I've run into an oddity when passing an EXEC PARM to a COBOL program. I
don't see anything in the JCL reference that seems to directly address
this, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something. This is on a z/OS 1.4 system.
Basically, it seems that if the last character of the EXEC PARM string is a
forward slash, that character is stripped from the PARM value before the
parameter string is passed to my COBOL program. I can get a trailing
forward slash passed to the COBOL program by coding two trailing slashes in
the PARM= value, but the only mention I see in the JCL reference of a need
to "double up" on characters in the PARM= string is for ampersands and
apostrophes. Embedded forward slashes are passed as expected; only the
final trailing slash is stripped from the parameter string value (so
there's no need to "double up" on every forward slash, just the last one).
Can anyone cite documentation for this behavior?
Here are some examples of parameter values I've passed as EXEC PARMs and
the parameter lengths and values recognized by the COBOL program:
==========
Single trailing Back Slash works as expected...
//PS020 EXEC PGM=GPDIRLNK,PARM='S:\Technical Documentation\'
COBOL Display of PARM length & value received:
****
*--> EXEC PARM LENGTH (00027)
*--> VALUE (S:\Technical Documentation\)
****
==========
Multiple Back Slashes work as expected...
//PS020 EXEC PGM=GPDIRLNK,PARM='S:\Technical Documentation\\\'
COBOL Display of PARM length & value received:
****
*--> EXEC PARM LENGTH (00029)
*--> VALUE (S:\Technical Documentation\\\)
****
==========
Single trailing Forward Slash is unexpectedly stripped from parm string...
//PS020 EXEC PGM=GPDIRLNK,PARM='S:/Technical Documentation/'
COBOL Display of PARM length & value received:
****
*--> EXEC PARM LENGTH (00026)
*--> VALUE (S:/Technical Documentation)
****
==========
Multiple trailing Forward Slashes always have final slash stripped...
//PS020 EXEC PGM=GPDIRLNK,PARM='S:/Technical Documentation///'
COBOL Display of PARM length & value received:
****
*--> EXEC PARM LENGTH (00028)
*--> VALUE (S:/Technical Documentation//)
****
==========
I can "double up" on the trailing Forward Slash as a work around to get
what I need in the COBOL program, but I'm surprised by this behavior.
Should I be?
Thanks!
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