The following compare commands support output in spooled files and in output files (outfiles): the Compare Attributes commands (CMPFILA, CMPOBJA, CMPIFSA, CMPDLOA), the Compare Record Count (CMPRCDCNT) command, the Compare File Data (CMPFILDTA) command, and the Check DG File Entries (CHKDGFE) command.
The spooled output is a human-readable print format that is intended to be delivered as a report. The output file, on the other hand, is primarily intended for automated purposes such as automatic synchronization. It is also a format that is easily processed using SQL queries.
The level of information in the output is determined by the value specified on the Report type parameter. These values vary by command.
For the CMPFILA, CMPOBJA, CMPIFSA, and CMPDLOA commands, the levels of output available are *DIF, *SUMMARY, *OPTIMIZED, and *ALL.
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The report type of *DIF includes information on objects with detected differences.
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A report type of *SUMMARY provides a summary of all objects compared as well as an object-level indication whether differences were detected. *SUMMARY does not, however, include details about specific attribute differences.
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Specifying *ALL for the report type will provide you with information found on both *DIF and *SUMMARY reports.
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The value *OPTIMIZED creates a combined report that indicates at an object level when the objects are equal. For objects that are not equal, the individual attributes that are not equal are included in the report. Audits based on the compare attribute commands use this report type to return results.
The CMPRCDCNT command supports the *DIF and *ALL report types. The report type of *DIF includes information on objects with detected differences. Specifying *ALL for the report type will provide you with information found on all objects and attributes that were compared.
The CMPFILDTA supports the *DIF and *ALL report types, as well as *RRN. The *RRN value allows you to output, using the MXCMPFILR outfile format, the relative record number of the first 1,000 objects that failed to compare. Using this value can help resolve situations where a discrepancy is known to exist, but you are unsure which system contains the correct data. In this case, the *RRN value provides information that enables you to display the specific records on the two systems and to determine the system on which the file should be repaired.