Looking for an FTP command to check file status

[Spab23]

I know this isn't an FTP forum, but I couldn't find one and FTP is done over TCP/IP so it's not entirely out in left field.

Is there a command in FTP that checks a file's write status? This is what I am trying to accomplish:

* Log into an FTP server running on an MVS system
* Check a file to see if it's available for write access
* If yes, transfer some data to that file
* If no, wait and check again later

Right now, I am writing the data to the file without checking and if the file is allocated to another process, it bombs. I can recover from the error, but I am looking for a cleaner way of doing it.

Thanks in advance and I'm sorry for posting in the wrong forum.

 

[Hammer]

I don't think there is a way to check allocation status, but if there is, you should find it in the mainframe FTP servers help:

>ftp mvssystem
>user
>password
>quote help
or
>quote help site

Even if you could check allocation status, I would guess that any retry/loop logic handling would need to be performed by the client side program.

Any chance of using GDGs to help get round the problem?