Terse (file format)


TERSE is an IBM archive file format that supports lossless compression. A TERSE file may contain a sequential data set, a partitioned data set, partitioned data set extended, or a large format dataset. Any record format is allowed as long as the record length is less than 32 K. Records may contain printer control characters.
Terse files are compressed using a modification of Ziv, Lempel compression algorithm developed by Victor S. Miller and Mark Wegman at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
The Terse algorithm is proprietary to IBM. The compression/decompression program —AMATERSE or TRSMAIN—is available from IBM for z/OS; the z/VM equivalents are the TERSE and DETERSE commands, for sequential datasets only. Versions for PC DOS, OS/2, AIX, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS/X are available online.

AMATERSE

The following JCL can be used to invoke AMATERSE on z/OS :

//jobname JOB...
//stepname EXEC PGM=AMATERSE,PARM=ppppp
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSUT1 DD DISP=SHR,DSN=input.dataset
//SYSUT2 DD DISP=,DCB=ddd,DSN=output.dataset,
// SPACE=space_parameters
//SYSUT3 DD DISP=,SPACE=space_parameters Optional temporary dataset

Uses

Terse can be used as a general-purpose compression/decompression tool. IBM also distributes downloadable Program temporary fixs as tersed datasets. Terse is also used by IBM customers to package diagnostic information such as z/OS dumps and traces, for transmission to IBM.