The GIMZIP service routine processes the following data structures
as input to create GIMZIP packages:
- sequential data sets
- partitioned (PDS and PDSE) data sets
- VSAM data sets
- UNIX files
- UNIX directory files
The packages produced are stored in the package directory in
a UNIX file system. The package
directory is specified by the SMPDIR DD statement.
GIMZIP collects various attributes for the input data sets and
files specified in the package control tags. These attributes, along
with portable images of the input data sets, are temporarily stored
in a UNIX file system. These
images are then archived and compressed to create archive files. Each
GIMZIP package will contain one or more archive files.
For each package there are two additional files:
- The package attribute file, which describes the contents of the
package itself. The package attribute file identifies the archives
for a package and contains a hash value for each archive within the
package. The hash value for each archive is used for data integrity
purposes and can be checked when the original data set is recreated
from the archive using the GIMUNZIP service routine.
- An extensible stylesheet language (XSL) file, which describes
how to format the information found in the package attribute file.
The XSL file is used for rendering (displaying on a browser) the package
attribute file.