Journal EXTRACT files always start with a label. For the current release of GT.M, the label is GDSJEX01 for a simple journal extract file. This label is necessary to identify the format of the file.

Label is followed by journal record extracts. /EXTRACT output records are constructed of fields or pieces delimited by a back slash (\). The first piece of an /EXTRACT output record contains a two-digit decimal transaction record type (for example, 01 for a process initialization record). The second piece contains the full date and time of the operation, represented in the $HOROLOG format. The third piece contains the database transaction number at the time of writing this journal record. The fourth piece contains the process ID (PID) of the process that performed the operation, represented as a decimal number. The remainder of the record depends on the record type. The fields described as "database transaction number" contain a GT.M assigned number, which uniquely identifies the transaction within the time covered by the journal file.

Records of type SET, KILL, ZKILL, TSTART, and TCOMMIT include the token_seq as part of the output. It is the sixth field in the output of the journal record extract. When replication is in use, token_seq is a journal sequence number (jsnum) that uniquely identifies each transaction (for more information on journal sequence number refer to the "Database Replication" chapter). When replication is not in use and the transaction is a TP or ZTP transaction, token_seq is an 8-byte token that uniquely identifies the entire TP or ZTP transaction. For non-replicated, non-TP, and non-ZTP journal records, token_seq is zero (0).