How do a folder stage read a folder that contains another folder stage
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It throws runtime error
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Content of the main folder and the subfolder will be read and processed.
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The behaviour is undefined
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None of the above
When a folder stage encounters another folder stage as its contents, the behavior becomes undefined because folder stages are designed to read files, not other stages. This nesting creates an ambiguous situation that the ETL tool cannot properly resolve, leading to unpredictable results.
This concerns IBM InfoSphere DataStage's Folder stage, which reads file names (and optionally contents) from a specified directory as a data source. Public IBM documentation on this exact edge case (a folder containing a nested subfolder) is not conclusively available — official IBM Knowledge Center pages describing Folder stage behavior with nested subfolders are behind access restrictions, and community forums (DSXchange) do not document this specific scenario. Extensive searching found no authoritative source confirming or refuting that the stage's behavior toward the nested folder is formally 'undefined' versus some other documented behavior (error, recursive read, or skip). Without being able to verify against IBM's official reference material, there isn't sufficient evidence to overturn the existing key.