Status: Verified
GOAL:
Does Progress offer a utility that could be used to view BI file notes?
GOAL:
How to see what notes were written to a bi file?
GOAL:
Is there a way to see what was written to a bi file?
GOAL:
Is there a way to view the contents of the after image files?
GOAL:
What is the command to look at the verbose output of the after image file
GOAL:
What command for reading an after image extent?
GOAL:
What is aimage scan?
GOAL:
How to generate partially readable output from an After Image file
GOAL:
Can I see what is in an ai file?
GOAL:
How to use aimage scan verbose?
GOAL:
How to read or view the AI and BI files
GOAL:
Is there a way to read the contents of the AI and BI files?
FACT(s) (Environment):
All Supported Operating Systems
Progress/OpenEdge Product Family
FIX:
Yes the contents of the After Image (AI) files can be viewed using the verbose option of the rfutil command or by using the UNIX strings command. There is no similar tool to view the contents of the Before Image (BI) files.
Information written to the BI file is also written to the AI file. So when there is a need to see what is being written to a BI file, one could configure a database to make use of After Imaging. The The output of a After Image file can be used to identifying when a transaction is posted to the database or determining when a user performed operations against specific blocks within the database for security purposes.
If after imaging was enabled during the period of time you wish to review the following information can be obtained by the ai files:
Transaction number
Date and time the transaction began and ended
User ID of the user (by name only) who initiated the transaction within the particular after image file.
1. The following command can be run against any database (empty, sports, etc) to review the notes contained with an AI file. The database and/or its name does not have to be the same one that the AI file was generated against.
Command syntax: rfutil dbname -C aimage scan verbose -a <ai filename> > output2
This will output Progress specific reference notes which contain user ID's, times, area number, transaction ID and the compressed notes which denote the types of actions performed against the block within the database.
Example output:
After-image dates for this after-image file: (1633)
Last AIMAGE BEGIN Fri Jul 25 13:44:57 2003 (1640)
This file was last opened for output on Fri Jul 25 13:58:33 2003. (1643)
code = RL_INMEM (1637)
transaction index = 0 (1638)
dbkey = 0 update counter = 0 (1639)
code = RL_LSTMOD (1637)
transaction index = 0 (1638)
area = 6 dbkey = 32 update counter = 10 (9016)
code = RL_TBGN (1637)
transaction index = 1484 (1638)
dbkey = 0 update counter = 0 (1639)
Trid: 1484 Fri Jul 25 13:58:20 2003. (2598)
User Id: username. (2599)
code = RL_CXREM (1637)
transaction index = 1484 (1638)
area = 10 dbkey = 2176 update counter = 4 (9016)
code = RL_CXINS (1637)
transaction index = 1484 (1638)
area = 10 dbkey = 2176 update counter = 5 (9016)
code = RL_RMCHG (1637)
transaction index = 1484 (1638)
area = 9 dbkey = 96 update counter = 11 (9016)
code = RL_TEND (1637)
transaction index = 1484 (1638)
dbkey = 0 update counter = 0 (1639)
Trid: 1484 Fri Jul 25 13:58:20 2003. (2598)
7 notes were processed. (1634)
0 in-flight transactions. (3785)
1 transactions were started. (1635)
At the end of the .ai file, 0 transactions were still active. (1636)
2. A strings aifilename > output1, can be ran against the ai file. The strings command will remove the ASCII characters from the file that are above 128, making the file more readable. In the output file binary code, and data that has been modified can be viewed.