MFT object naming conventions

Use the following naming conventions for your Managed File Transfer objects:

  • Agent and logger names:

    • Can be a maximum of 28 characters long and are not case-sensitive.
    • Entered in lowercase or mixed case are converted to uppercase
    • Must conform to standard IBM MQ object naming conventions.

      These conventions are detailed as follows: Rules for naming IBM MQ objects.

  • In addition to the IBM MQ object naming conventions, the:

    • Forward slash (/) character cannot be used in agent names or logger names
    • Percent (%) character cannot be used in agent names or logger names.
  • The names of properties in the properties files are case-sensitive.
  • Queue manager names are case-sensitive.
  • File names are case-sensitive for some platforms.
  • Resource monitor and transfer template names:

    • Are not case-sensitive
    • Entered in lowercase or mixed case are converted to uppercase
    • Must not contain asterisk (*), percent (%) or question mark (?) characters
  • Protocol file server names must:

    • Be a minimum of 2 characters long, but there is no maximum length limit
    • Are not case-sensitive
    • Must conform to standard IBM MQ object naming conventions.

      These conventions are detailed as follows: Rules for naming IBM MQ objects.

Files in the IBM i integrated file system (IFS)

File names in the IFS cannot contain any of the following characters:

  • Backslash (\)
  • Forward slash (/)
  • Colon (:)
  • Asterisk (*)
  • Question mark (?)
  • Quotation marks (")
  • Less than symbol (<)
  • Greater than symbol (>)
  • Vertical bar (|)
If you attempt to transfer files with names containing any of these characters to an IBM i IFS, the transfer of these files fails.

Data set names

Data sets have naming restrictions, which affect the maximum name length and the available characters that we can use for data set names. PDS data set member names can be a maximum of eight characters and cannot contain the dot (.) character. When you transfer to a data set, you must explicitly specify the name, which means these naming restrictions do not cause a problem. But when you transfer from files to PDS members the file path might not map to a PDS member name. When you transfer to a PDS data set, each source file becomes a PDS member and each member name is generated from the name of the source. PDS member names are z/OS® unqualified names and are defined by the following regular expression: 
 [a-zA-Z$#@][a-zA-Z0-9$#@]{0-7}
The following scheme is used to convert a source data set or source file name to a valid PDS member name. The considerations are applied in the order listed:
  1. Only the characters in the name after the last forward slash (/), the last backslash (\), or the last colon (:) character, are used. That is, only the name part of a file path is used.
  2. For source files (not data sets or PDS members), the characters after and including the last dot (.) character, are ignored.
  3. For any name longer than eight characters, the last eight characters only are used.
  4. Dot characters are replaced with at sign (@) characters.
  5. Invalid characters are replaced with at sign (@) characters.
  6. If the conversion produces no characters, the PDS member name is @.