12.6.23 POSITION Specifier

The POSITION specifier indicates the position of a file connected for sequential access. It takes the following form:

POSITION = pos

pos
Is a scalar default character expression that evaluates to one of the following values:

'ASIS'	Indicates the file position is unchanged if the file exists and is already connected. The position is unspecified if the file exists but is not connected.
'REWIND'	Indicates the file is positioned at its initial point.
'APPEND'	Indicates the file is positioned at its terminal point (or before its end-of-file record, if any).

The default is 'ASIS'.

A new file (whether specified as new explicitly or by default) is always positioned at its initial point.

For More Information:

For details on record position, advancement, and transfer, see your user manual.