DSXchange

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 4:00 pm**

Yes I need "HELP". actually, I need help to get help.

When I login to a uvsh session and type help it is garbage I tried to change my term type but I don't know what term type I should set it to.

This will be good if I can learn how to access the help, so as to work stuff out on my own.

Now the actual problem I have is I want to be able to do things like set linesize and set pagesize etc... as done in SQL*plus

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 4:31 pm**

There's no direct equivalent. First you need to know what terminal type your telnet client is emulating, for example VT100. The command to tell DataStage (dssh) about this is SET.TERM.TYPE

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SET.TERM.TYPE VT100

This command supports a number of options, which you can find out from HELP or from the UniVerse manuals. For example:

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SET.TERM.TYPE VT100 WIDTH 132 LENGTH 27

If you make use of these, ensure that the telnet client has the same settings.
Once the terminal type is correctly set, then the HELP command (which uses cursor positioning and screen formatting sequences) should work propertly. A quick check is the CS (clear screen) command.
If the dssh prompt is of the form $<50> then you (or someone) will need to recompile the terminal definitions (terminfo database) using

Code: Select all

uvtic

command.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 5:45 pm**

Thanks Ray,

I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but I am logging into vssh from the unix prompt in a putty session.

I tried SET TERM TYPE VT100 but this did not let me display help in a readable fashion.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 5:56 pm**

Silly, perhaps, but you *did* notice the dots in "SET.TERM.TYPE", yes?

From the FAQ: "By default, PuTTY announces its terminal type to the server as xterm." Give that a shot. You should also be able to override that to whatever you like, I would think.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 5:58 pm**

In the Connection branch in putty, what is the terminal type string being sent to the server? This becomes the value of the TERM environment variable in the operating system, from which dssh gets its initial terminal type. Mine is currently "xterm".

Your SET.TERM.TYPE needs to match this value. There is another command GET.TERM.TYPE (no arguments) to report the current setting.

That said, there does appear to be a problem with HELP alone. Try following HELP by a topic keyword, for example HELP HELP

Press Esc to get out of the scrambled Help screen. Press E to get out of a help topic screen.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 9:29 pm**

I tryed "xterm" and "vt100" but both display illegible help text

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Using username "dsadm".
dsadm@mydomain.com's password:
Last login: Tue May 20 13:07:09 2008 from machine.name
$ cd /opt/IBM/Ascential/DataStage/Projects/MyDSproject
$ $DSHOME/bin/uvsh
DataStage Command Language 7.5
Copyright (c) 1997 - 2004 Ascential Software Corporation. All Rights Reserved
MyDSproject logged on: Tue May 20 13:10:43 2008

>GET.TERM.TYPE
xterm terminal emulator (X Window System) (xterm)
Width : 80
Depth : 24

Any other pointers?

in PuTTY if I look at $COLORS it is set to: /etc/DIR_COLORS.xterm:

I have no idea if that tells you anything.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 9:56 pm**

Why not switch Putty to emulate a VT100 and see if that helps? It's under Connection / Data / Terminal-type string.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 10:03 pm**

Thanks for the suggestion Chulett,

I successfully did what you suggested, but still did not fix it.

when I asked for "GET.TERM.TYPE" in uvsh it did indeed pick up the change I made in PuTTY

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 10:44 pm**

Please re-read my third paragraph and advise whether your experience is the same.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 11:05 pm**

ray.wurlod wrote: That said, there does appear to be a problem with HELP alone. Try following HELP by a topic keyword, for example HELP HELP

Ok so in doing that it displays fine!

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+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                              |
| HELP                                                                         |
|                                                                              |
| _________________________________________________________________            |
|                                                                              |
|                                                                              |
|    Use HELP to display a description of  a  DataStage  command  or           |
|    keyword,  a  conversion code, a BASIC statement or function, a            |
|    DataStage SQL  statement,  or  a  BASIC  SQL  Client  Interface           |
|    function.                                                                 |
|                                                                              |
| SYNTAX                                                                       |
|                                                                              |
|       HELP [BASIC | CONV | PICK | SQL | BCI | helpfile] [item | *]           |
|                                                                              |
|       HELP [item] FROM helpfile                                              |
|                                                                              |
| QUALIFIERS                                                                   |
|                                                                              |
|                                                                              |
|               More               End Help          List Commands             |
+---------------------------+     Page Down     +------------------------------+

I can scroll through the help text here no problem, but the "List Commands" section remains illegible

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 11:13 pm**

And it's only in unqualified help - the List Command works properly in, for example, HELP SQL or HELP BCI.

If you want just a list of help topics you can execute a query.

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SELECT @ID HELP_TOPIC FMT '40L' FROM SYS.HELP ORDER BY 1;

Note that this is UniVerse help - not all of the commands are used by DataStage.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2008 11:52 pm**

ray.wurlod wrote:And it's only in unqualified help - the List Command works properly in, for example, HELP SQL or HELP BCI.

If you want just a list of help topics you can execute a query.
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SELECT @ID HELP_TOPIC FMT '40L' FROM SYS.HELP ORDER BY 1;
Note that this is UniVerse help - not all of the commands are used by DataStage.

HELP SQL and HELP BCI work as you mentioned, as does the SQL to retrieve a list of commands (this will be of use to me). when picking on one command at random "SPOOL" and typing HELP SPOOL I again get encrypted babble.

Do you know of a URL that has the entire uvsh HELP?

Now, just touching on the other issue (set linesize/pagesize) HELP BCI lists commands that by name, look like they might have something to do with this. Is this correct?

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2008 12:07 am**

Nope. BCI emulates the ODBC API. The mechanisms for setting device width and length are SET.TERM.TYPE and TERM (the former is preferred). Setting column width is done in the query itself (like the FMT qualifier I used earlier.)

There is no URL with UniVerse HELP, however the UniVerse manuals are all downloadable from IBM website

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UVSH - HELP

UVSH - HELP