARC A F 80
  4. Look inside the VMARC file to see what files are inside it. Issue this CMS command:
    VMARC LIST MY VMARC A
  5. Unpack the VMARC file. Issue this CMS command:
    VMARC UNPK MY VMARC A = = A ( OLDDATE REPLACE
    When you do this step, the files packaged inside MY VMARC A will overlay any files of the same name that are already on your A-disk.

Then look on your A-disk. You will see the files that were packaged inside the file MY VMARC.

A Word About Binary Transfer Mode

By binary transfer mode I mean you move the file from one computing system to another, byte-for-byte, without any sort of code-page translation, ASCII-EBCDIC translation, record reblocking, record reformatting, or CR-LF injection or removal. Here are some examples:

  • For Windows line-mode FTP, it means you issue the FTP subcommand binary before you issue the subcommand put. When you issue the binary subcommand, your FTP client should reply with, "200 Representation type is IMAGE." or some such.

  • For IPSwitch WS-FTP, it means you click the radio button labelled Binary.

  • For IBM Personal Communications 3270 emulators, it means in the Transfer type: pull-down, you select binary.

For other file transfer programs, contact the author or provider of the file transfer program you are using.