Copies the records of one file to another file, changing the
organization and format of the input file, if necessary, to conform
to that of the output file; can be invoked interactively.  Does not
translate carriage control information.  You can also use CONVERT to
reformat a relative or indexed file by specifying the input and output
files as the same file.  Note that when reformatting a relative or
indexed file, CONVERT establishes new record's file addresses (RFAs),
and eliminates deleted records and empty record cells.

Format
 CONVERT input-file-spec[,...] output-file-spec

 Requires the Program Development Tools Option.

Additional information available:

ParametersQualifiers

/RECLAIM

input-file-spec
 Specification of the file(s)to be converted.  You may specify up
 to 10 input files; wildcard characters are not allowed.  Multiple
 input files are concatenated into a single output file.
output-file-spec
 Specification of the file to which the converted records are to
 be written.  The output file can be an existing file; if it already
 contains records, the converted records can be added to the end
 sequentially, or the records can be merged into their proper sequential
 order in an indexed file.  The file type of the output file defaults to
 that of the first input file.  Wildcard characters are not allowed.

Additional information available:

/APPEND/CREATE/EXCEPTIONS_FILE/EXIT/FAST_LOAD
/FDL/FILL_BUCKETS/FIXED_CONTROL/KEY/MERGE
/PAD/PROLOG/READ_CHECK/SHARE/SORT/STATISTICS
/TRUNCATE/WORK_FILES/WRITE_CHECK

 /NOAPPEND (default)
 Appends the output records to an existing sequential file.  This
 qualifier is ignored if the output file's organization is relative
 or indexed.  /APPEND overrides /CREATE.

 /NOCREATE
 Creates an output file.  If the output file is to have different
 characteristics from those of the input file, specify the /FDL
 qualifier.

 /NOEXCEPTIONS_FILE (default)
 Generates a sequential file that contains a copy of any input records
 that cause exceptions and are, therefore, not written to the output
 file.  File type defaults to EXC.  If no file is specified, the
 exception records are written to SYS$OUTPUT.

 /NOEXIT (default)
 Terminates the conversion if an exception record is encountered.

 /NOFAST_LOAD
 Uses a fast-loading algorithm for index files.  /FAST_LOAD sorts both
 the primary and the secondary keys and, therefore, requires a larger
 amount of space for work files.  /NOFAST_LOAD sorts only the primary
 keys.

 Specifies the FDL (File Definition Language) file to be used in
 creating the output file.  The default file type for the FDL file is
 FDL; the output file's specification overrides the FDL file
 specification.

 /NOFILL_BUCKETS (default)
 Overrides the bucket fill percentage parameter associated with the
 output file, filling the buckets with as many records as possible.
 This qualifier is only valid for indexed output files.

 /NOFIXED_CONTROL (default)
 Controls the behavior of CONVERT in conversions between VFC (VARIABLE
 with FIXED CONTROL) records and other type records (FIXED or VARIABLE).
 Not applicable to indexed files.

 o  If you specify /FIXED_CONTROL for VFC input records, the fixed
    control portion of the record will be written as the first part
    of the output record.
 o  If you specify /NOFIXED_CONTROL with VFC input records, the
    fixed portion of the record is not copied to the output record.
 o  If you specify /FIXED_CONTROL for VFC output records, the fixed
    control portion of the output record is taken from the first
    part of the input record.
 o  If you specify /NOFIXED_CONTROL for VFC output records, the
    fixed portion of the output record is set to 0.

 Note that you must account for the size of the fixed control area
 when calculating the maximum size of the output record.

 Specifies the key of reference by which records are accessed from
 an indexed file; valid only for indexed input files.  If you
 specify an indexed output file, you must also specify /NOFAST and
 /NOSORT.  The default is /KEY=0 (the primary key).

 Specifies that records are to be inserted into their proper
 positions in an existing indexed file; valid only for existing
 indexed output files.  /MERGE overrides /CREATE.  Omit /MERGE when
 loading records into an empty indexed file or when creating a new
 indexed file.

 /NOPAD (default)
 Pads records that do not contain as many bytes as the record
 length for fixed-length record format with the specified character;
 valid only for fixed-length record formats.  The character can be
 any ASCII character A through Z, a through z, or 0 through 9; the
 default is null.  To specify a nonprintable ASCII character, you
 must specify a radix (%D for decimal, %O for octal, %X for
 hexadecimal) and a numeric character; do not specify a radix with
 a printable ASCII character.  The default, /NOPAD, causes an
 exception when a short record is encountered.

 Specifies the prolog version number of the indexed output
 file.  If you specify a value of 2, the output file will be
 either a prolog 1 or prolog 2 file.  If you specify 3, CONVERT
 will attempt to create a Prolog 3 file for output.  If the
 output file cannot fit the criteria for Prolog 3, you will receive
 a fatal error and the conversion will not occur.  If you do not
 specify /PROLOG, CONVERT uses the VAX/VMS RMS default; specify the
 SHOW RMS_DEFAULT command to display the default.  /PROLOG
 overrides the value specified as the FDL attribute KEY PROLOG.

 /NOREAD_CHECK (default)
 Reads each input record a second time and compares it to the
 original.

 /NOSHARE (default)
 Opens the input file for sharing with other processes.  (Because
 other processes can alter the records while CONVERT is operating,
 the consistency of the output data file cannot be guaranteed.)

 /NOSORT
 Sorts the input file before loading it into an indexed file;
 valid only with an indexed output file.  The sort is performed
 on the primary key of the output file.  The default is /SORT,
 unless you specified the same file for both input and output,
 in which case it is /NOSORT.

 /NOSTATISTICS (default)
 Displays conversion statistics.

 /NOTRUNCATE (default)
 Truncates records that exceed the maximum record length of
 the file or the record length for fixed record format.
 /NOTRUNCATE prevents long records from being written to the output
 file; /EXCEPTION_FILE writes the untruncated record to the
 exception file.

 Specifies the number of temporary work files to be used during
 the sort process.  The value of n can be 0 or any value between 2
 and 10.  The default for n is 2, and a value of 0
 means that no work files are necessary because of sufficient
 physical memory.  Valid only with the /SORT or /FAST_LOAD
 qualifiers.

 /NOWRITE_CHECK (default)
 Reads each output record and compares it to the original.

Makes empty buckets in Prolog 3 indexed files available so
that new records can be written in them.  If all the records in
a bucket have been deleted, that bucket is locked until
CONVERT/RECLAIM makes it available.  Unlike CONVERT,
CONVERT/RECLAIM maintains record's file addresses (RFAs).

Format
 CONVERT/RECLAIM file-spec

 Requires the Program Development Tools Option.

Additional information available:

ParameterQualifiers

file-spec
 Specification of the Prolog 3 indexed file in which you want to
 reclaim buckets.  (This file cannot be opened for shared access
 during bucket reclamation.)

Additional information available:

/STATISTICS

 /NOSTATISTICS (default)
 Displays conversion statistics.