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Description of PRFCOPY

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From Kris Buelens, IBM Belgium

PRFCOPY is an XEDIT macro extending the power of the PREFIX commands COPY and MOVE. The main purposes or PRFCOPY are:

  • copy & move of lines between files
  • insert of same line(s) in multiple places of a file
  • collect multiple lines before inserting in a file
  • work in columns (with OVERLAY, REPLACE and INSERT)
PRFCOPY uses a "stack" in storage to collect your lines.

The basic commands created by PRFCOPY are very easy to use and to remember: 

     KM, KMM, KC, KCC, KF, KP
     (the same as standard XEDIT PREFIX commands, prefixed with a 'K')
     (but you can define your own synonyms)
But there are more commands, such as
KB
to indicate a rectangular area to copy
KKF
to insert the lines, but keep them in the GLOBAMV stack
KO
to overlay the lines onto existing lines
KW
to copy one or a few words
..
and many more

PRFCOPY Version 4.1 highlights 27 March 1998

With version 4.1, all PRFCOPY commands can be called from XEDIT's command line. And, when the cusror is in the filearea, they use the cursor line as starting point instead of XEDIT's current line.

This makes PRFCOPY very useful when running with PREFIX OFF (such as in PEEK).

PRFCOPY Version 4.1.A highlights 23 March 1999

Avoid a "TAREGT NOT FOUND" message when a PRFCOPY Prefix command is cleared.

PRFCOPY Version 4.2 changes 8 September 2000

The maximum line length supported by the CMS STACK and GLOBALV is 255, hence PRFCOPY's HELPfile tells that it can only handle lines up to 255 chars.

With V4.2, PRFCOPY displays an error message when lines are truncated while added to the stack, and -for the KM(M) command- the lines will not be deleted in case of truncation.

PRFCOPY Version 4.2.a changes 26 March 2002

A nasty bug was discovered (and fixed) in this -already old- code:

When using KMM and some lines are excluded in the KMM range, PRFCOPY removed more lines than it placed in the stack.
Example: 

 PRF011   LISTING  F1  V 133 Trunc=133 Size=788 Line=10 Col=1
====>
                              Mini-    On-                        00010
 Num- Volume         Control   disk   line                  Plus  00011
  ber Serial Type    Unit     Links   Secs   Count  Rate Avoided  00012
                                                                  00013
 30A1 V2KRS1 3390-3  3990-6     111   3600   12093   3.4   16576  00014
 30AE V2KPG1 3390-3  3990-6       1   3600   13247   3.7   13247  kmm
--------------------  2  line(s) not displayed ------------       00016
 307C V2K024 3390-3  3990-6      38   3600     290   0.1     338  00018
 207C V2K036 3390-3  3990-6       4   3600     196   0.1     196  kmm
 202C V2K029 3390-3  3990-6      10   3600      47   0.0     100  00020
 303C V2K020 3390-3  3990-6       2   3600      55   0.0      87  00021
 2070 V2K022 3390-3  3990-6       2   3600      12   0.0      12  00022
 20A1 V2K033 3390-3  3990-6       2   3600      12   0.0      12  00023
In the above example, the buggy PRFCOPY places three lines in the PRFCOPY stack (as expected), but it removes 5 lines: line 15, 18 and 19 (as expected), but also line 20 and 21.

PRFCOPY Version 4.2.b changes 2 April 2002

When KM or KMM commands cause the delete of XEDIT's current line, a target not found message was displayed.

PRFCOPY Version 4.2.c changes 12 June 2002

No code has been changed, only one typing error in this document has been corrected. A few lines earlier I wrote: 
but it removes 5 lines: line 14, 18 and 19 (as expected), but also line 20 and 21.
instead of 
but it removes 5 lines: line 15, 18 and 19 (as expected), but also line 20 and 21.

PRFCOPY Version 4.2.d changes 28 May 2004

Due to demand, PRFCOPY is also packaged as a ZIP file.

PRFCOPY Version 4.2.e changes 7 Feb 2006

Avoid loop if issuing 'PRFCOPY' (to define synonyms) with pending KC (and alike) commands and excluded lines.

PRFCOPY Version 4.2.f changes 4 Apr 2006

Similar problem: avoid loop with "L 0 PRFCOPY" in CMS HELP