&HOLD& directory

ketfos · Post by **ketfos** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 5:23 pm

Hi,

What is the use of &HOLD& directory?

What type of information it stores?

Thanks

Ketfos

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:08 pm

The &HOLD& directory is not used by DataStage. It will not exist in most DataStage projects, unless someone has been experimenting with the SETPTR command and actually executed a SETPTR command with a mode argument of 3.

&HOLD& is a legacy from the UniVerse RBDMS on which DataStage server engine used to be based. Its purpose was to act as a place to hold print-ready files where it was not desired to print them immediately.

ketfos · Post by **ketfos** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 9:36 pm

I have checked in several of my projects and all projects have this directory &HOLD& although we ahve never used the BASIC command SETPTR.
According to datastage NLS manual -
The SETPTR statement allows you to associate a map with a print channel.
This means you can determine display widths for formatting spooled
output.

I created a new project and I find the same directory is also created.

ketfos

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 4:30 am

This tells me that &HOLD& was created for some reason in your Template (from which projects are created). It may be universally deleted from DataStage with impunity.

qt_ky · Post by **qt_ky** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 8:29 am

It must be created "at the factory" in the template, as I have looked and found it in default projects on 8.7. It contains an empty file named .Type1 and a 6 byte file named .uvnlsmap with line 1 having NONE and line 2 having 0. There's also the corresponding D_&HOLD& file. It's not wasting much space and I'm not concerned about it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.