2 - GENERAL DSRQST USAGE
Brackets [] indicate optional items. A pipe ‘|’ inside parentheses, as in (A|B), means either A or B can be used. The options accepted by dsrqst fall into three categories: Action, Mode, and Information (Info for short) options. Action options specify the task the utility executes; Mode options modify the behavior of an action; and Info options pass one or more values to dsrqst. Options can be given in short or long form, for example -DS or -Dataset. Some options also have alias names for convenience. Option names are case-insensitive, but the values that follow Info options are case-sensitive.
Option -DS is an Info option that specifies a dataset number. If a dataset number is given as the first argument following the dsrqst command, the option name -DS (-Dataset) can be omitted. Some actions can run without a dataset number, in which case they apply to all available request records across datasets. Most dsrqst actions can process multiple datasets in a single execution.
Specify exactly one Action option per dsrqst execution. Depending on the chosen Action, certain Info options are mandatory and others are optional, and certain Mode options can be used to alter the action’s behavior. Providing multiple Action options simultaneously is not allowed.
All options except Info option -IF (-InputFile) can be given on the command line or in input files. Input file names are specified through Info option -IF and can only be provided on the command line. See the description of Info option -IF (-InputFile) for the format of options inside input files. One or more input files can be combined with command-line options to run dsrqst. The option name -IF (-InputFile) itself can be omitted when a single input file is given on the command line and all action and option information is provided inside that file.
When retrieving information about request controls, request partitions, request records, or requested files, Info options specify the conditions used to query GDEXDB. Special characters can further restrict a query:
Display help for a specific option by running:
The description is shown for an option placed either before or after -(h|help). If no option is specified, or if dsrqst is issued by itself, this entire document is displayed via the UNIX utility ‘more’. A hard copy of this help document can be printed from the saved file dsrqst.usg under the Python package rda_python_dsrqst/.