Open-source Languages & Tools for z/OS

vi displays garbage when editing a file, but cat shows the contents ok.

Hi, Kent. Do you have the environment variable _BPXK_AUTOCVT=ON set? If you are using Rocket’s open source tools (such as bash), they make use of IBM’s enhanced ASCII suport and are ASCII-mode programs. They require this setting.

If you haven’t used enhanced ASCII before this, it would be helpful to spend some time with the documentation. Besides the link above, I recommend looking at:

• Unix System Services Command Reference:
  • ls -T to show file tags
  • chtag to alter file tags
• XL C/C++ Programming Guide: Using environment variables describes many of the environment variables related to enhanced ASCII.

– Jerry