Method of allocating storage

 

The CONTIG parameter controls the method of allocating physical storage for each physical file member (CRTPF and CRTSRCPF commands). If you allocate storage, you can request that the storage for the starting record count for a member be contiguous. That is, all the records in a member are to physically reside together. If there is not enough contiguous storage, contiguous storage allocation is not used and an informational message is sent to the job that requests the allocation, at the time the member is added.

When a physical file is first created, the system always tries to allocate its initial storage contiguously. The only difference between using CONTIG(*NO) and CONTIG(*YES) is that with CONTIG(*YES) the system sends a message to the job log if it is unable to allocate contiguous storage when the file is created. No message is sent when a file is extended after creation, regardless of what you specified on the CONTIG parameter.

 

Parent topic:

Specifying physical file and member attributes

 

Related reference

Create Physical File (CRTPF) command
Create Source Physical File (CRTSRCPF) command