I'm new to coding on Unix but have coded with COBOL on mainframe for a number of years. This is driving me nuts. My select clause is like so:
SELECT GRPFILE ASSIGN TO EXTERNAL DISK WS-GRPFILE
ACCESS IS SEQUENTIAL
STATUS IS WS-SORTGRP-STATUS.
my WS declaration:
01 WS-FILENAMES.
05 WS-GRPFILE PIC X(26)
VALUE "/mpux/MCS/DATA/GRPFILE.SRT".

I can open the file with file status "00" and write to it with file status "00" until I have written 1024 records - at which point I get a file status 23 ?? (which used to mean to me that record key not found).
When looking at the physical file I see that nothing has been written so I coded a close when I wrote 1023 records:
IF CNTR = 1023
CLOSE GRPFILE
PERFORM EOJ
END-IF.
I got a status 42 - file already closed. I know for sure its already open but I inserted the following OPEN line giving:
IF CNTR = 1023
OPEN OUTPUT GRPFILE
CLOSE GRPFILE
PERFORM EOJ
END-IF.

Now I get a status 41! Its already opened and its already closed! I tried to "touch" the file so that it was already generated before the original open statement - still opens with a "00" but still gives the same end result. I believe this all has something to do with logical vs physical files but dont know where to take it. Anyone??