Cannot open source members with '£' in name (listed correctly but not found on open)

[DrIce99]

Hi,

I'm having trouble opening source members whose names contain the special character £. They are correctly listed in the Member Browser (the name is displayed properly), but when I try to open them, the extension reports that the object cannot be found. Interestingly, this only happens with £: other variant characters like $ work without any issue.

The following error is what I see:

The editor could not be opened because the file was not found.

To Reproduce

1. Open the Member Browser
2. Locate a source member whose name contains £
3. Click to open it
4. Observe the error

---

This issue seems related to previous ones:

• I can't open a source member with '£' in the member's name #198 — issue with £ due to CCSID/PASE mismatch
• Regression: I can't open a source member with '£' in the member's name #701 — regression introduced in v1.3.4 (later fixed)
• Can't open source members with the symbol '§' in the name #719 — similar issue with §, fixed by extending the valid character regexp

Observations

• Member names are displayed correctly in the browser

• The problem only occurs when opening the member

• This suggests a mismatch between:

  • how names are retrieved (works correctly)
  • how they are later resolved/opened (fails)

From #198:

• £ in CCSID 280 may map to # in other CCSIDs (e.g. 37 or PASE environments)

From #701 / #719:

• Issues were also caused by regexp validation of allowed characters

Here's what I thought:

It looks like there might still be some inconsistency between:

• encoding handling (CCSID / PASE)
• and/or character validation / path resolution

So even though the UI shows the correct name, the underlying path used to open the member may not match the actual object.

I tried the following workarounds:

• Changing sourceFileCCSID
• Checking PASE configuration
• Comparing behavior with $ (works) vs £ (fails)
• Switching from/to pre-release version

None of these resolved the issue in this environment.

---

I'm still relatively new to the IBM i / AS400 world, so I might be missing something obvious — please let me know if you need more details or if I can run additional tests.

Thanks for your help!

---

Context	Version
Code for IBM i version	2.18.3
Visual Studio Code version	1.117.0
Operating System	win32_x64

Active extensions

Auto Rename Tag (auto-rename-tag): 0.1.10
Background (code-background): 4.0.4
CL (vscode-clle): 1.2.4
COBOL (cobol): 26.4.3
CSS Language Features (css-language-features): 10.0.0
Code for IBM i Walkthroughs (vscode-ibmi-walkthroughs): 0.5.0
Configuration Editing (configuration-editing): 10.0.0
DSPF Designer (dspf-designer): 2.1.1
Db2 for IBM i (vscode-db2i): 1.17.0
ESLint (vscode-eslint): 3.0.24
Emmet (emmet): 10.0.0
Error Lens (errorlens): 3.28.0
Extension Authoring (extension-editing): 10.0.0
Git (git): 10.0.0
Git Base (git-base): 10.0.0
GitHub (github): 0.0.1
GitHub Authentication (github-authentication): 0.0.2
GitHub Copilot Chat (copilot-chat): 0.45.1
HTML Language Features (html-language-features): 10.0.0
Highlight (vscode-highlight): 2.1.0
Highlight Matching Tag (highlight-matching-tag): 0.11.0
IBM i Debug (ibmidebug): 3.0.3
IBM i Project Explorer (vscode-ibmi-projectexplorer): 2.12.3
JSON Language Features (json-language-features): 10.0.0
JavaScript and TypeScript Language Features (typescript-language-features): 10.0.0
Live Server (LiveServer): 5.7.10
Markdown Language Features (markdown-language-features): 10.0.0
Merge Conflict (merge-conflict): 10.0.0
Microsoft Account (microsoft-authentication): 0.0.1
NPM support for VS Code (npm): 1.0.1
Node Debug Auto-attach (debug-auto-launch): 10.0.0
Pylance (vscode-pylance): 2026.2.100
Python (python): 2026.4.0
Python Debugger (debugpy): 2025.18.0
Python Environments (vscode-python-envs): 1.28.0
Python Indent (vsc-python-indent): 1.21.0
Server Ready Action (debug-server-ready): 10.0.0
Simple Browser (simple-browser): 10.0.0
Source Orbit (vscode-sourceorbit): 1.4.1
Terminal Suggest for VS Code (terminal-suggest): 1.0.1
code canvas app (code-canvas-app): 0.14.8
multi-command (multi-command): 1.6.0
npm Intellisense (npm-intellisense): 1.4.5
readme-preview (readme-preview): 0.0.3
vscode-icons (vscode-icons): 12.18.0

---

Remote system

Setting	Value
IBM i OS	V7R4M0
Tech Refresh	12
CCSID Origin	65535
Runtime CCSID	1144
SQL runner	Yes
SQL	Enabled
Source dates	Enabled

Enabled features

/usr/bin	/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin	/QSYS.lib/ILEDITOR.lib	/QIBM/ProdData/IBMiDebugService/bin	/QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk80
attr	bash	GETNEWLIBL.PGM	startDebugService.sh	64bit
iconv	chsh
setccsid	ls
tar	md5sum
uname	sort
	stat

Shell env

BUILDLIB=W_GD1
CURLIB=W_GD1
HOME=/home/EURGD1
HOST=172.20.10.100
LIBLS=W_GD1 QGPL QRPG SMESTD SMEUP_OBJ SMEDEV SME_EUR EUR_TEMP SME_TST SMEDATTST QTEMP
LOGIN=eurgd1
LOGNAME=eurgd1
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/eurgd1
PATH=/QOpenSys/usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/QOpenSys/usr/bin/X11:/usr/sbin:.:/usr/bin
SHELL=/QOpenSys/usr/bin/bsh
SSH_CLIENT=10.38.202.208 54054 22
SSH_CONNECTION=10.38.202.208 54054 172.20.10.100 22
TZ=<CET>-1<CEST>,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/03:00:00
USER=eurgd1
USERNAME=eurgd1
WORKDIR=/home/EURGD1

Variants

{
  "american": "#@$",
  "local": "£§$"
}

[sebjulliand]

Hi @DrIce99 ,
after the error happens, can you share the output from the Code for IBM i output?

[DrIce99]

Hi, sorry for late response, here's the output:

Running CL through SQL: CHKOBJ OBJ(W_GD1/SRC1) OBJTYPE(*FILE) AUT(*UPD)
	-> OK

Running SQL query: select ORDINAL_POSITION, message_id, message_text from table(qsys2.joblog_info('*')) where ordinal_position > 7
-> no rows returned

Running SQL query: SELECT IASP_NUMBER FROM TABLE(QSYS2.LIBRARY_INFO('W_GD1', DETAILED_INFO=>'NO'))
-> 1 row(s) returned

Running SQL query: SELECT IASP_NUMBER FROM TABLE(QSYS2.LIBRARY_INFO('W_GD1', DETAILED_INFO=>'NO'))
-> 1 row(s) returned

/home/EURGD1: LC_ALL=EN_US.UTF-8 /QOpenSys/usr/bin/qsh
/usr/bin/attr -p /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST#.MBR CREATE_TIME MODIFY_TIME DATA_SIZE
Running SQL query: CREATE OR REPLACE ALIAS ILEDITOR.TEMP_A03796AADA9343EB9E953AE1611F4E5322F589D9 for "W_GD1"."SRC1"("TEST£")
-> 0 row(s) impacted

Running SQL query: select length(SRCDTA) as LENGTH from ILEDITOR.TEMP_A03796AADA9343EB9E953AE1611F4E5322F589D9 limit 1
-> no rows returned

Running SQL query: select row_length-12 as LENGTH
                                               from QSYS2.SYSTABLES
                                              where SYSTEM_TABLE_SCHEMA = 'W_GD1' and SYSTEM_TABLE_NAME = 'SRC1'
                                              limit 1
-> 1 row(s) returned

Running SQL query: select case when locate('40',hex(srcdat)) > 0 then 0 else srcdat end as srcdat, srcseq, srcdta from ILEDITOR.TEMP_A03796AADA9343EB9E953AE1611F4E5322F589D9
-> no rows returned

{
    "code": 1,
    "signal": null,
    "stdout": "",
    "stderr": "attr: 001-2248 Errore rilevato nell'ottenere gli attributi per il file /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST#.MBR.  Questo percorso o indirizzario non esiste."
}

[DrIce99]

Hi @sebjulliand, sorry to disturb you, do you have any updates?

[sebjulliand]

Not for the moment.

The fact that $ works is because it's the same variant char as in CCSID 37 - as taken from your details:

What I can assume from the logs though is that running attr with the US variants failed.

This, for example:

attr /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST#.MBR CCSID

From an SSH shell, could you try running the same command but with your CCSID variant instead of 37's ? Something like that:

attr /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST£.MBR CCSID

Try running both commands to see which one actually fails.
Just to see how it goes.

[DrIce99]

Since I didn't know how to write on SSH shell, I've first tried to write the commands via "CALL QP2TERM" command on AS400. It gave me the following results:

attr /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST#.MBR CCSID                                                                              
attr: 001-2248 Errore rilevato nell'ottenere gli attributi per il file /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST#.MBR.  
Questo percorso o indirizzario non esiste.                                                                                                      

attr /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST£.MBR CCSID
1144                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Then, I found out how to use the SSH shell on VS Code, so I tried again and the result was the same (obviously, stupid me):

$ attr /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST#.MBR CCSID
attr: 001-2248 Errore rilevato nell'ottenere gli attributi per il file /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST#.MBR.  Questo percorso o indirizzario non esiste.

$ attr /QSYS.LIB/W_GD1.LIB/SRC1.FILE/TEST£.MBR CCSID
1144

I wonder why does the extension read the path with the wrong CCSID (if I am correct).

[sebjulliand]

That's the problem and I don't know why.
Let me give you another example.

I have an LPAR configured with CCSID 297. One of the variant character is à. Here's the member I'm opening:

As you can see, every level of the path contains a variant character (I like to play with fire).

When I open that member, it runs the following attr command. Notice how the charactes have been translated to CCSID 37:

And in this case, it works. We translate to CCSID 37 in this case because every test so far proved that it was needed when using full /QSYS.LIB paths in PASE.

But in your case, it seems that converting is not necessary. So there must be something in your LPAR configuration that allows that.

Can you share the output of your DSPSYSVAL at *USR and *JOB level please ?

[DrIce99]

Here are the requested details:

• System Value (QCCSID):

• User Profile CCSID:

• Job CCSID and Job Default CCSID:

Let me know if you need any other system values (and if this is what you asked for).

[sebjulliand]

Thanks !
I messed up, I wanted to ask for WRKENVVAR, *job and *sys.

Also, there should be sshd jobs run by QSECOFR.

Can you check the CCSID attribute on this job as well ?

[DrIce99]

Since I'm new, I've asked my mentor for some help to make sure I'm getting the right information. He sent me the last screenshot:

• wrkenvvar level(*sys) CCSID:

• wrkenvvar level(*job) CCSID:

• CCSID attribute on sshd job:

---

I noticed that there are two different CCSIDs (other than the usual 65535 which, from what I understand, is always a thorn in the side); however, based on what I've found, the only difference between 280 and 1144 is the use of €.