File Position Indicator

The file position indicator is a conceptual entity used in this document to facilitate exact specification of the next record to be accessed within a given file during certain sequences of input-output operations. The concept of a file position indicator has no meaning for a file opened in the output or extend mode. The setting of the file position indicator is affected only by the OPEN, READ, RETURN, ROLLBACK and START statements as follows:
IBM Extension
End of IBM Extension

The concept of the file position indicator has no meaning for files with an access mode of random or for TRANSACTION files.