The problem is that the data files contain variable-length records and all
the record attribute information is lost when the file is copied by FTP. In
addition, the record lengths themselves may be lost as they are not carried over
by default.
The simplest way around this is to use the freeware tool ZIP (from the
OpenVMS Freeware CD
- http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/freeware/cd.html) to package the
data file(s) into a ZIP file. This file can then be safely copied by FTP
to any kind of system (just be sure to use BINARY transfer mode) and copied
back. Use the corresponding UNZIP tool to unpack. You can even create
a self-expanding file by prepending the UNZIPSFX.EXE file to the ZIP file. See
the INFO-ZIP documentation for more details.
It also depends upon who's IP is running on what machine. There
are a couple of schemes in use where the file attributes can be
preserved. I know that I can push files using UCX to Wollongong and
the file attributes will be preserved. But I cannot use UCX to get
files from TGV and have the attributes preserved. UCX uses one scheme
and Multinet uses another.
This is a long winded way of saying that it may be possible but it
depends upon on what IP stack is on each end and how he does the
transfer.
UCX has put/fdl and get/fdl which help with this. What I often do in this
situation is to note the file attributes of the original file and then set them
to fixed size 512 byte records. Move the file, then reset the file attributes.
