That. Is. Excellent!

– Vignesh
Mainframe Infrastructure

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Dan D
Sent: Saturday 05-May-2018 20:31
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: IEFA107I when pointing to dataset alias

A very long time ago (over 30 years ago) I worked for a service bureau.\ They 
had specific naming standards for their libraries when products were installed 
(ie. SYSx.product.V01R03.LOADLIB).

We couldn't have our customers continually changing JCL unless they wanted a 
different version than what was installed so we created a system tool called 
"Virtual Dataset Names".

This worked very similar to how ALIAS names works although there was no "must 
be in the same catalog" restriction.

When the system was IPL'd (or later via a special operator command) a table was 
loaded into CSA that contained the REAL dataset name, the VIRTUAL name and the 
various versions that were available.  One of the versions was marked as the 
default.
We used the IGG026DU catalog front-end exit (which I believe is now used by 
DFSMSHSM) to intercept catalog lookups and replace the REAL name that is being 
located with the VIRTUAL name.  It would scan SWA and check if an ACCT= was 
specified on the EXEC statement.  If so, the 1st operand was used to overriding 
VERION for all datasets within that step.
Example:
     //step50 exec pgm=iefbr15,ACCT=V5R3
     //DD1    dd  dsn=sys1.sortlib,disp=shr
If SYS1.SORTLIB is in the table and it's virtual name is PROD.?.SORTLIB and it 
had a list of versions, V1R0 being the alias, DD1 would be translated to 
PROD.V5R3.SORTLIB as ACCT=V5R3 was specified.  If it wasn't DD1 would be 
PROD.V1R0.SORTLIB.

Our customers loved this as they could test NEW versions of products before 
they became the default.

If someone has the time, maybe they could take on this project and re-write 
this cool tool ;-)

Dan

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