PowerBSORT V7.0 User's Guide

4.2.1 Argument file option (-a)

This specifies an argument file.
An argument file is a text file in which various option arguments of the bsortex command are defined. An argument file is used to make a separate specification for a particular argument and when a command character string is longer than the maximum length allowed in the operating system.
The argument file must contain only bsortex command option information. Individual options in the argument file can span more than one line, but must not include a line break. Argument file options cannot be specified in the argument file.
If other options are specified along with the argument file option, the option arguments specified in the argument file are interpreted as if they were inserted at the location of the argument file option. You can specify more than one argument file option.

Format

-a argument-file

argument-file

This specifies the argument file name.
If the argument file name contains spaces, it must be specified in double quotation marks (" ").

Example

1. The following shows an example of an argument file.

   -sort key=32.12pdla,25.4fbia/n
   -input reclen=200/n
          file=sortin/n
          include=25.4fbi.ge.d35/n
   -output file=sortout/n (Note)

2. The following shows an incorrect example of an argument file.
   It is incorrect because the key operand is split by a line break.

   -sort key=32.12pdla,/n
             25.4fbia/n
   -input reclen=200/n
          file=sortin/n
          include=25.4fbi.ge.d35/n
   -output file=sortout/n (Note)

   NOTE

   /n sign indicates the carriage return and line feed code sequence <CR><LF>.

Information

Assuming that the argument file (argument-file) has the following content:

-sort key=0.10asca

If

bsortex -a argument-file -input reclen=100 file=sortin -output file=sortout

is specified, it is the same as specifying

bsortex -sort key=0.10asca -input reclen=100 file=sortin -output file=sortout

Similarly, if

bsortex -sort -a argument-file -input reclen=100 file=sortin -output file=sortout

is specified, it is the same as specifying

bsortex -sort -sort key=0.10asca -input reclen=100 file=sortin -output file=sortout

In the latter case, the effect is that the -sort option is specified twice. As the -sort option can only be specified once, an error occurs.