I don’t have access to nay V5R1 systems at the moment… but according the DSPFD info in V5R3… this is how mine was created:
SQL create statement:
CREATE VIEW SYSCOLUMNS (COLUMN_NAME FOR “NAME”, TABLE_NAME FOR “TBNA
ME”, TABLE_OWNER FOR “TBCREATOR”, ORDINAL_POSITION FOR “COLNO”, DATA
_TYPE FOR “COLTYPE”, “LENGTH”, NUMERIC_SCALE FOR “SCALE”, IS_NULLABL
E FOR “NULLS”, IS_UPDATABLE FOR “UPDATES”, LONG_COMMENT FOR “REMARKS
“, HAS_DEFAULT FOR “DEFAULT”, COLUMN_HEADING FOR “LABEL”, “STORAGE”,
NUMERIC_PRECISION FOR “PRECISION”, “CCSID”, TABLE_SCHEMA FOR “DBNAME
“, COLUMN_DEFAULT FOR “DFTVALUE”, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH FOR “CHAR
LEN”, CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH FOR “CHARBYTE”, NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX
FOR “RADIX”, DATETIME_PRECISION FOR “DATPRC”, COLUMN_TEXT FOR “LABE
LTEXT”, SYSTEM_COLUMN_NAME FOR “SYS_CNAME”, SYSTEM_TABLE_NAME FOR “S
YS_TNAME”, SYSTEM_TABLE_SCHEMA FOR “SYS_DNAME”, USER_DEFINED_TYPE_SC
HEMA FOR “TYPESCHEMA”, USER_DEFINED_TYPE_NAME FOR “TYPENAME”, IS_IDE
NTITY FOR “IDENTITY”, IDENTITY_GENERATION FOR “GENERATED”, IDENTITY_
START FOR “START”, IDENTITY_INCREMENT FOR “INCREMENT”, IDENTITY_MINI
MUM FOR “MINVALUE”, IDENTITY_MAXIMUM FOR “MAXVALUE”, IDENTITY_CYCLE
FOR “CYCLE”, IDENTITY_CACHE FOR “CACHE”, IDENTITY_ORDER FOR “ORDER”
) AS SELECT DBILFL, DBILFI, VARCHAR(STRIP(DBIOWN),128), INTEGER(DBIP
OS), CASE WHEN DBITYP = ‘DISTINCT’ AND DBITLN = ‘ROWID’ THEN ‘ROWID’
ELSE DBITYP END , DBIFLN, INTEGER(DBINSC), DBINUL, DBIUPD, DBIREM,
DBIDFI, DBIHDG, DBIILN, INTEGER(DBINLN), DBICCC, DBILB2, DBIDFT, DBI
CNC, DBICLN, INTEGER(DBIRDX), INTEGER(DBIDLN), DBITXT, DBIFLD, DBIFI
L, DBILIB, DBITLB, DBITLN, CASE WHEN DBIDFI IN (‘I’, ‘J’) THEN ‘YES’
ELSE ‘NO’ END, CASE WHEN DBIDFI IN (‘A’, ‘I’) THEN ‘ALWAYS’ WHEN DB
IDFI IN (‘D’,'J’) THEN ‘BY DEFAULT’ ELSE NULL END, DBXIDSTRTV, DBXID
INC, DBXIDMINV, DBXIDMAXV, DBXIDCYCLE, DBXIDCACHE, DBXIDORDER FROM Q
SYS.QADBIFLD LEFT OUTER JOIN QSYS.QADBXSFLD ON DBILIB=DBXSFLIB AND D
BIFIL=DBXSFFILE AND DBIFLD=DBXSFCOL WHERE DBIREL = ‘Y’ AND DBIATR
‘IX’

If that file is missing… I wonder what else is going on??? You might try re-installing the “extended base option” of the OS… 5722-ss1 option 1.

syscolumns is a logical file in library qsys2 based on file Qadbifld. It looks to have a sequel statement in the logical file itself. Try addidng qsys2 library to your library list. You can also do a wrkobj qsys2/syscolumns to verify if it is still in library qsys2. I have included a copy of the sql statement that is in the syscolumns LF:

Number of members . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1
SQL view create statement . . . . . . . . . :
CREATE VIEW SYSCOLUMNS (COLUMN_NAME FOR “NAME”, TABLE_NAME FOR “TBNA
ME”, TABLE_OWNER FOR “TBCREATOR”, ORDINAL_POSITION FOR “COLNO”, DATA
_TYPE FOR “COLTYPE”, “LENGTH”, NUMERIC_SCALE FOR “SCALE”, IS_NULLABL
E FOR “NULLS”, IS_UPDATABLE FOR “UPDATES”, LONG_COMMENT FOR “REMARKS
“, HAS_DEFAULT FOR “DEFAULT”, COLUMN_HEADING FOR “LABEL”, “STORAGE”,
NUMERIC_PRECISION FOR “PRECISION”, “CCSID”, TABLE_SCHEMA FOR “DBNAME
“, COLUMN_DEFAULT FOR “DFTVALUE”, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH FOR “CHAR
LEN”, CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH FOR “CHARBYTE”, NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX
FOR “RADIX”, DATETIME_PRECISION FOR “DATPRC”, COLUMN_TEXT FOR “LABE
LTEXT”, SYSTEM_COLUMN_NAME FOR “SYS_CNAME”, SYSTEM_TABLE_NAME FOR “S
YS_TNAME”, SYSTEM_TABLE_SCHEMA FOR “SYS_DNAME”, USER_DEFINED_TYPE_SC
HEMA FOR “TYPESCHEMA”, USER_DEFINED_TYPE_NAME FOR “TYPENAME” ) AS SE
LECT DBILFL, DBILFI, VARCHAR(STRIP(DBIOWN),128), INTEGER(DBIPOS), DB
ITYP, DBIFLN, INTEGER(DBINSC), DBINUL, DBIUPD, DBIREM, DBIDFI, DBIHD

G, DBIILN, INTEGER(DBINLN), DBICCC, DBILB2, DBIDFT, DBICNC, DBICLN,
INTEGER(DBIRDX), INTEGER(DBIDLN), DBITXT, DBIFLD, DBIFIL, DBILIB, DB
ITLB, DBITLN FROM QSYS.QADBIFLD WHERE DBIREL = ‘Y’ AND DBIATR ‘IX

By doing a DSPFD on SYSCOLUMNS, I was able to display the following statement: (I am on 5.1)

CREATE VIEW SYSCOLUMNS (COLUMN_NAME FOR “NAME”, TABLE_NAME FOR “TBNA
ME”, TABLE_OWNER FOR “TBCREATOR”, ORDINAL_POSITION FOR “COLNO”, DATA
_TYPE FOR “COLTYPE”, “LENGTH”, NUMERIC_SCALE FOR “SCALE”, IS_NULLABL
E FOR “NULLS”, IS_UPDATABLE FOR “UPDATES”, LONG_COMMENT FOR “REMARKS
“, HAS_DEFAULT FOR “DEFAULT”, COLUMN_HEADING FOR “LABEL”, “STORAGE”,
NUMERIC_PRECISION FOR “PRECISION”, “CCSID”, TABLE_SCHEMA FOR “DBNAME
“, COLUMN_DEFAULT FOR “DFTVALUE”, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH FOR “CHAR
LEN”, CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH FOR “CHARBYTE”, NUMERIC_PRECISION_RADIX
FOR “RADIX”, DATETIME_PRECISION FOR “DATPRC”, COLUMN_TEXT FOR “LABE
LTEXT”, SYSTEM_COLUMN_NAME FOR “SYS_CNAME”, SYSTEM_TABLE_NAME FOR “S
YS_TNAME”, SYSTEM_TABLE_SCHEMA FOR “SYS_DNAME”, USER_DEFINED_TYPE_SC
HEMA FOR “TYPESCHEMA”, USER_DEFINED_TYPE_NAME FOR “TYPENAME” ) AS SE
LECT DBILFL, DBILFI, VARCHAR(STRIP(DBIOWN),128), INTEGER(DBIPOS), DB
ITYP, DBIFLN, INTEGER(DBINSC), DBINUL, DBIUPD, DBIREM, DBIDFI, DBIHD
G, DBIILN, INTEGER(DBINLN), DBICCC, DBILB2, DBIDFT, DBICNC, DBICLN,
INTEGER(DBIRDX), INTEGER(DBIDLN), DBITXT, DBIFLD, DBIFIL, DBILIB, DB
ITLB, DBITLN FROM QSYS.QADBIFLD WHERE DBIREL = ‘Y’ AND DBIATR ‘IX’

Hope this helps.