Capturing return status from a call to STARTRFC from a shell script.

Question

Hi All
I am trying to use startrfc to integrate a Unix (Solaris) batch process with SAP.  I want to determine whether an SAP user exists.
Here is the command as run in the Unix shell: -
startrfc -t -3 -h ourHost -s 01 -c 550 -l EN -u SAPuser -p secret -F BAPI_USER_EXISTENCE_CHECK -E USERNAME=testSAPuser
This command always exits with a status of zero, whether or not the user exists.  (With the -t flag) It creates a file, dev_rfc and a second file of the form CPICTRCnnnnn.      However there is no output to stdout, irrespective of whether testSAPuser exists. 
Can I force this utility program to write its output to stdout instesd of writing it to a file?  How?
Alternatively can I force the utility to write its output to a specific (named) file instead of writing to dev_rfc?
Thank you for your attention
Stephen Broadbridge

Answer 1

Hi,
You could create an RFC in SAP and put your BAPI function, an the result into a table parameters:
- use -T parameter to get the table
- use w to set your file
<b>Example:</b>
startrfc -E PEBELP=00010 -t -d AR1 -h S01AZ03A01 -s 10 -g S01AZ03A01 -x sapgw10 -u LOLA -p flores -c 130 -l EN -F Y_RFC_EXAMPLE2 <b>-T RESULTADO,250,w=outputname.txt</b>
<b>Explanation of parameters:</b>
-T <table name>,<width>,[r=<file>][,w=<file>]
Where <file> is a path name to read from (r) or write to (w) the internal table. If <file> is -, stdin or stdout is used.
<b>Example of Y_RFC_EXAMPLE2</b>
FUNCTION Y_RFC_EXAMPLE2.
""Local interface:
*"  IMPORTING
*"     VALUE(PEBELP) TYPE  EBELP
*"  TABLES
*"      RESULTADO STRUCTURE  TAB512
  DATA fecha(10).
  DATA wa TYPE string.
  WRITE sy-datum TO fecha.
    CONCATENATE pebelp fecha  INTO wa SEPARATED BY '/'.
    ds_rec 'sample' wa.
    append wa to resultado.
ENDFUNCTION.