Error on output file - status 9-139 - records read = 0

Problem:

The following rebuild results in an error.

$ cat F.seq

AAAA0001  AAAAAAAAAA

AAAA0002  AAAAAAAAAABBBBB

AAAA0003  AAAAAAAAAA

AAAA0004  AAAAAAAAAADDDDD

AAAA0005  AAAAAAAAAA

AAAA0006  AAAAAAAAAA1234567890

BBBB0001  BBBBBBBBBBAAAAAA

BBBB0002  BBBBBBBBBB

BBBB0003  BBBBBBBBBBCCCCCC

BBBB0004  BBBBBBBBBB

BBBB0005  BBBBBBBBBBEEEEEE

$ rebuild --v F.seq,F1.ism -o:lseq,ind -I -k:1 8 -r:v20-30

RBD 102.14.445 21APR05

        File                             :   F1.ism

        Organization                     :   Indexed

        Format                           :   IDX-3

        Recording Mode                   :   Variable

        Compression                      :   N

        Maximum Record Length            :                30

        Minimum Record Length            :                20

        Index Node Size                  :              1024

        Number of data records           :                11

        Data  Created With Extfh Version :             14445

        Index Created With Extfh Version :             14445

        Last  Updated With Extfh Version :             14445

        Key Description (where 'Start' is measured from offset 1):

          Key       Start     Length     Dupl     Key Comp   Sparse Char

            0           1          8        N

--v F.seq,F1.ism -o:lseq,ind -I -k:1 8 -r:v20-30

Rebuild successful - records read =        11

$ rebuild --v F1.ism,F2.ism -o:ind,ind -t:c-isam -I

RBD 102.14.445 21APR05

--v F1.ism,F2.ism -o:ind,ind -t:c-isam -I

***Error on output file - status 9-139 - records read =         0

$

Resolution:

Although you can get C-ISAM implementations that do allow variable length records, it's the Micro Focus C-ISAM implementation that does not support variable length records.