FINDMBR — IBM i source-member search utility

Overview

FINDMBR is an IBM i command that searches source members across one or more source files. It can run interactively or submit a batch job, and exports results to CSV in the IFS.

Components

• Command definition: FINDMBR in QCMDSRC (creates command FINDMBR).
• Interactive driver: FINDMBR.RPGLE (runs search in the caller job).
• Batch/worker program: FINDMBR0.SQLRPGLE (SQL-based search and CSV export).
• Exit program: FINDMBR_X.RPGLE (Example of an exit program for excluding source files from the search).

Key Features

• Search up to 5 tokens with AND/OR semantics at line or member level.
• Optional regular expressions via REGEXP_LIKE.
• Case-sensitive or case-insensitive matching.
• Supports *SRCPF keyword for indicating all source files in a library or explicit FILE/LIB pairs (up to 10).
• Batch submission with selectable job queue.
• Two CSV outputs: a detail CSV (all matching lines) and a summary CSV (members with results). Optional: append results.
• Optional exit program suffix to run post-processing.

Command Parameters (FINDMBR)

• FILE: One or more FILE/LIB pairs (up to 10). The *SRCPF keyword is valid for indicating a search across all source files in a library.
• TOK1…TOK5: Up to five search tokens. Tokens can be regex when REGEXP(*YES).
• MODE: *OR (any token), *ANDLINE (all tokens on same line), *ANDMBR (all tokens somewhere in member). Default: *ANDMBR.
• CASE: *INSENSITIVE (default) or *SENSITIVE. Default: *INSENSITIVE.
• REGEXP: *NO (default) or *YES to use REGEXP_LIKE (POSIX extended syntax). Default *NO.
• EXITPGM: Optional single-character suffix to call FINDMBR_x to exclude source files from the search.
• CSVFOLDER: IFS folder for output or *USRHOME (for /home/user). Default *USRHOME.
• CSVFILE: File name or *AUTO (timestamped, e.g. findmbr_2026-01-04-16.02.39.688000.csv). Default *AUTO.
• APPEND: *NO (replace) or *YES (append) for CSV. Default *NO.
• WRKLIB: Work library for temp tables. Default QTEMP.
• LOG: *NO or *YES to print SQL statements to spool. Default *NO.
• BCHJOB: *YES to submit in batch, *NO to run interactively. Default *YES.
• JOBQ: Job queue/lib used when BCHJOB(*YES).

Build/Install

Create the command

CRTCMD CMD(library/FINDMBR) PGM(library/FINDMBR) SRCFILE(library/QCMDSRC)

Compile the interactive driver

CRTBNDRPG PGM(MYLIB/FINDMBR) SRCFILE(MYLIB/QRPGLESRC)

Compile the worker

CRTSQLRPGI OBJ(library/FINDMBR0) SRCFILE(library/QRPGLESRC) SRCMBR(FINDMBR0) RPGPPOPT(*LVL2)

Usage Examples

• Search two files for a single token with CSV to user home:
  FINDMBR FILE(MYLIB/QRPGLESRC MYLIB/QCMDSRC) TOK1('customer')

• Case-sensitive AND-at-line search with CSV to specific folder:
  FINDMBR FILE(DEVLIB/QRPGLESRC) TOK1('select') TOK2('where') MODE(*ANDLINE) CASE(*SENSITIVE) CSVFOLDER(/csv)

• Batch submit to a specific job queue: FINDMBR FILE(DEVLIB/QRPGLESRC) TOK1('TODO') BCHJOB(*YES) JOBQ(QGPL/QBATCH)

• Search all source files in a library using regex.
  FINDMBR FILE(MYLIB/*SRCPF MYLIB/QCMDSRC) TOK1('customer|client') TOK2('address|city')
  Regex examples: ^foo (line starts with foo), bar$ (ends with bar), c.t (c then any char then t), foo|bar (foo or bar), [A-Z]{2}[0-9]+ (two letters followed by digits).

Output

• CSV (detail): Written to CSVFOLDER/CSVFILE with all matching lines (UTF-8 with BOM, ";" delimiter, CRLF).
• CSV (summary): Written to CSVFOLDER/CSVFILE_summary.csv with list of members containing results (UTF-8 with BOM, ";" delimiter, CRLF).
• Spool: Optional SQL/log output when LOG(*YES). SQL and command errors are always printed to QSYSPRT.
• Errors: validation failures and runtime errors end the command with escape message CPF9898, so CL programs can monitor them with MONMSG CPF9898. With BCHJOB(*YES) runtime errors end the batch job abnormally.

Testing

An IBM i end-to-end test harness is included in this repository. See TEST.md for the updated layout (QUTISRC, tests/expected, tests/fixtures, tests/bin) and full setup/compile/run steps.

Use with Code for i extension

Add a new action with a command like this:

FINDMBR FILE(${FILE|Libraries/Files|LIB1/*SRCPF LIB2/*SRCPF LIB3/*SRCPF LIB4/*SRCPF LIB5/*SRCPF}) TOK1(${TOK1|First token to search|}) TOK2(${TOK2|Second token to search|}) TOK3(${TOK3|Third token to search|}) TOK4(${TOK4|Fourth token to search|}) TOK5(${TOK5|Fifth token to search|}) MODE(${MODE|Search mode|*ANDMBR}) CASE(${CASE|Case|*INSENSITIVE}) REGEXP(${REGEXP|Use regular expressions|*NO}) CSVFOLDER(${CSVFOLDER|Csv folder|*USRHOME}) CSVFILE(${CSVFILE|Csv file name|*AUTO}) BCHJOB(${BCHJOB|Execute in batch|*YES}) JOBQ(${JOBQ|Job queue|QGPL/QBATCH})

You will get a prompt window like this:

License

findmbr is released under the MIT License.

Thanks to Scott Klement for the IFSIO_H and ERRNO_H copybooks.
The IFSIO_H and ERRNO_H copybooks are copyright © Scott Klement and are distributed under the BSD 2-Clause license.