Well, yeah. 😊 The problem is that the records being written to the ESDS can be up to 9999 bytes long. The application is also reusing a CICS program that writes the data to be processed into the ESDS and they didn't want to change the program for the new application. Something about being as consistent as possible.
Rex -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Len Rugen Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 11:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: DFSMS/dfp SHROPTIONS validation question Wouldn't it be simpler to pass everything as SYSIN in the JCL?  Len Rugen rugenl at yahoo.com On Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at 10:04:05 AM CDT, Pommier, Rex <[email protected]> wrote: -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Tuesday, October 7, 2025 6:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: DFSMS/dfp SHROPTIONS validation question On Tue, 7 Oct 2025 22:11:12 +0000, Pommier, Rex wrote: > >Just wanting to make sure I understand this correctly. I have a small VSAM >ESDS that is going to be used by both CICS and batch. What's happening is the >CICS region writes (appends) a record to the ESDS, then submits a batch job to >read the ESDS and pick up the record that was just written, using the >information in the record to go out and do additional processing against other >datasets. The batch process is only reading the ESDS, using a parameter the >CICS process passed to the batch job to know which record to further process. >My thinking is that if I specify SHR(4,3) this should work. I'm being >promised the process will only involve 10-20 records a day. Am I correct in >my reading of this: >  ... How does ESDS compare to a UNIX file opened with O_APPEND? Pros? Cons? <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.2.0?topic=functions-open-open-file*rtope__o001d__title__1__;Iw!!KjMRP1Ixj6eLE0Fj!obLMmMfLWaVSf5ykVOsB_Ey8HLrIY5p7xMLZP-724xmtbM95eI1rxKfI-SZTaHS5pFZfFhZmxXuQe883wMANrYu_6MLWCHuQLZac$ > Is there a race condition; a hazard that two CICS processes will append records in such rapid succession that the batch job reads the wrong one? Regardless, the file will have secular growth unless it is reset periodically. -- gil Thanks, Gil, Haven't looked at a UNIX file, it might be a second option if the ESDS doesn't work. Not concerned about a race condition, as we're talking such a low volume of data. The records written to the ESDS have a phony "key" field in them that is passed into the job submitted from CICS so the batch job will just read the entire file and process only the record matching the key. As far as growth, the ESDS will be reset on either a daily or weekly basis. Rex ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
