Change dsmc selective to handle *, ?, doublequote, singlequote as nonmetacharacters

We want Linux GPFS mmbackup to backup all files that are legal in GPFS. Certain filenames currently cannot be backed up from mmbackup (RedHat Enterprise Linux5.6 (64bit), GPFS 3.3.0-14, TSM client 6.2.2.0, TSM server 6.1.2.1) because of the presence of special characters in the filename. We have been instructed by IBM Support that the way to get mmbackup to back up such files is to enhance TSM. Hence this RFE.

mmbackup currently calls TSM dsmc selective. That means that one implementation choice for this RFE would be to enhance dsmc selective. This is the scenario envisioned by IBM Support, and is the scenario for which we are requesting a software enhancement.

A second choice, within this RFE, would be to assume that parts of TSM client other than dsmc selective were insufficiently attractive to GPFS mmbackup developers in the past, and to enhance those parts of TSM client so as to entice GPFS mmbackup to stop using dsmc selective and start using other parts of TSM client. Possibly new dsmc subcommands. That would be perfectly fine with us, so long as mmbackup can back up all GPFS files. However, the scenario in this paragraph is not the scenario envisioned by IBM Support.

There are other implementation choices. One example would be to have mmbackup encode special characters before handing them to TSM, and decode them at restore time. Another would be to do a rewrite of mmbackup in a manner that takes the givens of GPFS and TSM, and works within those constraints in some other way. A third choice would be for GPFS to prohibit filenames that mmbackup cannot back up. IBM Support has chosen not to solve the mmbackup problem in any of the ways mentioned in this paragraph.

We don't have a complete list of the special characters not supported by mmbackup. A partial list is asterisk, question mark, and doublequote. IBM claims that singlequote is also not supported by mmbackup. There may be other characters. While we have a handful of non-ASCII users, a solution for legal GPFS filenames, taken to be ASCII, would meet our need.

Now that I've mentioned the problem-causing special characters that I'm aware of, it might be that there is a solution based on a carefully crafted "locale" that looks at the bit patterns of the asterisk, question mark, doublequote, and other special characters, and delivers them to dsmc selective in a way different from treating them as ASCII. But IBM Support has chosen not to solve things that way either.

With that as preface, here is the request that IBM Support has directed us to make: Please enhance dsmc selective so as to allow mmbackup to backup all legal GPFS filenames.

I'll give you a specific example. In the following, the items enclosed in angle brackets are intended to refer to single ASCII characters.

We request that dsmc selective be able to back up a filename such as <space><asterisk><doublequote><space><doublequote><asterisk><space>.

In plain writing, that is a single file, and its filename is *" "* (where spaces on the ends are invisible).

I could give examples involving the question mark character or single quote character. If such examples would help, let us know.

Naturally, it would be best if any enhancement to dsmc selective did not break any of its existing behavior. We believe that avoiding dsmc selective breakage is nigh unto impossible, but perhaps you can come up with something.

Please let us know whether you will be able to enhance TSM in the way that IBM Support, considering the needs of GPFS, recommends. If you decide not to implement this enhancement, please pass that information along to IBM GPFS Support as soon as possible, in order that they will be able to start looking at other ways to respond to our request for a working GPFS backup tool.