Hi Gil, You asked why SYMBOLICRELATE doesn't work. At my site at least, SYM doesn't work because it drops the alias entry into the same catalog as the base entry, regardless of what catalog the HLQ should be putting the alias into. Just for fun I defined a symbolic called &NULL and IPLed my sandbox resulting in (in part) this:
IEA007I STATIC SYSTEM SYMBOL VALUES 045 &NULL. = "" I then defined a new SYM alias: DEF ALIAS(NAME(SYS1.REX) SYM(RRP.&NULL.JCL)) IDC0001I FUNCTION COMPLETED, HIGHEST CONDITION CODE WAS 0 My SYS1 datasets are normally defined in the master catalog - I don't use multi-level aliasing. I then tried to find/use SYS1.REX using standard catalog searching and got "not found". I dumped the user catalog that has RRP.JCL in it and I found SYS1.REX in the same catalog. Here are the relevant entries: LISTC CAT(CATALOG.USERCAT.TSO1) ALL NONVSAM ------- RRP.JCL VOLUMES VOLSER------------SFG001 DEVTYPE------X'3010200F' ASSOCIATIONS--------(NULL) ATTRIBUTES ALIAS --------- SYS1.REX HISTORY RELEASE----------------2 CREATION--------2022.087 ASSOCIATIONS SYMBOLIC-RRP.&NULL.JCL RESOLVED-RRP.JCL So it looks like we're still stuck with the SYM alias being in the same catalog as the base entry. I did not try using the SYMBOL as the HLQ of the dataset name. Perhaps that would resolve correctly but the way I read the "managing catalogs" manual, there was no such restriction. That is, of course, unless I'm using SYM completely wrong which is possible, because I've never used it before playing with it today. Rex -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Monday, March 28, 2022 1:20 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: IDCAMS ALIAS vs a symbolic link? On Mon, 28 Mar 2022 15:27:22 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote: >He's looking for an alias without the restriction of being in the same >catalog. > What's wrong with SYMBOLICRELATE? >That would be useful for people who haven't set things up to exploit >SYMBOLICRELATE, but I doubt that IBM will be willing to do it. > The simple RFE would be that the restriction that the related name contain an "&" be removed. It strikes me as an manifestation of a Catalog mindset that z/OS supports "$" symbol expansion in symlinks. Solaris met a similar need with symbols in mount maps. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this message is confidential, protected from disclosure and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, distribution, copying, or any action taken or action omitted in reliance on it, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to this message and destroy the material in its entirety, whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN