GSF Software - Software Installation Procedure

GSF Software only distributes its software electronically, as an unloaded Partitioned Data Set in TSO TRANSMIT format. The resulting archive file, whose low-level qualifier is XMIT, is typically sent to a customer as a binary attachment to an e-mail message. Large files are often compressed with a PKZIP-compatible utility, in which case the attached files's last qualifier is ZIP. Customers experiencing difficulties receiving files in ZIP format, due to their company's strict anti-virus policy should communicate available alternative solutions to GSF Software. Note that GSF Software uses Linux or OS/2 on all of its computers. As a result, files received from GSF Software are unlikely to have been corrupted by MS-Windows viruses or worms.

To install a product on MVS, OS/390 or z/OS, customers can proceed as follows:

• Save the attached file to disk on your PC or work-station
• If the file has a .ZIP extension, extract the .XMIT file using any PKUNZIP-compatible program.
• Upload the .XMIT file to MVS using FTP, the file transfer capability of a 3270-emulator, or the ISPF FILEXFER service available under option 3.7. To ensure data integrity, it is imperative that:
  • Transfer be performed in binary mode, i.e. no CRLF, no ASCII, no TEXT
  • The receiving MVS data set be allocated with RECFM=FB,LRECL=80. Note that it is sometimes simpler to pre-allocate the receiving data set with the right attributes than setting options in a 3270-emulator
• When the .XMIT data set has been received on the MVS system, reload the installation PDS using the RECEIVE INDA(name.XMIT) command. When prompted by message "INMR906A Enter restore parameters or 'DELETE' or 'END' +", enter DA(name.of.your.library) UNIT(unit) VOLUME(volume) or press Enter to use installation defaults.

If the RECEIVE command fails with "INMR921I Received file appears not to be an Interactive Data Transmission Facility file.", reply END and determine the origin of the error which is generally caused by one of the following:

• the XMIT file has invalid attributes, such as RECFM=VB or LRECL<>80
• the transfer to MVS was not effected in BINARY, i.e. the ASCII, TEXT or CRLF options were specified or defaulted to
• the XMIT file is in ISPF PACKED format - to UNPACK, EDIT the data set in ISPF, enter the PACK OFF command, then SAVE or END

Once the installation PDS has been successfully created and loaded by the RECEIVE command, follow the instructions in the $$README member (if any).