This system was passed from my ex-boss to me. As such, I still have a lot to learn about this AREV based system. Recently, on 26th December 2005. I received the following message when I tried to access my system

with the command "AREV RM1TAG"

Fatal Error Reading COMMAND.STACK*RM1TAG in file LISTS

—FS126——————————————

Group Format Error:

OS File : REV49062.OV

Group # : 00000006

Wrong Overflow frame linked to group.

---

to terminate , Break to debugger (/B)

I have over the REV49062.OV and REV49062.LK file with a date earlier than the current date. It seems to work properly. But, today (03/01/2005) the same error message re-appears. Is there any workaround other than restoring the file?

Thank you.

Usually LISTS table holds just temporary records so PERFORM "CLEARTABLE LISTS" is what is needed.

(It holds BTW the TCL stack from previous logout of the user. As the LISTS table is corrupted the message appears)

While technically the LISTS file is fair game for a "CLEARTABLE" practically this is not good advice.

Developers often use this table (perhaps unwisely) to store data, either through persistent savelists or from other means. For example we create saved lists at the end of each month so when Year-to-date reports are run (often several times a week) that the monthly selects do not have to be rerun each time (report has option to force rebuild).

A better alternative would be to run a FIXLH on the file which would identify the records involved in the GFE, although this may not be possible as sometimes GFEs in the LISTS file will not let you log in. In which case I would restore the file, run a VERIFYLH (just in case this is that the GFE has been out there for sometime).

Then I would select out and delete any records starting "COMMAND.STACK" or containing "" which are the TCL stack items and temp QUERY lists. Doing this periodically keeps the size of the LISTS file down. TCL and QUERY stacks can be limited/disabled in the Environment. </QUOTE> —- === At 03 JAN 2006 04:15PM Gray Cunningham wrote: === <QUOTE>While this is not directly related to your problem, I would in general advise against simply restoring the REVnnnnn.LK and REVnnnnn.OV file pair as a quick fix to a problem. In an environment where multiple files can be (and often are) related, that type of restore can eliminate the obvious problem (ie: a GFE), but can cause related files to be out of sync; a problem that may not manifest itself immediately, but will cause long-term permenant data issues. If you are intimately familar with the application, you can often get away with that type of restore; but since you mentioned that you were just learning, I would suggest you proceed with extreme caution. </QUOTE> —- === At 03 JAN 2006 11:20PM Chang Lee Churn wrote: === <QUOTE>I'm really sorry, but I find it difficult to understand what you wrote. What's GFEs? "Then I would select out and delete any records starting "COMMAND.STACK" or containing "" which are the TCL stack items and temp QUERY lists. Doing this periodically keeps the size of the LISTS file down. TCL and QUERY stacks can be limited/disabled in the Environment."

How would I do the above? What commands should be used for that?

I'm currently running AREV 2.01.

when I tried to use "CLEARTABLE LISTS" ,

the error message

"CLEARTABLE" is an unrecognised word … …

appears. I guess the AREV 2.01 , the one i'm running now, don't have the command then.

With such an early version of AREV try CLEARFILE.

The Sprezzatura Group

World leaders in all things RevSoft

Do you have a copy of the AREV manuals? This is a good place to start. It really seems a bit unfair to have you dropped in the deep end expected to maintain a system with no training. If it's 2.01 they've had it since the late '80s so the Return on Investment has been great. Perhaps they could be persuaded to spring for some training.

Anyway a GFE (Group Format Error) is a data file corruption that spells the loss of data if not fixed. It is normally fixed using a system command called DUMP. There are friendlier commands but DUMP is the most straightforward - DUMP followed by Ctrl-F followed by all. Ensure everyone is logged off first though. Fortunately for you it is in the LISTS file which is hardly ever system critical - it is just used to store temporary lists. Note that nobody here can say it ISN'T critical as different application developers MIGHT have used it to store critical stuff - just that this is unusual.

As an aside how many people use the system and how many is it licensed for? (WHO at TCL (F5)). We ask simply because earlier versions of AREV did not enforce network locking on single user runtimes leading to GFEs on shared data files.

The Sprezzatura Group

World leaders in all things RevSoft

Chang Lee Churn,

Sprezzatura is right. If you need training, I know that they can help.

Meanwhile, we have extra manuals for Arev 2.01 which we purchase some years ago.

If you need a copy, you can have them at our costs plus shipping. BTW, where are you?

Good luck on your new position. Also do you think your company would ever consider converting their app to OI?

Ray Chan rayc@symmetryinfo.com

Thanks for the pointer Ray but we were assuming Chang would have more local resources available! Very kind offer on the manual front btw!

The Sprezzatura Group

World leaders in all things RevSoft

Thanks for the offer. I have manuals on AREV 2.01 over here too.

Well, when you say convert, that means re-develop the whole AREV into OI interface? or OI will do the conversion automatically?

I think the reason behind all these data corruption was due to this actually being a single user system because when I used WHO command in TCL it shows Maximum users= 1.

Currently, my LAN pack diskette is spoilt too. So that means I can't upgrade the Maximum Users.

Regretfully the conversion isn't "instant". A lot will depend on naming conventions in the dictionaries and things like that. It will however be a lot easier to move to OI than to any other product as OI shares a number of similarities with AREV including the data structures, dictionaries, programming language, list language and concepts.

The Sprezzatura Group

World leaders in all things RevSoft

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