MODS Administration › Maintaining the MODS Control File › Copying and Moving Definitions Between Control Files

Copying and Moving Definitions Between Control Files

Options C and M are used to copy or move definitions from one control file to another. These two functions do the following:

• Specify a source (From) control file as either a File ID (DD name) or data set name.
• Specify a target (To) control file as either a File ID (DD name) or data set name.
• Copy selected definitions from the source to the target
• Delete the selected components from the source Control File (Move option)
• Optionally maintain an Audit Log of the definitions that are copied or moved. See Using the Audit Log below.

The From and To control files are each specified as either:

• the File ID (DD name) of a MODS Control File that has been allocated and opened. The target (To) File ID must be opened for output use. The source (From) File ID must also be open for output operation if components are being moved but may be open input-only for the copy operation
• the data set name of another MODS Control File that must already exist. The data set is temporarily allocated and opened, components copied or moved, and the data set then closed and unallocated.

A list of definitions that exist in the From file is displayed. This is the Entity List and is used to select the definitions to copy or move. The Entity Type and Application ID fields provide filters to limit the definitions displayed. Each of these fields support field prompts.

Note: We recommend that you specify the Entity Type field. When specified, the Entity List is specific to the selected entity type and the response time is fast. If the Entity Type field is not specified, the Entity List is generic and the response time is slow.

To copy or move a definition, select one of the following definitions from the Entity List:

• The default option S (Noreplace) only moves or copies the definition if it does not exist in the target file.
• Option SR (Replace) replaces the definition if it exists in the target file.