Change-flag descriptor

Change-flag descriptors are used to group all changes made for a particular reason qualified by the release number, date, and origin associated with those changes.

Change-flag descriptors are also used to define implicit change flags which indicate the number of SSIs that have not been changed.

The format of a standard change-flag descriptor is:

        $pn= reason release# date origin : comments

where p is the process class and n is the index of the flag. The process class can be used to determine a specific type of change activity.

The following table lists recommended conventions for process class codes:

Note: Process class codes are not limited to these, and each location or development team may choose to create their own scheme for categorizing changes. Many groups just start with any alphanumeric flag (for example A1, AA, 11) and increment as needed, except for an index of zero, which is reserved for implicit flags.

Table 1. Process class code conventions
Class code	Class name
D,E,F,G	DCR Design Change
H,I,J,K	HDWE Hardware Support Change
L,M,N,O	LINE Line Item
P,Q,R,S	PTM Internal Problem Reports
0-9	APAR User Problem Reports

The reason, release#, date, and origin fields may be separated by spaces or commas.

The change-flag descriptor must be the first non-space item on any line of a block comment. A block comment can contain more than one change-flag descriptor, each appearing on a different line.

The following table describes each field of a change-flag descriptor:

Table 2. Definition of the change-flag-descriptor fields
Field	Length	Usage
$	1	A delimiter dollar character.
pn=	3	For the flag ID, where p is the process class and n is the index for the specified process class.
reason	1 to 12	The reason for the change, for example, the number of a line item, APAR number, or PTM/PTR number.
release#	1 to 8	A release number, for example, `041` for Release 4.1.
date	0 to 8	A date in any desired format. For example, `930901` in Gregorian format, or `09/01/93` in US format.
origin	0 to 8	Information about the origin of the set of changes, for example, the initials, name, or user ID of the requester.
:	1	A delimiter colon character.
comment	0 to 80	Any explanatory text.

The reason, release, date, and origin fields can consist of any sequence of characters except a space, comma, or colon. If the length of a field exceeds the permissible range, the field is truncated. However, if the length of a field is less than the maximum, it is padded with spaces on the right.

Date and origin are optional fields, but if a particular field is specified, all the fields to its left must also be present.

Note: ASMXREF searches for flag descriptors throughout the module. If the ending delimiter ":" is missing, ASMXREF recognizes the descriptor but issues an error message.