The table below lists and describes the Natural system files that are usually available in a Natural environment. The availability of the system files and the data contained in the files depends on the Software AG products installed in addition to base Natural.
The settings for the system files are defined with Natural profile parameters of the same names (exception: scratch-pad file). You can follow the hyperlinks in the table below to read details about these parameters in the Parameter Reference documentation.
| System File | Supplied with | File Contents |
|---|---|---|
FNAT |
Base Natural | All objects required for Natural system applications. |
FUSER |
Base Natural | User-specific objects required for user-defined applications. |
FPROF |
Base Natural | Parameter profiles specified by the profile
parameter PROFILE, provided no database information is
supplied as subparameter of PROFILE.
|
| Scratch-pad file | Base Natural | Data that is not stored explicitly as a Natural object in another system file. See also Natural Scratch-Pad File in the Operations documentation. |
FDIC |
Base Natural | Natural Data Definition Modules (DDMs).
If Predict is installed, If the Natural Development Server is installed, |
FREG |
Base Natural | Registry data that is not stored explicitly in another system file. |
FSEC |
Natural Security | Control information required for security definitions. |
FSPOOL |
Natural Advanced Facilities | Control and spooling information required to output a report on a screen or printer and obtain print statistics. |
The Natural scratch-pad file is used to store recordings and screen
captures which cannot be explicitly saved as a Natural object in the Natural
FNAT or FUSER system file.
In contrast to FNAT and FUSER, a scratch-pad
file is not mandatory in a Natural session. However, you must define a
scratch-pad file if you are working with read-only access to system files
(profile parameter ROSY=ON). Otherwise,
the recordings and screen capture cannot be stored and a corresponding error
message (NAT0106) is issued instead. The scratch-pad file is excluded from
read-only access.
A reasonable estimate about the related storage requirements is hardly
possible as the amount of storage used by the
Recording utility and the
NATPAGE utility (for
screen captures) cannot be calculated beforehand. However, the scratch-pad file
size required at your site can be estimated with a better understanding of the
types of records that are stored on it. The content of the scratch-pad file is
described in the following section:
Defining a Scratch-Pad File in the Installation for z/OS, Installation for BS2000 and Installation for z/VSE documentation.
The Recording utility is activated using terminal commands as described in the Utilities documentation. Recordings are stored like Natural source programs (or other object types). The size of a recording depends on how many screen inputs have been done during a recording session. Recordings are like programs related to a library.
Currently, it is not possible to list recordings on the scratch-pad
file by using the Natural LIST system
command. SYSMAIN can be used, though, to list and maintain the
recordings stored on the scratch-pad file. To store the recordings on the
FNAT/FUSER file instead of on the scratch-pad file, set the
profile parameter RFILE.
Recordings which are being stored on the system file FNAT
or FUSER are affected (interrupted) by transaction backouts (BTs)
which are issued in the user's application programs. This is a very common
problem encountered by users of the recording facility and it can be avoided by
using the scratch-pad file.
The screen capturing utility NATPAGE can be used to store
screen images (in chronological sequence of their appearance) on the
scratch-pad file. NATPAGE can be activated with the terminal
command %P. From the moment
%P is issued, all screens presented to the end user
are stored onto the scratch-pad file (if it has been defined for your session)
until the terminal command %O is entered. The
captured screens can be displayed using the terminal command
%E.
For each screen image, the current content of the page buffer and the
page attribute buffer is stored. This means that the amount of data being
stored depends on the settings of the profile parameters
PS/LS for the session and,
of course, on the number of screen images. The number of possible screens per
user session depends on the profile parameter PD (default is 50;
valid values are 0-255).
The size of the page buffer can be calculated as:
PS * LS
The size of the page attribute buffer is determined dynamically.
The scratch-pad file does not need any maintenance, provided it is of sufficient size.
Recordings on the scratch-pad file can be deleted, copied, moved and
listed by using the utility SYSMAIN.
Captured screens can be deleted by using the
%E
terminal command.
Saved screen images, however, cannot be maintained in Natural at all.
Space on the scratch-pad file can be reclaimed by refreshing it with Adabas utilities in times of non-activity without affecting subsequent Natural sessions which are using the scratch-pad file.