IND$FILE Utility Program for VSE, MVS, and VM/CMS

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Overview

IBM started to distribute the IND$FILE program in 1983 to allow the transfer of files between an IBM PC running the 3270 PC (or PC/3270) emulator and a VSE, MVS or VM/CMS host. IND$FILE originally worked only with the SEND and RECEIVE commands of the 3270 PC emulator. Nowadays, all 3270 emulators on PCs and work-stations support file transfer with IND$FILE. In the UK, where the monetary symbol is � instead of $, IND$FILE is known as IND�FILE.

Program Designation	Program Number	Operating system
3270 PC File Transfer for CICS/VS	5798-DQH	VSE
3270 PC File Transfer for TSO	5665-311	MVS, OS/390, z/OS
3270 PC File Transfer for VM/CMS	5664-281	VM/CMS

On all three platforms, the listed products only contain the IND$FILE program itself. In VSE, IND$FILE is a CICS transaction called IND$ (IND� in the UK). GC23-0128 is the flyer that ships with 5665-311 (IND$FILE for MVS/TSO). GC23-0129 is the flyer that ships with 5664-281 (IND$FILE for VM/CMS).

IND$FILE has not been enhanced for years but is still supported on all three platforms by IBM in 2007 and used by thousands of users world-wide. News of IND$FILE's death have been greatly exagerated and generally originate with vendors trying to sell an alternative.

From IBM's Product Cross Reference:

	Component Name       FMID/CLC Program COMPID    Rel CU Dat Env SCL An Letr
	IBM 3270 FTP TSO     HFX1112  5665311 566531101 112 010131 MVS  B  283-351

	Av Date Loc Mail Product Name
	880715   23 GF   3270 PC FILE XFER PROGRAM

Commands and Options

The following is based on 5665-311 which is a TSO command. 5664-281 (the VM/CMS version) is similar, but its options must be preceded by a ( character (left parenthesis). 5798-DQH (the VSE version) is based on CICS and may use a different syntax.

Command - GET or PUT. GET indicates a download (RECEIVE) from the host to the PC, PUT an upload (SEND) from the PC to the host.
Host file name
ASCII - specifies that the file stored on the PC in ASCII form is to be converted to EBCDIC during transfer to the host, and converted from EBCDIC to ASCII during transfer to the PC (needed for all non-binary file transfers).
CRLF - specifies that carriage return/line feed should be recognized and deleted before file is stored on the host, and deletes trailing spaces and inserts carriage return/line feed characters as the last two characters in a line when a file is stored on the PC.
APPEND - allows you to append a PC file to the end of an OS data set, or an OS data set to the end of a PC file. The following options pertain only to the SEND command.
BLKSIZE(n) - specifies the block size of the MVS mainframe data set, where n is the length of a data block in bytes. If omitted, the default is LRECL for new files.
LRECL(n) - specifies the logical record length of the host data set, where n is the length of a logical data record in bytes. If LRECL is omitted, the default is 80 bytes for new files.
RECFM(n) - specifies the record format for the data set. n is either F for fixed-length records, V for variable-length records, or U for undefined-length records.

Executing the IND$FILE or IND$FILE ? command under TSO on z/OS 1.2 produces the following display:

	IBM File Transfer Program:   Version 1.1.1
	PTF: UR43604   Date: 05/09/95  Size: 50C8 Bytes

Similar display on VM/CMS:

	IBM File Transfer Program:   Version 1.1.1
	VM   PTF: UR07750   Date: 11/04/92  Size: lrecl (20032) x 4

	FILENAME FILETYPE FM FORMAT LRECL       RECS     BLOCKS   DATE     TIME
	IND$FILE MODULE   Y2 V      20032          4          6 11/04/92 23:56:04

Controlling and Tracking the use of IND$FILE

For security reasons, MVS, VSE and VM installations often wish to limit and/or track file transfers.

Common Problems

VTAM Session Manager or 3270 control unit hardware

A VTAM session manager such as TPX is known to cause file transfer failures. Similarly, certain unspecified control units or 3270-protocol converters may also cause failures. Sorry, no details are available at the time of this writing.

TSO

Asynchronous messages sent to the terminal may corrupt the data streams and cause the file transfer to hang or fail. Issue PROFILE NOINTERCOM to prevent TSO from sending messages.
Certain control units, middleware or 3280 emulators may cause file transfer failures when the file transfer block size is too large. Use the emulator's options accordingly.
IND$FILE can be invoked during a TSO/ISPF session. Normally, this require the current logical screen to display the ISPF Command Shell screen (option 6). Some 3270 emulators issue the IND$FILE command in the first unprotected field on the screen, other emulators will issue IND$FILE at the cursor position, others clear the screen before sending the IND$FILE command. For years, we have added IND$FILE to the ISPF command table as IND$FILE 0 SELECT CMD(IND$FILE &ZPARM) MODE(FSCR) to enable file transfer on any ISPF screen, and noted it works with many, but not all, 3270 emulators.
Execution of the PUT/SEND function sometimes terminates due to the presence of specific binary bytes in the source file copied from a work-station. This problem happened to me several times when uploading load modules in TSO TRANSMIT format. It's not a problem that I really understand, but I remember using two different solutions to fix it:
1. use ISPF C/S to transfer the file instead of IND$FILE PUT, or
2. write a program to convert each byte of the source file to two characters (hexadecimal to characters), upload the converted file file, then convert it from characters back to hexadecimal.

VM/CMS

Asynchronous messages sent to the terminal may corrupt the data streams and cause the file transfer to hang or fail. Issue CP SET MSG OFF to prevent messages from being sent during file transfer.

File Transfer Protocol

As far as we know, the IND$FILE transfer protocol is not formally documented outside IBM and developers of 3270 emulators have to reverse-engineer it in order to implement an IND$FILE-compatible file transfer capability in their products. There are two forms of IND$FILE: DFT mode (which uses the structured fields) and CUT mode which uses 3270 Write commands. The DFT mode is not too difficult to reverse engineer given that it has been documented in the PC3270 User's Guide. CUT mode on the other hand is much more obscure.

These two terms have come to be known as "Buffered" (CUT mode) and "WSF" for DFT. Buffered is strictly screen buffers passed and interpreted at each end. The amount of data that can move in a single flow is limited to the screen size (1920 bytes for a Model 2). WSF or Write Structured Fields can move larger amounts of data much quicker - it can be "tuned" for data flows from 2K bytes to 32K bytes (but much depends on your network).

Information on the file transfer protocol used by IND$FILE may be found in the following documents:

3270 PC User's Guide - Appendix C - File Transfer Data Streams.
CICS/PC FTP PDOM REL1.1 (SH20-6301) and CICS-PC File Transfer Program (SH20-6306).
PC/3270 Reference Guide for Full-Function DOS - S20H-1776.
VSE/ESA Programming and Workstation Guide, SC33-6609.
ZZ20-5568 "Distributed and Office Systems Support Technical Bulletin" "Host to File Transfer", by A.R. Towers. IBM "Internal Use Only" document.
5735-OZS - INFO/MVS - DBLVL: DEC85 28 - Entries G055110-115 may contain text from ZZ20-5568.
3270 Information System Data Stream Programmer's Reference, GA23-0059.
The x3270 Web site provides the C source code for the x3270 emulator which includes an IND$FILE-compatible file transfer capability.
GC21-9527, SC21-9529 and SC21-9526 manuals.
OS/2 EE 1.3 networking manual.
IND$FILE by Mike Rayborn in file 607 of the CBT tape.

Notes:

Setting of the Query bit in the VTAM LOGMODE (PSERVIC) and/or the 3270 emulator options may affect the ability of the emulator to use WSF (Write Structured Field) commands and impact the availability or speed of file transfer.
The VM version of IND$FILE uses DIAG 58 to send a 3270 data stream with an "unusual" SDA which the other end recognizes as file transfer data.

Alternatives to IND$FILE

Besides IND$FILE, there are other solutions to transfer files between a PC and a VSE, MVS or VM host. Here is a list of some of the alternatives:

FTP
ISPF C/S (MVS Only)
Kermit
INWMUTIL/HTF (VSE only)
Vendor products
- IND$FILE Plus (SDS)
- SSR Client/Server, n�e Super IND$FILE (ASI)

Link-Edit Map of the MVS version of IND$FILE

On MVS, OS/390 and z/OS systems, IND$FILE can generally be found in the SYS1.CMDLIB load-library. The link-edit map of the MVS/ESA version displayed below was produced by the LINKMAP product.

MSG00I GSF Utilities - LINKMAP R245 - Copyright (c) 1984-2009 Gilbert Saint-Flour - All Rights Reserved

MSG41I  Program=SYS1.CMDLIB(IND$FILE)
MSG43I   Length=000050C8 (20.1KB)
MSG44I    Entry=000035C0
MSG46I     ATTR=C2C28800 RENT REUS
MSG51I     Date=1995-10-23
MSG52I    JDate=1995.296
MSG55I   Binder=5695DF108 01.01

 Section    Class
  Offset   Offset  Name                Type    Length   Amode  Rmode  IDR Date  IDR Data   VV.MM  Lang
                0  INDFESTA           CSECT        B0    A24    R24   1992.311  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
               B0  INDFMSG            CSECT       7E0    A24    R24   1995.129  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
     790      840    INDMSG99           LABEL
     740      7F0    INDMSG64           LABEL
     6F0      7A0    INDMSG63           LABEL
     6A0      750    INDMSG62           LABEL
     650      700    INDMSG61           LABEL
     600      6B0    INDMSG60           LABEL
     5B0      660    INDMSG59           LABEL
     560      610    INDMSG24           LABEL
     510      5C0    INDMSG23           LABEL
     4C0      570    INDMSG22           LABEL
     470      520    INDMSG21           LABEL
     420      4D0    INDMSG20           LABEL
     3D0      480    INDMSG19           LABEL
     380      430    INDMSG14           LABEL
     330      3E0    INDMSG13           LABEL
     2E0      390    INDMSG10           LABEL
     290      340    INDMSG9            LABEL
     240      2F0    INDMSG8            LABEL
     1F0      2A0    INDMSG7            LABEL
     1A0      250    INDMSG6            LABEL
     150      200    INDMSG5            LABEL
     100      1B0    INDMSG4            LABEL
      B0      160    INDMSG3            LABEL
      60      110    INDMSG2            LABEL
      10       C0    INDMSG1            LABEL
              890  INDFTAMC           CSECT       538    A24    R24   1992.309  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
              DC8  INDFTAMG           CSECT       CD0    A24    R24   1992.309  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
             1A98  INDFTAMO           CSECT       700    A24    R24   1992.309  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
             2198  INDFTAMP           CSECT       B20    A24    R24   1992.309  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
             2CB8  INDFTAMT           CSECT       908    A24    R24   1992.311  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
             35C0  INDFXFER           CSECT      1980    A24    R24   1992.311  566896201  02.01  ASMH
                                                                      1995.163  UR43604
    16E0     4CA0    EBCDASCI           LABEL
    17E0     4DA0    ASCIEBCD           LABEL
             4F40  PCL                CSECT       188    A24    R24   1992.311  566896201  02.01  ASMH

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