US Patent 7444338 Ensuring that a database and its description are synchronized

A method of ensuring that an IMS database and its description are synchronized. A copy of the description used to load the database is stored and maintained within said database. Before the database is accessed, a copy of the description is compared with another copy of the description stored in a data management block. A determination is then made as to whether the copy of the description in the database and the copy of the description in the data management block are synchronized. Responsive action, such as alerting the user to a problem with the description, may occur if the database descriptions are not synchronized.