Comments on: QSH on two differnet iSeries

By: tomliotta

tomliotta — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:04:35 +0000

Much internal code is written in C or using C conventions such as null-terminated strings. Every once in a while, a value passed from some internal function to an application is passed by code that neglects to format as the fixed-length, blank-padded values we expect. (And some other times it is documented as a null-terminated string.)

I would immediately suspect either a difference in some product level, e.g., JDK 1.4 vs. JDK 1.5, installed on the system or a slight variation in some PTFs related to the HTTP server. It doesn’t have to be an option that you are deliberately using; it might simply be used internally by the options you are using. I would look for a PTF perhaps for the Read from Stdin (QtmhRdStin) API or similar.

Unless there is no such PTF to be found, I wouldn’t look too hard elsewhere yet.

Tom

By: dcantwell

dcantwell — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:48:10 +0000

Even more information:

The hex values of the strings coming into the program are different as well:

Lets say we have a 20 character string that is “AGRI OTHER” with spaces filling in the rest of the characters.

On the Dev box, the hex appears like this:
C1C7D9C940D6E3C8C5D940404040404040404040

While on the production box the hex appears like this:
C1C7D9C940D6E3C8C5D900000000000000000000

It looks like the spaces are being treated differently?

By: tomliotta

tomliotta — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:26:17 +0000

First thing that must be known is the QCCSID system value of both systems. That might help determine what to look at next. Let’s make sure that bits are being encoded similarly on the two systems. This might lead to reviewing server job attributes on the two systems — job user profile settings, job descriptions, etc.

(V5R4 is on both boxes?)

Tom

By: dcantwell

dcantwell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:43:23 +0000

Hey DanD,

I found out some more information.

While debugging on both boxes I noticed the parameters coming into the CL program are coming in differently.

Dev – Everything is fine
Prod – blank spaces come over as reverse image characters

Therefore, when I try to TCAT or BCAT my parameters, it thinks they’re actually characters!

Here’s the big question now:
Why are they coming into the CL program differently?

Well for a little more information, we use an old IBM web language called Net.data here.

So, when we call the CL program, the Net.Data code is passing variables from the web.

As it stands here’s how we are:

Net.Data code is identical
CL code is identical
Dev box gets data fine
Prod data gets reverse image characters for blanks

It’s gotta be something between the Net.Data code and the call to the CL program. Unfortunately, I don’t have any control over that! (That I know of)

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Dave