IBM Mainframe Forum

Can anyone tell me how to obtain the create TIME of a file on the mainframe.

I have a regular FB 80 flat file (Full stats supplied below) that is sent onto our system via Connect Direct. The file originates on an outside vendors system, it is sent to a Unix box, then the Lan then it arrives onto the mainframe.

There is a long delay somewhere in this chain that we are trying to investigate. At a meeting everyone stated the time the file arrived on the their respective platforms. I was left looking very unknowledgeable when I had to say I don't know how to look up the create time on a mainframe file.

I've tried the LISTC command will the ALL parameter. I've tried using Listdsi and capturing the output. Listdsi does have SYSCREATETIME but it is only for EAV datasets and we have no EAV datasets. I've tried various LM* and LMM* commands but I can only get the create time for members of a PDS not for a flat file. I'm getting fed up reading through multiple sections of IBM Pub Boulder documentation.



Many thanks.

The creation time (as opposed to the creation date) of a data set is not recorded on the mainframe, nor is the event recorded in SMF data. You could analyze the latter for the first I/O to a data set, but that's as close as you can come.

The time of day a mainframe data set was created or referenced. is not a data set attribute, as Akatsukami says. The reason, if any, was buried 45 years ago. I suspect the real reason is using a data set more than once a day, for the most part, was uncommon 45 years ago, so no one regarded it as a requirement. Now, finding 4 bytes (or perhaps 8 bytes) to save the time of day is unlikely to happen.

As Akatsukami says, you can infer a data set access time from the SMF 14/15 records. The major issue is it records when the data set is closed, as opposed to opened, so it won't be all that useful for a very long use time. Unfortunately, for most of us, using SMF for anything is, well, inconvenient!