If the FILE STATUS clause is specified in a file control entry, a value is placed into the specified two-character data item during the execution of an OPEN, CLOSE, READ, WRITE, REWRITE, DELETE, UNLOCK or START statement before any applicable USE procedure is executed, to indicate the status of that input-output operation.
The file status keys described in the following pages are for those files which conform fully to the ANSI standard and which use none of the extensions available with this COBOL system.
Use of extensions, for example, specifying a file as LINE SEQUENTIAL, affects the status keys returned. Additional information is provided under the relevant verbs.