Question on HLASM - B to a DROP statement!?!
Yes the subject is correct. I just ran into this situation. Program is in production. Multiple points in this program do the following: B DROPR11 Now, a few screens away we have this: DROPR11 DROP R11 LA R1,x (or something similar) The DROPR11 above gets flagged with an invalid label The various B DROPR11 statements resolve to the LA R1 Anyone see a problem with this? When did this kind of thing get accepted? I would have figured that invalid label would have gotten at least an RC=8 And every one of those "Branch" instructions would have been flagged for an undefined label or some such. An inquiring mind would like to know. Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: PoOP z/ARCH latest xx number
Thank you all for the input. And, yes, just to be sure: I know the Jxx are extended mnemonics. And that reference to the HLASM Guide is good. It looks like I'm gonna get to play with conditional assembly again after many years. :) So I wanted to start boning up on instructions and new features in conditional assembly. Regards, Steve Thompson On 9/20/2024 12:42 PM, Ramsey Hallman wrote: Appendix J - List of Extended Mnemonics On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 11:22 AM Joe Monk < 05971158733e-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: I dont see any J mnemonics in the PoOP. https://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/a227832d.pdf They are documented in the HLASM guide: https://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/asmr1021.pdf on page 67 They are also documented in the z/Arch Reference Summary: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/sites/default/files/2021-05/SA22-7871-10.pdf on page 42 Joe On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 10:06 AM Wayne Driscoll < 05791921711d-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Keep in mind that the Jxx instructions are "extended mnemonics" the actual instructions are BRC (Branch Relative Conditional) and documented as that. Wayne Driscoll Broadcom MSD All opinions are strictly my own On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 9:39 AM Ramsey Hallman < 061e76a747b5-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Steve, I believe the most recent is -13 ( Fourteenth Edition (May, 2022) - First Edition being 00). The Jump mnuemonics are definitely in that edition. Ramsey On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 9:27 AM Steve Thompson wrote: I am trying to get an up to date copy of the PoOP and when I check it for "J" instructions, I'm not finding them. Is this because those really only exist in HLASM? Certain instructions, I haven't used in years and wanted to make sure they work, within reason (32 regs to 64 bit regs) as I remembered. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: PoOP z/ARCH latest xx number
Thank you. And yes, it does have them all in a large table. :) Regards, Steve Thompson On 9/20/2024 10:39 AM, Ramsey Hallman wrote: Steve, I believe the most recent is -13 ( Fourteenth Edition (May, 2022) - First Edition being 00). The Jump mnuemonics are definitely in that edition. Ramsey On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 9:27 AM Steve Thompson wrote: I am trying to get an up to date copy of the PoOP and when I check it for "J" instructions, I'm not finding them. Is this because those really only exist in HLASM? Certain instructions, I haven't used in years and wanted to make sure they work, within reason (32 regs to 64 bit regs) as I remembered. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
PoOP z/ARCH latest xx number
I am trying to get an up to date copy of the PoOP and when I check it for "J" instructions, I'm not finding them. Is this because those really only exist in HLASM? Certain instructions, I haven't used in years and wanted to make sure they work, within reason (32 regs to 64 bit regs) as I remembered. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!
Sorry to see you go and the news letter (already gone). If you get bored, give a shout. I'm pretty sure your skills will still be needed. Regards, Steve Thompson On 9/8/2024 4:34 PM, Cheryl Watson wrote: Hi All, I’m about to remove my IBM-Main registration. At 80, with 60 years of mainframe behind me, it’s time for my retirement. Thank you all for your help, your support, and your friendship. I couldn’t have done it without you! All my best, Cheryl Watson == Cheryl Watson Walker, CEO Watson & Walker, Inc. Sarasota, FL USA www.watsonwalker.com Cell/Text: 941-266-6609 == -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: JAVA: Can it handle TIOT read?
Thank you for this. I'll have to do some experimenting, or one of the actual Java programmers will. Regards, Steve Thompson On 8/31/2024 12:24 PM, Kirk Wolf wrote: AFAIK, there isn't a nice way to extract the TIOT entries in Java. Options: 1) JZOS does have ZFile.readJFCB method which would allow you to get the JFCB for a given DDNAME, which can be handy and might serve your purposes. 2) You might try to use ZFile.peekOSMemory which is pretty ugly. You could use the JZOS record class generator to generate java classes from DSECTS for the control blocks. I'm not sure how to do this correctly without using the EXTRACT macro. 3) You could write your own JNI code and drop down into assembler to do the EXTRACT etc. Kirk Wolf Dovetailed Technologies https://coztoolkit.com On Fri, Aug 30, 2024, at 9:57 AM, Steve Thompson wrote: I'm working on a project to "modernize" ALC to Java. And I have code that is reading the TIOT to find DDs that the process is interested in. The subject is the question. I'm documenting routines (biz logic) and the program I'm working on is a bit challenging. I know Java, kinda, when I see it. But I haven't found any method for this. Anyone have to deal with this before (in Java)? Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: JAVA: Can it handle TIOT read?
Like I said, I'm just learning Java. And so I looked for a method
that would contain something like TIOT, DDNAME [search], and the
like.
I don't know where to look for these on/under z/OS.
So yes, the ALC code does an EXTRACT TIOT, etc. etc. But I don't
know how a Java programmer is going to deal with this.
Just say'n'
Steve Thompson
On 8/30/2024 2:46 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote:
On Fri, 30 Aug 2024 10:57:01 -0400, Steve Thompson wrote:
I'm working on a project to "modernize" ALC to Java.
And I have code that is reading the TIOT to find DDs that the
process is interested in.
All the suggestions I've seen in this thread so far seem to presume
Java support for CALL (Conventional MVS variable-length
parameter string). Does java have such support?
Then:
<https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=conventions-conventional-mvs-variable-length-parameter-string>
PL/I usage might include the following statements:
DCL PLIRETV BUILTIN;
DCL BPXWDYN EXTERNAL ENTRY OPTIONS(ASM INTER RETCODE);
DCL ALLOC_STR CHAR(100) VAR
INIT('ALLOC FI(SYSIN) DA(MY.DATASET) SHR');
FETCH BPXWDYN;
CALL BPXWDYN(ALLOC_STR);
<https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=output-requesting-allocation-information>
No shareware.
--
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Re: JAVA: Can it handle TIOT read?
Uh, modernizing ALC/HLASM (euphemism for one off software development project going to Java in this case). On 8/30/2024 12:01 PM, Steve Beaver wrote: I can think of one way in HLASM EXTRACT TIOT Sent from my iPhone No one said I could type with one thumb -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
JAVA: Can it handle TIOT read?
I'm working on a project to "modernize" ALC to Java. And I have code that is reading the TIOT to find DDs that the process is interested in. The subject is the question. I'm documenting routines (biz logic) and the program I'm working on is a bit challenging. I know Java, kinda, when I see it. But I haven't found any method for this. Anyone have to deal with this before (in Java)? Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Simple Rexx question
You gotta a "tape", give it a try and see what the RC is and what of the variables it sets, are set. If I had tape, I'd try it for you, because this is something I should know given what I'm working on in my spare time. Steve Thompson On 8/21/2024 8:36 PM, Seymour J Metz wrote: I've never tried it, but it should. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Paul Gilmartin <042bfe9c879d-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2024 6:16 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Simple Rexx question On Wed, 21 Aug 2024 19:54:38 +, Seymour J Metz wrote: LISTDSI has a FILENAME option to test a ddname. r == LISTDSI(ABCXYZ FILE) Will that work for tapes? Most infuriatingly, I learned long ago thatn LISTDSI(ABCXYZ FILE) returns attributes of the FILE as I had intended, but those from the DSCB if it can find one, simply failing if it can't. But as LBD reports, with a distinct return code. Not as useful as it might be. -- gil -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: message: "You are not authorized to view the archives with the email address you used to log in."
Change computers so that one is not locked to a certain environment where they don't have a sense of humor? (-; -- Regards, Steve Thompson On 8/16/2024 10:24 AM, Seymour J Metz wrote: I've never used the web interface. What is the appropriate action after message: "You are not authorized to view the archives with the email address you used to log in."? -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: MACRO DOC
Thanks. I'd completely forgotten that name. That cut down on the false positives greatly. BTW -- the download of the 3.1 tech library has all of these -- great for when one doesn't have internet access Regards, Steve Thompson. On 8/16/2024 9:15 AM, Lennie Bradshaw wrote: MVS Programming: Assembler Services Reference, Volume 2 (IAR-XCT) SA23-1370-60 Chapters 88 and 89 Lennie -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Steve Thompson Sent: 16 August 2024 14:07 To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: MACRO DOC Once upon a time there was a manual that listed all the basic macros, such as SAVE and RETURN. Does such a manual exist today, and if so, what did it get named? I've gotten the latest 3.1 Tech library and I can't search the library (well I haven't found a way to do it yet) and not get many false positives. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
MACRO DOC
Once upon a time there was a manual that listed all the basic macros, such as SAVE and RETURN. Does such a manual exist today, and if so, what did it get named? I've gotten the latest 3.1 Tech library and I can't search the library (well I haven't found a way to do it yet) and not get many false positives. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: LISTDSI Bad return value z/OS 3.1
Thanks to Kolusu, I re-examined my DD statement, and UNIT=3390 was one char too much and so it became UNIT=339. Fixing that DD statement solved this problem. But I would have thought the DD statement should have been failed for an incorrect value. Perhaps SMS saved me by applying default info. When I get time, I'm going to experiment with this. Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
LISTDSI Bad return value z/OS 3.1
HI: I was attempting to test some REXX code on a 3.1 system. This code worked correctly on a 2.4 system. x = LISTDSI (SYSAAA FILE) SYSAAA is defined in JCL as a temp file with DCB info. The return is x = 16 REASON = 27 Job log shows the file was allocated to VIO (not 3390 as I had specified) 27 indicates no VOLSER. Is this a bug with 3.1? I don't have the 2.4 system to go back to, to see if it had pushed this to VIO. Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: COBOL v6.4 INVDATA problem
Hi Prasanth: Because of working with people who came to COBOL after using Object Oriented languages, I think you need to be aware of the following so that you correctly state problems: COBOL is a procedural language. Programs compiled by a COBOL compiler do not throw errors, ABENDs, protection exceptions, etc. OO languages do this. Yes COBOL 6.x does have some OO support but not like you may want. Most of the programs that run in the z/OS environment are not Object oriented, so they issue condition codes (CC) or Messages, or they ABEND (ABnormal END). Therefore, COBOL issues messages and gives Condition/return codes or it ABENDs. If you have the latest PTFs on your COBOL 4.2 (?) system, you can turn on an option (if I remember this correctly) and it will flag statements that will not be supported by COBOL 5(?) and later, or will not be treated the same. I have forgotten the option for this. But I think it is specified in the COBOL 6.x Migration Guide. So that may be of help as you migrate from 4 to 6.x. In the case you have below, that option should have caught that. But, the current COBOL compiler you are using detected the error and flagged it. Hope this helps you. Steve Thompson On 7/30/2024 9:03 AM, Prasanth S wrote: Hi, We are planning to switch from COBOL V4 to V6.4 in due time. We have found that the INVDATA option of COBOL V6.4 mimics the V4 behaviour and plan to use it when 6.4 compiled modules throw error when invalid data is present. One such test was to check the 0 length and negative length moves as in the following: DISPLAY 'Substrings with a length shorter than 1' DISPLAY "Positive Lange" MOVE +5 TO ZW-START MOVE +4 TO ZW-LENGTH DISPLAY ZW-TEXT(ZW-START:ZW-LENGTH) DISPLAY "Lange Null" MOVE +5 TO ZW-START MOVE +0 TO ZW-LENGTH DISPLAY ZW-TEXT(ZW-START:ZW-LENGTH) DISPLAY "Negative Lange" MOVE +5 TO ZW-START MOVE -1 TO ZW-LENGTH DISPLAY ZW-TEXT(ZW-START:ZW-LENGTH) DISPLAY "The End" STOP RUN. This code ran ok when compiled with COBOL V4 but did not work well with COBOL V6.4 with INVDATA option. The error thrown was: IGZ0073S A non-positive reference modification length value of 0 on line 52 ZW-TEXT. If any of you have already experienced this and have an explanation or a solution, I would be grateful if you could share that. Thanks in advance, Best regards Prasanth Sukumaran Nair ITERGO Informationstechnologie GmbH Development Tools and Application Security Referent Überseering 45 22297 Hamburg Phone +49 40 6376-2402 prasanth.sukumaran.n...@itergo.com Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Robin Johnson Executive Management: Mario Krause (Chairman), Michael Liebe, Tony Cameron McCarthy, Caroline Meister, Jens Parthe, Rui Valente Registered Office: Düsseldorf, Commercial Register: District Court Düsseldorf, HRB 37996 -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Q: Finalist
Forgot to mention I have this cross-posted with IBM Main. The issue is, the program(s) invoking Finalist are written in ALC. We are getting to modernize all the ALC code (yes, we are keeping much of it). On 7/26/2024 3:23 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: On 7/26/24 12:49, Steve Thompson wrote: Hi all: I am looking for someone that is using Finalist (zipcode USPS addressing tool). I'd like to ask some dumb questions about it. I know it doesn't work with Java under z/OS... Yeah, a modernization thing. Do you mean that Java under z/OS is outdated? Should it be upgraded? (Is this question assembler-specific would it better be asked on IBM-Main?) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Q: Finalist
Hi all: I am looking for someone that is using Finalist (zipcode USPS addressing tool). I'd like to ask some dumb questions about it. I know it doesn't work with Java under z/OS... Yeah, a modernization thing. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: World’s largest computer outage!
Some of us that worked for good companies that wanted our products to be bullet proof (as much as we could make them) did that level of testing -- specifically with tape drives until SCSI came along and everything went virtual (still had cartridges in those machines). And M/S should be doing that level given the damage done this past week. Just my opinion. Steve Thompson On 7/21/2024 1:07 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: On Sun, 21 Jul 2024 10:49:04 -0400, Phil Smith III wrote: Has anyone explained how this passed CrowdStrike integration test? But these things happen. I heard of a product that crashed reproducibly at customer sites having 8 or more tape drives. Who does that in a test lab!> -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Inquiry on Powerful Sorting and Query Tools for Linux Platform
I'm not doing Java under z/OS for now. But thanx for that offer. Regards, Steve Thompson On 7/17/2024 4:55 AM, Andrew Rowley wrote: On 17/07/2024 10:42 am, Steve Thompson wrote: Maybe once I get done learning Java (I'm being required to learn it -- Long story). Except a few good laughs. The java compiler looks at all source in the folder/directory where it is reading the source you specified for it to compile as it tries to resolve classes. Screw up a source file trying out something and then run a compile on something you know works Yeah go figure out those errors. And then the idiosyncrasies of the IDEs they have. I got so twisted I started using ISPF line commands (just subconsciously did it) in note pad!! If you're trying to write Java outside of an IDE you're doing it the extremely hard way. It's worth learning the IDE - everything else becomes much easier. If you have any questions about Java on z/OS let me know - I'm happy to help. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Inquiry on Powerful Sorting and Query Tools for Linux Platform
Sorry working on two things at once. Anyone who has ever seen me trying to juggle knows to run. I know that CKD and ECKD do not exist in Linux/Unix land. What I was getting at is, I thought that one of the sorts had a way to take advantage of that. If I knew c, I'd be tempted to tackle this. Maybe once I get done learning Java (I'm being required to learn it -- Long story). Except a few good laughs. The java compiler looks at all source in the folder/directory where it is reading the source you specified for it to compile as it tries to resolve classes. Screw up a source file trying out something and then run a compile on something you know works Yeah go figure out those errors. And then the idiosyncrasies of the IDEs they have. I got so twisted I started using ISPF line commands (just subconsciously did it) in note pad!! Where is TSO/ISPF when you really need it, or CMS..... Steve Thompson More liquid analgesic pain killers are indicated. On 7/16/2024 7:48 PM, Farley, Peter wrote: Re: “disk geometry that used CKD at a minimum, or FBA”, AFAIK no off-mainframe system EVER used CKD formatted DASD. VSE sort certainly could use FBA, and maybe VM/CMS as well. Again AFAIK, ALL off-mainframe disk geometry is effectively FBA. Re: “under understand how the disk is formatted?”, No I don’t believe so. That level of I/O is in the kernel (or even the BIOS) on off-mainframe systems, so user-land programs like a sort never see it. Re: “run more like the sorts we are used to”, AFAIU that’s actually the majority of the code base for products like DFSORT and SYNCSORT – the “user interface” part. IMHO, re-engineering that part for Linux would likely be a near-impossible task for someone without access to the proprietary user interface designs. It’s a lovely thought though. I do know that SYNCSORT developed a Unix sort product back in the 1990’s because an ex-manager and friend of mine helped them do it. Never saw the product myself though, so I don’t know how much of the mainframe interface was ported over. Don’t know if they continued the product through to today’s world either. Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Steve Thompson Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2024 7:27 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Inquiry on Powerful Sorting and Query Tools for Linux Platform Not trying to hi-jack this subject, but I have questions about sorting off mainframes with disk geometry that used CKD at a minimum, or FBA. Would a sort program have to know/understand how the disk is formatted? Example: RAID-5? or EXT, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, etc.? I've only used a sort that came with a compiler (specifically the Fujitsu COBOL compiler). I understand that Linux does have a sort, but you have to experiment with its commands before you will get it right. It would be interesting if some sort could be ported to Linux so it would run more like the sorts we are used to. Steve Thompson On 7/16/2024 6:47 PM, Wayne Bickerdike wrote: Don't really know the answer, however, DB2 with an order by must perform some kind of sort. Or any Linux relational database. The RDB dream didn't really eventuate, we're still sorting lots of data the old way. On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 8:34 AM Jason Cai mailto:ibmm...@foxmail.com>> wrote: Hi all DFSORT has impressed us greatly with its versatility, offering functionalities beyond mere sorting, including robust key-based fuzzy querying at exceptional speeds. As we are currently transitioning our data from a mainframe (ZOS) environment to Linux, we are in need of tools that can efficiently handle high-performance sorting and fuzzy querying of large historical binary data on Linux. Any advice or suggestions on optimizing these processes on Linux would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot! Jason Cai -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu<mailto:lists...@listserv.ua.edu> with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archiv
Re: Inquiry on Powerful Sorting and Query Tools for Linux Platform
Not trying to hi-jack this subject, but I have questions about sorting off mainframes with disk geometry that used CKD at a minimum, or FBA. Would a sort program have to know/understand how the disk is formatted? Example: RAID-5? or EXT, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, etc.? I've only used a sort that came with a compiler (specifically the Fujitsu COBOL compiler). I understand that Linux does have a sort, but you have to experiment with its commands before you will get it right. It would be interesting if some sort could be ported to Linux so it would run more like the sorts we are used to. Steve Thompson On 7/16/2024 6:47 PM, Wayne Bickerdike wrote: Don't really know the answer, however, DB2 with an order by must perform some kind of sort. Or any Linux relational database. The RDB dream didn't really eventuate, we're still sorting lots of data the old way. On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 8:34 AM Jason Cai wrote: Hi all DFSORT has impressed us greatly with its versatility, offering functionalities beyond mere sorting, including robust key-based fuzzy querying at exceptional speeds. As we are currently transitioning our data from a mainframe (ZOS) environment to Linux, we are in need of tools that can efficiently handle high-performance sorting and fuzzy querying of large historical binary data on Linux. Any advice or suggestions on optimizing these processes on Linux would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot! Jason Cai -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Connect:Direct
Who is the actual owner of Connect:Direct these days? I understand IBM still has rights to it, but I had heard they spun it off and there may have been a secondary spin-off. Just curious. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Packed Decimal -- Extended(?)
I don't remember that from 2006, but I do remember, now that you've mentioned it, the LE loss of condition handling. Regards, Steve Thompson On 7/12/2024 5:03 PM, Schmitt, Michael wrote: Original problem was reported in 2006: COBOL programs getting a S0CA in IMS, even though COBOL semantics are that the overflow should just overflow. The work-around was to catch with ON SIZE ERROR. It took 15 years and many system dumps and GTF traces before it was explained. (And, IBM couldn't figure it out -- I did.) Status of that issue was to create an Idea to fix the root cause in LE: "Enhance CEEPIPI to reestablish lost condition handling environment" https://ibm-z-hardware-and-operating-systems.ideas.ibm.com/ideas/ZOS-I-2212 Idea is currently "Under consideration". New problem is that with COBOL 6.2 and ARCH(12), the work-around no longer works around, reported October 2023. They said they're not going to change anything for ARCH(12), it will be fixed at ARCH(13) for the z16. I think this means that the z16 will have instruction changes that allow the vector instructions to catch the overflow without a S0CA. The instruction-overflow mask (IOM)? Since they said it was eventually going to fixed, I didn't submit an Idea for a compiler change. If anyone is curious and would like to see the S0CA for themselves, shoot me an email and I'll send my STAND ALONE JOB (no other members) that reproduces it. There's actually two ways to get it: in a VPSOP and in a VAP. -Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Steve Thompson Sent: Friday, July 12, 2024 3:34 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Packed Decimal -- Extended(?) I seem to remember this problem you speak of from a few years ago, and that still wasn't fixed except with a large $$$ check and a push pull to apply that PTF? (-: Steve Thompson On 7/12/2024 3:20 PM, Schmitt, Michael wrote: I meant if it is a case where ARITH(EXTEND) on a z14 has worse performance than ARITH(COMPAT) at ARCH(11), but that issue is fixed at ARCH(12). Such as, the instructions it uses for ARITH(EXTEND) at ARCH(11) cause the problem but the instructions it can utilize at ARCH(12) are not affected. This is because we can't use ARCH(12). I mentioned this previously in some other thread, months ago. The problem is there's a way* that decimal overflows will get a S0CA even when "on size error" coded, /if/ you compile with ARCH(12). ARCH(11) in this case ignores the overflow, so it reaches the "on size error" logic to handle the error. I have a case with IBM. The answer is to get a newer machine. * the condition is... - Running in a reusable run-time environment that was established by CEEPIPI - The path from MVS to the application contains a LINK. One example of this is IMS/TM transactions - A program in the transaction contains a call to the z/OS Systems Services XML parser (or generate). It doesn't have to call it - The transaction ends - Possibly more transactions run in the same dependent message processing region - A transaction runs in the same region that has a decimal overflow. Once you know the necessary conditions it is easy to reproduce; you don't even need IMS. I have a test case that is a single job. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Tom Ross Sent: Friday, July 12, 2024 1:33 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Packed Decimal -- Extended(?) Are there disadvantages to ARITH(EXTEND)? Is the only reason to want interm= ediate results to be compatible with older code is if you need to match pre= vious less-accurate results? Is there a performance impact at ARCH(11) or l= ower? -Original Are there disadvantages to ARITH(EXTEND)? Is the only reason to want interm= ediate results to be compatible with older code is if you need to match pre= vious less-accurate results? Is there a performance impact at ARCH(11) or l= ower? COBOL users normally want the exact same results with a new COBOL compiler after recompiling, or it is a failed migration. ARITH(EXTEND) can give different results than ARTIH(COMPAT) or older compilers. More accurate, but wrong as far as many clients are concerned. ARITH(EXTEND) can be a little bit slower than ARITH(COMPAT), but we have had no complaints from users about this. Now for something completely different (yeah I'm an old Monty Python fan) let's talk about ARCH! "Is there a performance impact at ATCH(11) or lower?" There is not enough info to answer, but I can guess. If you are talking about moving from COBOL V4 to COOBL V6, ARCH(11) would be much faster! If you are asking about moving from COBOL V6 with ARCH(12) to COBOL V6 with ARCH(11), then yes, there is an impact, the programs will be quite a bit slower. Higher ARCH levels give better performance so using lower l
Re: Packed Decimal -- Extended(?)
I seem to remember this problem you speak of from a few years ago, and that still wasn't fixed except with a large $$$ check and a push pull to apply that PTF? (-: Steve Thompson On 7/12/2024 3:20 PM, Schmitt, Michael wrote: I meant if it is a case where ARITH(EXTEND) on a z14 has worse performance than ARITH(COMPAT) at ARCH(11), but that issue is fixed at ARCH(12). Such as, the instructions it uses for ARITH(EXTEND) at ARCH(11) cause the problem but the instructions it can utilize at ARCH(12) are not affected. This is because we can't use ARCH(12). I mentioned this previously in some other thread, months ago. The problem is there's a way* that decimal overflows will get a S0CA even when "on size error" coded, /if/ you compile with ARCH(12). ARCH(11) in this case ignores the overflow, so it reaches the "on size error" logic to handle the error. I have a case with IBM. The answer is to get a newer machine. * the condition is... - Running in a reusable run-time environment that was established by CEEPIPI - The path from MVS to the application contains a LINK. One example of this is IMS/TM transactions - A program in the transaction contains a call to the z/OS Systems Services XML parser (or generate). It doesn't have to call it - The transaction ends - Possibly more transactions run in the same dependent message processing region - A transaction runs in the same region that has a decimal overflow. Once you know the necessary conditions it is easy to reproduce; you don't even need IMS. I have a test case that is a single job. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Tom Ross Sent: Friday, July 12, 2024 1:33 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Packed Decimal -- Extended(?) Are there disadvantages to ARITH(EXTEND)? Is the only reason to want interm= ediate results to be compatible with older code is if you need to match pre= vious less-accurate results? Is there a performance impact at ARCH(11) or l= ower? -Original Are there disadvantages to ARITH(EXTEND)? Is the only reason to want interm= ediate results to be compatible with older code is if you need to match pre= vious less-accurate results? Is there a performance impact at ARCH(11) or l= ower? COBOL users normally want the exact same results with a new COBOL compiler after recompiling, or it is a failed migration. ARITH(EXTEND) can give different results than ARTIH(COMPAT) or older compilers. More accurate, but wrong as far as many clients are concerned. ARITH(EXTEND) can be a little bit slower than ARITH(COMPAT), but we have had no complaints from users about this. Now for something completely different (yeah I'm an old Monty Python fan) let's talk about ARCH! "Is there a performance impact at ATCH(11) or lower?" There is not enough info to answer, but I can guess. If you are talking about moving from COBOL V4 to COOBL V6, ARCH(11) would be much faster! If you are asking about moving from COBOL V6 with ARCH(12) to COBOL V6 with ARCH(11), then yes, there is an impact, the programs will be quite a bit slower. Higher ARCH levels give better performance so using lower levels would be a 'performance impact'! If I guessed wrong about what you were asking, please let me know! Cheers, TomR >> COBOL is the Language of the Future! << -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Tech Library -- Where is it hidden now
Thank you for this. And to the others, thank you as well for those links. I wonder if Amdahl were still around if IBM would pay more attention to the people doing sysprogging and a bit less to the sales droids? The mainframe world might be in a better place. Just my musing. Steve Thompson On 7/12/2024 8:57 AM, Lionel B. Dyck wrote: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos and then drill down and you'll find it Lionel B. Dyck <>< Github: https://github.com/lbdyck System Z Enthusiasts Discord: https://discord.gg/sze “Worry more about your character than your reputation. Character is what you are, reputation merely what others think you are.” - - - John Wooden -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Steve Thompson Sent: Friday, July 12, 2024 7:55 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Tech Library -- Where is it hidden now I have been doing various searches, and M/S pilot doesn't help. I can't seem to find a link to the z/OS (and related) pdf documentation. I'd like to download the current z/OS environment manuals (or a subset specific to what I'm working on). Anyone know the link or keywords that would find it. I'm getting tired of running into IBM sales literature. :) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Tech Library -- Where is it hidden now
I have been doing various searches, and M/S pilot doesn't help. I can't seem to find a link to the z/OS (and related) pdf documentation. I'd like to download the current z/OS environment manuals (or a subset specific to what I'm working on). Anyone know the link or keywords that would find it. I'm getting tired of running into IBM sales literature. :) -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Packed Decimal -- Extended(?)
If we could just magically replace all the ALC code with COBOL. sigh. If we could just magically replace all the ALC code with java. That is the nature of "modernization" of a mainframe One runs into things done in ALC because it was the only way to solve the issue, while getting the work done as quickly as possible. Why else were all these programs written in ALC? Ok, I have to get back to my Java class -- as in learning it, not writing a Java class (oh can this get confusing...). - Thank you all for your comments, the discussions, etc. Steve Thompson On 7/11/2024 12:40 AM, Tom Ross wrote: I seem to remember something said about an extension to packed=20 decimal and new instructions. I've been looking at a recent=20 z/Arch PoOP in pdf (IBM web site), and I can't seem to find what=20 I hazily remember from a few years ago.=C2=A0 Perhaps it is in a=20 different publication. .Could someone point me in the right direction, even if that is,=20 you must have been dreaming. The issue is, how can COBOL handle larger packed decimal numbers=20 than PACK/UNPACK can handle? I see this being a question that is going to get asked on a=20 project I'm on And I can see special macros having to be=20 developed for this The IBM z/OS COBOL compiler handled long numbers with packed-decimal instructions for years by using library routines that would process parts of the data nad then combine the results. Modern COBOL compilers on modern hardware (IE: customers who have z14 or later as DR machines) can compile with ARCH(12) which tells the compiler that we can use Vedtor Packed Decimal instructions, that can not only process many digits, but can process pacekd-decimal arithmetic with up to 90% less CPU usage than traditional packed- decimal instructions! In any case, I think the answer is to use a newer COBOL compiler :-) Cheers, TomR >> COBOL is the Language of the Future! << -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Packed Decimal -- Extended(?)
Thank you Tony. It was "vector" that I was trying to remember. And I will also have to read and compare Decimal float. And also, thanks to the others that responded. I got into a meeting and had to wade up through all the posts.... Steve Thompson On 7/10/2024 11:35 AM, Tony Harminc wrote: On Wed, 10 Jul 2024 at 11:25, Steve Thompson wrote: I seem to remember something said about an extension to packed decimal and new instructions. I've been looking at a recent z/Arch PoOP in pdf (IBM web site), and I can't seem to find what I hazily remember from a few years ago. Perhaps it is in a different publication. Could someone point me in the right direction, even if that is, you must have been dreaming. Decimal Floating Point. Chapter 20 in the -13 edition of SA22-7832. If you want to get fancier, there are also Vector Decimal instructions in Chapter 25. The issue is, how can COBOL handle larger packed decimal numbers than PACK/UNPACK can handle? The question of how/whether COBOL exploits this facility is a different one, of course, but I gather it does. I see this being a question that is going to get asked on a project I'm on And I can see special macros having to be developed for this Well perhaps... Certainly using the DFP instructions is quite different both practically and conceptually from the traditional packed decimal. But it will allow you to handle larger (and smaller) numbers, and has all kinds of other benefits, including some consistency with, and easier conversion to/from, the binary FP formats. Tony H. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Packed Decimal -- Extended(?)
I seem to remember something said about an extension to packed decimal and new instructions. I've been looking at a recent z/Arch PoOP in pdf (IBM web site), and I can't seem to find what I hazily remember from a few years ago. Perhaps it is in a different publication. Could someone point me in the right direction, even if that is, you must have been dreaming. The issue is, how can COBOL handle larger packed decimal numbers than PACK/UNPACK can handle? I see this being a question that is going to get asked on a project I'm on And I can see special macros having to be developed for this -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: VTOCs vs. catalogs
If I remember correctly (since I started on DOS R26?) on a S/360-30, we also had to use EXTENT cards (to define where a file existed on a volume). So hazy memory recalls we had a Label cylinder and an ALT Label cylinder. But maybe that came with DOS/VS Too long ago now. Then DOS got VTOCs and so if sharing with OS|MVS, the volume got the "dirty" bit turned on if DOS did any work in the VTOC. (MVS then had to RESERVE the volume and fix the VTOC to know where the free extents were since DOS didn't have that feature). The joys of migrating to OS/VS (MVS) and sharing of Volumes between systems in a service Bureau oh, Cloud (sorry I forgot the in-vogue term). Steve Thompson On 5/24/2024 6:02 AM, Lennie Bradshaw wrote: When I started on IBM System/370 the shop I was at used DOS/VS. DOS/VS at that time did not have VTOCs. We used //DLBL statements in JCL which specified the exact locations of datasets on disk. This changed with the introduction of VSAM on DOS/VS, but only for VSAM datasets. Fortunately I soon moved to a company using OS/VS2 and got to use VTOCs and CVOLs there. As regards, why both VTOCs and Catalogs exist, what would be the alternative? The more pertinent question is, I think, Why do we have both VVDS datasets and VTOCs? Historically I understand, but it could improve efficiency to merge these. It would probably break too many existing interfaces though. Lennie Dymoke-Bradshaw https://rsclweb.com -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Joel C. Ewing Sent: 24 May 2024 06:02 To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: VTOCs vs. catalogs VTOCs did come first. The original DOS/360 Operating System did not have catalogs. VTOCs contain not only information about physical location and organization of datasets on the volume but also (for OS/360 and its MVS and z/OS descendants) contains a list of all the free extents on the volume to support automated allocation of new extents for datasets. It makes sense to still keep that level of information at the volume level and not in some centralized "catalog", because an individual volume can be varied online or offline, added to or deleted from the system, and also any hardware failures that might affect data availability tends to affects specific volumes, so it simplifies many things to keep volume-level descriptive information on the related volume. As the total number number of DASD volumes on a system increases, having that VTOC-level information distributed across all volumes vs putting all that info in a centralized location improves performance by distributing read/write activity for that data across all the volumes, and prevents a single point of failure that could cause loss of all datasets. Without a catalog to map data set names to volumes, it was necessary to manually record and maintain a record of what volume(s) contain each dataset. That was practical for a few volumes and a small number of datasets, but obviously impractical when talking about 100's of volumes and 1000's of datasets. OS/360 was designed to support very large systems; Hence it included a catalog; but its use was optional for application datasets. These days the recommended practice is that all z/OS application DASD datasets should be under SMS, and SMS datasets must be cataloged. The original CVOL catalog evolved into multi-level ICF catalogs, and an eventual need to save additional dataset attributes to support SMS and VSAM datasets resulted in an additional VVDS dataset to store that info on each volume. As the capacity and maximum number of datasets on a volume increased, a serial search through a VTOC became a performance bottleneck, and an optional VTOCIX (VTOC Index) was added to each volume for more efficient access. There is some redundancy with having VTOCs, VVDSs, and Catalogs, but that aids in error detection and recovery by allowing cross-checking between VTOCs, VVDSs and Catalogs to look for and resolve inconsistencies. On z/OS it is typical to use multi-level catalogs for security and availability reasons and to keep application and personal datasets in catalogs distinct from those containing system-level datasets essential to the operating system. To reduce I/O and improve catalog performance, z/OS accesses catalogs via a system Catalog address space that provides additional in-memory caching for all open ICF catalogs. JC Ewing On 5/23/24 21:32, Phil Smith III wrote: I'm curious whether any of you old-timers can explain why we have both VTOCs and catalogs. I'm guessing it comes down to (a) VTOCs came first and catalogs were added to solve some problem (what?) and/or (b) catalogs were added to save some I/O and/or memory, back when a bit of those mattered. But I'd like to understand. Anyone? ... -- Joel C. Ewing ---
Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/OS Version 6, Release 2
Len:
Even if they are not Mainframe based, they should have the
"utility" for their system if they are running Connect:Direct for
that system. Otherwise, they are going to fail the hand-shake for
the XFER protocols used by C:D, unless the new owners have made
other changes to have C:D use "FTP". But then I didn't work on V6
or later.
Steve Thompson
On 5/23/2024 1:39 PM, Sasso, Len wrote:
Tony:
Most, if not all, of our customers are not mainframe based.
Thank You and Please Be Safe.
Please Note: I would appreciate it if you would please include my teammates
("rdc_applications_...@gdit.com") in future emails to keep them informed.
Len Sasso
Systems Administrator Senior
CSRA, A General Dynamics Information Technology Company
327 Columbia TPKE
Rensselaer, NY 12144
TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More
Office Hours: M-F 7 AM - 3:30 PM
Out-Of-The-Office:
Cell: (518) 894-0879
Phone: (518) 257-4209
Fax: (518) 257-4300
len.sa...@gdit.com
URL: www.gdit.com
Customer Focused, Value Driven, Delivery Obsessed
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Cieri,
Anthony <02d7f4ec1fff-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2024 1:21 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/OS Version 6, Release 2
This Message Is From an External Sender
Please use caution with links, attachments, and any requests for credentials.
Hi Len ,
Check with IBM on your open Case, but I suspect that GZIP is NOT
compatibleYour remote client should already have a copy of
DGASACMP.. Why not just use that..???
Thanks
Tony
-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of
Sasso, Len
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2024 1:13 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/OS Version 6, Release 2
[[ SEI WARNING *** This email was sent from an external source. Do not open
attachments or click on links from unknown or suspicious senders. *** ]]
Good afternoon, Tony!
I found the manual and opened Case TS016307677 - Connect:Direct - DGASACMP
Program Parameters: Can this program accept a parameter (QPL_FLAG_GZIP_MODE
flag) to add GZIP header and trailer information to the output stream (when
performing compression)?
If this is possible, then I and our customer will be able to unzip the file
with GZip.
Thank You and Please Be Safe.
Please Note: I would appreciate it if you would please include my teammates
("rdc_applications_...@gdit.com") in future emails to keep them informed.
Len Sasso
Systems Administrator Senior
CSRA, A General Dynamics Information Technology Company
327 Columbia TPKE
Rensselaer, NY 12144
TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More
Office Hours: M-F 7 AM - 3:30 PM
Out-Of-The-Office:
Cell: (518) 894-0879
Phone: (518) 257-4209
Fax: (518) 257-4300
len.sa...@gdit.com
URL: www.gdit.com
Customer Focused, Value Driven, Delivery Obsessed
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Cieri,
Anthony <02d7f4ec1fff-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2024 12:45 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/OS Version 6, Release 2
This Message Is From an External Sender
Please use caution with links, attachments, and any requests for credentials.
Len,
Check out the following manual; IBM Connect:Direct for z/OSVersion
6.1.
On page 653 is an example of the Batch Compression utility (DGASACMP).
You can run this and then transfer the file
Good Luck
Tony
-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of
Sasso, Len
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2024 7:48 AM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/OS Version 6, Release 2
[[ SEI WARNING *** This email was sent from an external source. Do not open
attachments or click on links from unknown or suspicious senders. *** ]]
Good morning, Steve!
Could you please provide an example of running compression in a run task and
then sending the resulting file to the target system?
Or point me to a manual that provides an example?
Thank You and Please Be Safe.
Len Sasso
Systems Administrator Senior
CSRA, A General Dynamics Information Technology Company
327 Columbia TPKE
Rensselaer, NY 12144
TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More
Office Hours: M-F 7 AM - 3:30 PM
Out-Of-The-Office:
Cell: (518) 894-0879
Phone: (518) 257-4209
Fax: (518) 257-4300
len.sa...@gdit.com
URL: www.gdit.com
Customer Focused, Value Driven, Delivery Obsessed
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Steve
Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2024 6:01 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re:
Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/OS Version 6, Release 2
Yes. You can either run compression in a run task, and then send the resulting file to the target system, OR you can compress it via a z/OS job and then have C:D pick up the resulting file and send it. The receiving site, if they are going to use it, must know what you used for compression. When I was last working on C:D, there was a utility provided to do compress/decompress in "batch". But one could also do the same with, say, ADRDSSU. Regards, Steve Thompson On 5/22/2024 10:12 AM, Sasso, Len wrote: Good morning! The Connect Direct set of cards below will compress the file during transfer to the destination and then extract the file at the destination. SIGNON CASE=YES SUBMIT PROC=COPYDISK &COMPRESS=COMPRESS - SNODE=SFGTST SNODEID=(ABCDE,123stu456) - &FROMDSN=ABC.FILE - &TODSN='/mailbox/TEST.FILE’ SIGNOFF Is it possible to "tell" Connect Direct, not to extract the file at the destination? If so, how? Thank You and Please Be Safe. Len Sasso Systems Administrator Senior CSRA, A General Dynamics Information Technology Company 327 Columbia TPKE Rensselaer, NY 12144 TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: IEFBR14 -- DSCB set? [WAS: Consultation on the Potential Risks of Deleting Specific Datasets]
Let me try to remember the number of APARs for IEFBR14.. I seem to remember, "Eyecatcher" was one, not setting R15 = 0 was another..... Steve Thompson On 5/8/2024 1:15 PM, Seymour J Metz wrote: What release? There have been multiple code changes over the years. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Steve Beaver <050e0c375a14-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2024 1:06 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: IEFBR14 -- DSCB set? [WAS: Consultation on the Potential Risks of Deleting Specific Datasets] BR14 is 2 instructions LA 15,0 BR14 Sent from my iPhone No one said I could type with one thumb On May 8, 2024, at 12:00, Seymour J Metz wrote: Could you be thinking of the option to write an EOF when allocating a new PS? -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Steve Thompson Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2024 12:54 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: IEFBR14 -- DSCB set? [WAS: Consultation on the Potential Risks of Deleting Specific Datasets] I remember some releases ago of z/OS that the system will effectively do an OPEN if a DSN is created using IEFBR14. But now I can't seem to find where that is documented. So far I can't find it in the z/OS 2.2 or 3.1 JCL User's guide. I think that if the allocation specified the DCB info (LRECL, RECFM, and blksize) that this would be put into the VTOC when IEFBR14 was used to do the allocation. So in a case like this, would the last ref date be "empty"? Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: IEFBR14 -- DSCB set? [WAS: Consultation on the Potential Risks of Deleting Specific Datasets]
I think that is it. Thank you. Steve Thompson On 5/8/2024 1:00 PM, Seymour J Metz wrote: Could you be thinking of the option to write an EOF when allocating a new PS? -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Steve Thompson Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2024 12:54 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: IEFBR14 -- DSCB set? [WAS: Consultation on the Potential Risks of Deleting Specific Datasets] I remember some releases ago of z/OS that the system will effectively do an OPEN if a DSN is created using IEFBR14. But now I can't seem to find where that is documented. So far I can't find it in the z/OS 2.2 or 3.1 JCL User's guide. I think that if the allocation specified the DCB info (LRECL, RECFM, and blksize) that this would be put into the VTOC when IEFBR14 was used to do the allocation. So in a case like this, would the last ref date be "empty"? Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Adoption of ASCII [Was: EBCDIC/ASCII - FTP]
I think the answer to this question "If IBM had "inflicted" ASCII on its customers in 1964, would the System/360 have had the wide acceptance that it did?" was the WANG VS series machines. Just from my personal experience, many banks were using them, and IBM was, to some degree, targeting them with MP2000 & 3000 boxes. Again from my experience in programming with the Wang VS systems, they appeared to me to be a S/360 with DAT. I think this may have been because Dr. Wang waited until the patents expired for the S/370 features. I was involved in migrating several of those systems into an MVS/JES3 environment (mid-1980s time frame) used by a major bank that was buying up small banks that were using WANG VS machines. I had to convert their banking software data to match Florida Software (for banks) [not to be confused with the State of Florida]. Steve Thompson On 5/8/2024 11:36 AM, Tom Marchant wrote: I have seen this before, and I am not persuaded. I find it interesting that all of the references provided were written by Mr. Beemer himself, some of them with another author. Perhaps, in hindsight it would have been better if IBM had made the System/360 an ASCII only machine. But at the time, ASCII was new and relatively unknown. As it was, the market had generally rejected ASCII on System/360, so the USASCII bit was removed with the introduction of System/370 in 1970. Both ASCII and EBCDIC are limited. ASCII, even more so because it is a 7 bit code, though there are proprietary 8 bit extensions. No one knew in 1964 that Unicode would later be designed based upon ASCII. The claim that "A 1-to-1 translation between the two [ASCII and EBCDIC] exists" is false.Each includes characters that are not defined in the other. This has always been the case. If IBM had "inflicted" ASCII on its customers in 1964, would the System/360 have had the wide acceptance that it did? We will never know. According to "Architecture of System/360" https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gatech.edu/dist/8/175/files/2015/08/IBM-360.pdf The reasons against such exclusive adoption was the widespread use of the BCD code derived from and easily translated to the IBM card code. To facilitate use of both codes, the central processing units are designed with a high degree of code independence, with generalized code translation facilities, and with program-selectable BCD or ASCII modes for code-dependent instructions. Neverthe- less, a choice had to be made for the code-sensitive I/O devices and for the programming support, and the solution was to offer both codes, fully supported, as a user option. Systems with either option will, of course, easily read or write I/O media with the other code. Aside from that, it wasn't the "P-bit", but the A bit. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
IEFBR14 -- DSCB set? [WAS: Consultation on the Potential Risks of Deleting Specific Datasets]
I remember some releases ago of z/OS that the system will effectively do an OPEN if a DSN is created using IEFBR14. But now I can't seem to find where that is documented. So far I can't find it in the z/OS 2.2 or 3.1 JCL User's guide. I think that if the allocation specified the DCB info (LRECL, RECFM, and blksize) that this would be put into the VTOC when IEFBR14 was used to do the allocation. So in a case like this, would the last ref date be "empty"? Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Mainframe performance tool replacement -- Price reduction....
In another place where I worked, we set up a penalty LPAR. And since Vendors wanted to bill by MSUs. Well, that LPAR was limited to maybe 10 MSUs. As I recall, they only got the SCRT reports for that LPAR. Just backing up what Paul said. And no, to my knowledge we didn't work at the same place. Also we had a TPM and it was set to route those products to the penalty box/lpar, so there was no cheating. Steve Thompson On 5/7/2024 5:52 PM, Paul Feller wrote: I'll go a little different route. If the real issue is with the dollars for the software there is an interesting approach you could look at. The place I worked at had setup some years ago several lpars that got grouped together in a softcap capacity group. Then we forced jobs to run there based on the software they ran. A good example for us was SAS and SAS/MXG stuff. We had other software that also got forced there. This allowed us to save money. Didn't have to pay SAS the full machine price for their software. So, there are some things to consider. You would need to have some spare MIPS and memory for two or three lpars on the same CEC. We used three lpars. One prod, one test and one for the systems programmers. You would have to setup some type of routing scheme to get the jobs over to the lpars. We used JES2 exits to do that. This way we didn't have to change JCL to get the jobs run on those lpars. Naturally you would either use shared spool or an NJE connection to get jobs routed and run. It would be best if you are a sysplex so you could properly setup things like WLM and GRS and your security product. There maybe some work for your scheduling software and maybe your spool offload product (if you have one). You have to look at all the resources your SAS jobs need and how do you share those resources across lpars. I'm sure I missed something to mention. Yes, this is a bit of work to setup. The up side is you now have a place to run things like SAS that maybe have low usage but high dollars. I think we had someplace between 6 to 10 software products that we pushed to the environment. Basically, low usage software that we needed but didn't like paying full price for. Also, this assumes the software vendor plays nicely and agrees to charge based on the softcap. Paul -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Bob Bridges Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 4:23 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Mainframe performance tool replacement I think I'm about to reveal my obsolescence: Where my clients didn't use SAS, they mostly used DYL-280II or QuikJob. Or REXX, of course. --- Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 /* Jonny snorted. "You mean out among the decadence of the big worlds? Come on, Jame, you don't really believe that sophistication implies depravity, do you?" / "Of course not. But someone's bound to try and convince you that depravity implies sophistication." From _Cobra_ by Timothy Zahn */ -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of raji ece Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 8:20 AM We have been running with SAS and MICS software to analysis system performance and to produce reports on daily basis. There is a situation to come out of using SAS due to many reasons. We would like to know the alternate product for this SAS and MICS. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Execute Rexx from Cobol
I see that Sri Hari Kolusu posted before I got done. But here is another set of things you may want to look at (assuming you haven't already): EAGGXOB in prefix.SEAGSAM. It has a sample for setting up to invoke REXX from a COBOL program. [our system is in the process of migrating, so certain libraries are not available to me now, so I can't find the "prefix" for SEAGSAM so I could copy the sample to here.] For tracing purposes, in the called REXX that does not return with a value, put in a "TS" (Trace Start). This will cause trace to run in a non-interactive environment. To stop it use "TE" (Trace End). In my case, this writes out to SYSTSPRT. I hope this helps you. Steve Thompson On 5/7/2024 7:33 AM, Lars Höglund wrote: Hi Trying to execute a Rexx from my Cobol program by using IRXEXEC and IKJTSOEV The Rexx starts and executes ok until that Rexx is calling another Rexx (in the same library, allocated to SYSEXEC) that shall return a value, but I'm getting An error has occurred in Rexx module: XMAIL Error Type: SYNTAX Error Line Number : 299 Instruction : jobinfo = JOBINFO() Return Code : 44 Error Message text: Function did not return data Running the same Rexx in ISPF or TSO, it works just fine I have also a trace in the called Rexx but nothing shows, probably isn't the Rexx starting The ddname-parameter is set to space move space to execblk-ddname *> default SYSEXEC Any suggestions //Lasse -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Mainframe performance tool replacement
Problem is "sas" being common to MICS and MXG. And the op's issue is a problem that appears to be rooted in SAS. But I have a question about the problems with SAS, beyond licensing and costs. What tech problem is being seen? Steve Thompson On 5/7/2024 9:22 AM, Allan Staller wrote: Classification: Confidential SAS - WPS, others, MICS - MXG, Several others HTH, -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of raji ece Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 8:20 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Mainframe performance tool replacement [CAUTION: This Email is from outside the Organization. Unless you trust the sender, Don’t click links or open attachments as it may be a Phishing email, which can steal your Information and compromise your Computer.] Hello All, Good Day! We have been running with SAS and MICS software to analysis system performance and to produce reports on daily basis. There is a situation to come out of using SAS due to many reasons. We would like to know the alternate product for this SAS and MICS. Any suggestions please. Regards, Raji M -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ::DISCLAIMER:: The contents of this e-mail and any attachment(s) are confidential and intended for the named recipient(s) only. E-mail transmission is not guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or may contain viruses in transmission. The e mail and its contents (with or without referred errors) shall therefore not attach any liability on the originator or HCL or its affiliates. Views or opinions, if any, presented in this email are solely those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of HCL or its affiliates. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and / or publication of this message without the prior written consent of authorized representative of HCL is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please delete it and notify the sender immediately. Before opening any email and/or attachments, please check them for viruses and other defects. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Testdriving svc in key 9 (was: finding callers key in svc) -- History stuff
Erik: This was being done in CICS (v3?) long before CICS/TS. This was back when MVS/XA was still in support just before MVS/SP4 (as I recall) had come out. . IBM PROLOG for 370 (based on PROLOG that ran under VM) could run under CICS but I think it was found that it needed to run in a subsystem so that it did not lockup CICS while doing all the processing needed to get an answer. And so this is what the Cross Mem Charge back SMF record was created for -- reporting CPU use and the like for handling a query in the Prolog subsystem. So IBM PROLOG for 370 needed to use storage keys beyond Key8 for stack/heap control. We had set up to use Key9 for our SVC as I recall, when we were contacted and asked if we could change (this was by CICS dev). So we did. Alas, it appears that IBM Prolog for 370 went into the dust bin about 1996. I know that a large user of it was a manufacturer in Europe. They had been using the VM version and I think they wanted an MVS version. Steve Thompson On 5/3/2024 10:41 AM, Farley, Peter wrote: I am not a CICS person, but I thought that normal transactions are discouraged from issuing SVCs (happy to be corrected if not so). True for original-flavor CICS transactions that run on the QR (quasi-reentrant) TCB. Newer code designed to run on the “Open” TCB pool do not have that restriction, so long as they only use CICS services that do not require the QR TCB (and there are fewer and fewer of those as Hursley gets around to updating them). Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Rob Scott Sent: Friday, May 3, 2024 8:12 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Testdriving svc in key 9 (was: finding callers key in svc) Erik. In the current implementation of the SVC that would work fine, since it is all doing the MVC's in key 0, but if I change that to MVCSK and MVCDK instructions I might get the 0C4 abend. Whilst I applaud your desire to implement MVCDK/SK, I think the word "fine" is doing some heavy lifting in the above. 😊 Using MVC in key0 to read/write non-Key0 memory is obviously a risk to system integrity. A couple of other minor observations : (o) Is this SVC part of new development? If so, perhaps consider using PC-cp instead - I am some sample code that could help in this endevour if you are interested. You will require a resource owning ASID to house the PC routine, but it can be limited function in design. (o) I am not a CICS person, but I thought that normal transactions are discouraged from issuing SVCs (happy to be corrected if not so). Rob Scott Rocket Software -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Erik Janssen Sent: Thursday, May 2, 2024 6:33 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Testdriving svc in key 9 (was: finding callers key in svc) Hello Peter, My apologies for not changing the subject. I managed to show now that the code in the svc is correct, it indicated that the caller was in key 9. I've solved the testdriver issue now by marking that routine as REFReshable and put it in SYS1.LINKLIB. I saw an old thread about this that gave this option, the module now gets loaded into subpool 252, which is not fetch protected. I'm testing this on a personal ZPDT machine, so in this case it is a fair way to get the job done easily, without having to figure out how to do ATTACHX programming. I just would like to simulate the situation where a cics transaction running in key 9 would access a storage area it provided to the svc with key 8. In the current implementation of the SVC that would work fine, since it is all doing the MVC's in key 0, but if I change that to MVCSK and MVCDK instructions I might get the 0C4 abend. That was also where my confusion (bias) was, I was thinking (expecting) the 0C4 was triggered in the SVC, while actually it was my test program that abended on not being able to get the next instruction from the fetch protected subpool 251 my program was loaded in. Next stop is to see if I can get an ESTAE in the routine to give a message about this situation and after that perhaps make it more intelligent to allow a switch to key 8 in this situation. I've not done a lot of assembler programming over the years, so it always takes me some time to get used to it again, and these routines are of course not the easiest to handle. But I like taking on such a challenge, because the amount of stuff you learn is always very satisfying. Kind regards, Erik Janssen. On Thu, 2 May 2024 14:07:25 +, Peter Relson wrote: Please try to have different threads with suitable subjects for each. The 0C4 is unrelated to the subject. Since the code shown for the SVC routine is correct for type 2/3/4 yet you say that you do not find the right data, then prove it: Show the definition of the SVC, show extracts from IPCS looking at the dump storage. If you are blowing up at t
Re: Homegrown ZOS Dashboards?
Former employer used T-MON to track CICS and z/OS. Maybe even a bit of DB2 (wasn't my area). We also used TPM (Thru Put Manager) which gave info as to, for example, when it projected our hitting Caps (hard or soft as I recall). It also controlled how many jobs a particular user could have running at a time and the like (I didn't support that one, but I appreciated what all it could do). There were two other products that I had to help support, and now can't remember the name of either of them, but the one was out of Israel. I think it was Gadi Ben-avi supported that one (or they have similar names). So the PCM group, had different tools used by different ones of us for watching the systems. And we had some tools for watching DB2, but that was all handled by the DBA that was part of the group. And we also had SPLUNK, but I never touched it. I was more of a tactical tuner person playing whack-a-mole. And the manager of the group had this feed the big display that "C" level managers looked at. We also used SAS (native) for certain discrete reports along with MICS and MXG to process SMF and other items. Come to think of it, I produced a report mixed with REXX and COBOL to show how far (in %) we were in migrating the "old" COBOL to COBOL6.x Hope this helps and gets a few others to talk about their tools for Performance and Capacity planning|management. Lastly, we were also running z/VM so we used Velocity for reporting with it, and alerting, etc. Steve Thompson On 4/28/2024 4:41 PM, Steve Estle wrote: Hello all you smart seasoned ZOS vets out there. We all know that ZOS contains a vast landscape of key mission critical applications and components running 7x24x365. I'm quite curious about this sujbect having spent a considerable time of my career in the performance / capacity arena. But what I am most curious about is whether anyone out there has either developed or knows of a very robust homegrown ZOS mgmt / executive health dashboard out there? Possibly you did something with SAS/MXG or other toolsets (REXX, open source, etc.)? I'm envisioning something that might have red, yellow, green sections that inspects data for ZOS ranging from SLA's, syslog, SMF data, performance data (response times, batch cycle completions, etc.), storage usage data, security data and have it all rollup into single view that is adaptable to a particular environment (not tied to anyone product - so for instance in security whatever solutions should be ubiquitous whether running RACF, Top Secret, or ACF2). I know there are paid for tools as well and if you don't have anything homegrown maybe you have a favorite one of those that doesn't cost arm & leg? - possibly something open source that is easily adaptable. There is no right or wrong answer here but wanted to just throw this out there to gather everyone's collective experiences, thoughts, and best ideas. May the games (I mean ideations) begin. Thanks, Steve Estle -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: ooRexx forum?
Try https://www.rexxla.org/ It gives me a page for "The Rexx Language Association" (and has some links that I have not yet tried). Steve Thompson On 4/22/2024 3:15 PM, Bob Bridges wrote: References-in-passing to ooRexx are fine here, I suppose, but if I want to get into details, where should I go to ask questions? The ooRexx documentation mentions www.rexxla.org/forum.html, but that nets me a 404 error. And I looked at comp.lang.rexx (also recommended by the documentation), but it didn't seem to me any of the recent posts there were about REXX, much less ooRexx specifically. --- Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 /* If you are not being criticized, you may not be doing much. -Donald Rumsfeld */ -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: S0c4 creation
IN line with what was said, you can force it by issuing ABEND (or related) and telling it what ABEND you want. You can also EX an EX and get a S0C3. I've never seen that ABEND by accident (e.g., wild branch into data). And no co-workers I've had (all of us doing ALC based development) have ever seen that one by accident. Steve Thompson On 4/21/2024 7:39 AM, Bernd Oppolzer wrote: I'd suggest to be very careful with such codings; a co-worker some years ago did this and - by accident - the code ran privileged, which caused the whole LPAR to hang. Same goes for ST at address zero, which was suggested by another poster. Maybe it would be better to write protect your own module and try to write into your own static CSECT. This would not put other jobs in your system in danger. Or: do your SLIP trap experiments with another sort of ABEND. Kind regards Bernd Am 21.04.2024 um 11:21 schrieb Rupert Reynolds: If it's your STC, then include something dirty like BANG NC 16(4,R0),16(R0) AND CVT pointer with itself--should fail although I should say that might raise eyebrows on a production system ;-) Roops On Sun, 21 Apr 2024, 08:45 Peter, < 05e4a8a0a03d-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Hello Good morning Is there any sample Jobs or I can enforce a s0c4 abend in a Started task ? I am trying to teach SLIP trap to a rookie..Is there any other efficient way to do this? Peter -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: REXX vs other languages -- EXECIO intuitiveness
I am looking at going OOREXX or NETREXX to make interfacing easier. I'm still researching how to proceed in the best way. I have Regina Rexx on both W11 and Suse LEAP 15.x I've been struggling with I/O because I'm too used to DSN type file systems as opposed to char streams. So I have to re-think an application when trying to implement it off mainframe. Most of what I do is based on/in record I/O. And having used COBOL (FJ) on Windows, it makes the data appear as record oriented from where I sit. I'm assuming they went to a common forum. I haven't looked it up for while. Steve Thompson On 4/21/2024 1:11 AM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: On Sat, 20 Apr 2024 23:58:18 -0400, Steve Thompson wrote: I concur about REXX EXECIO I/O is not exactly intuitive. REXX, first implemented in CMS used the CMS I/O utilities Over in TSO they created EXECIO which does not operate in the same way as does the CMS EXECIO. And it causes me headaches when I work on CMS for a year or two and then come back to TSO to have it NOT be have as it did in CMS. Especially the STEM variable and trying to write a record. Note the fundamental difference in file specs: CMS: FN FT FM Z/OS: DDNAME ... but I have written portable EXECs -- on z/OS my FileSpec variable is one word; on CMS three. And, irritatingly, the syntax of ADDRESS MVS EXECIO differs depending on whether the EXEC is started from a UNIX or non-UNIX address space. The lack of (VAR string is probably impelled by TSO RECFM=F, which would have a trailing blank entanglement. And so after working in TSO for a year or so to go back to CMS -- I need to learn and make use of PIPEs which is not supported over on TSO Most shops do not see the need to pay for TSO Pipes. Sigh. Is TSO Pipes even marketed except, an obsolete version bundled with BatchPipes? And so, with Windows I/O is different (still talking REXX), same problem with Linux. I/O is not handled the same for simple reads and writes from my perspective. Files on desktop systems are largely character streams; on mainframes, record oriented. Beyond that, standard Rexx stream I/O came late to CMS because developers economized by using the available EXECIO. Never-the-Less, I really appreciate REXX over EXEC, EXEC2 and CLIST. Which Rexx do you use on desktop systems? BTW, is the Regina mailing list active? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: REXX vs other languages -- EXECIO intuitiveness
I concur about REXX EXECIO I/O is not exactly intuitive. REXX, first implemented in CMS used the CMS I/O utilities Over in TSO they created EXECIO which does not operate in the same way as does the CMS EXECIO. And it causes me headaches when I work on CMS for a year or two and then come back to TSO to have it NOT be have as it did in CMS. Especially the STEM variable and trying to write a record. And so after working in TSO for a year or so to go back to CMS -- I need to learn and make use of PIPEs which is not supported over on TSO Most shops do not see the need to pay for TSO Pipes. Sigh. And so, with Windows I/O is different (still talking REXX), same problem with Linux. I/O is not handled the same for simple reads and writes from my perspective. Never-the-Less, I really appreciate REXX over EXEC, EXEC2 and CLIST. Steve Thompson On 4/19/2024 9:28 PM, Andrew Rowley wrote: On 20/04/2024 1:42 am, Jay Maynard wrote: Agreed Java is simply far too complex a language and ecosystem to hold in the mind. Python is as ubiquitous and much easier to deal with. Really? What do you NEED to learn for Java that you don't need to learn for other languages? public static void main(String[] args)? Loops, if statements, data types, string processing are things you need to learn for all languages. I/O is useful (Rexx EXECIO isn't exactly intuitive). -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: ./ ADD - which utility?
In a single word, yes. And as has been stated, setting up "DLM=" requires, at times, a scan of just the first several bytes of each logical record to find what unique value(s) one can use. Steve Thompson On 4/15/2024 3:30 AM, wrote: Just curious. Have anyone had problem with this delimiter problem in real life with anything other than JCL in the inline input data? (I mean the alternative of a separate file seems to be a better/normal alternative unless the inline data is at the end of the member/ds.) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: ./ ADD - which utility?
JES2 also has /* commands, such as:
/*JOBPARM
/*MESSAGE
/*NETACCT
/*NOTIFY
/*OUTPUT
/*PRIORITY
/*ROUTE
etc.
So I would imagine those look like comments to you.
MVS has JCL so does VSE. Each of them has a "spooler" system
(JES2|JES3 for MVS and POWER for DOS type systems last I did a
DOS/VSE-ESA migration to z/OS such as
* $$ SLI xxx ).
But depending on whether or not you have JES3 installed and/or
JES2 installed (JES3 had to be the PRIMARY subsystem, JES2 can be
secondary) would determine if //*MAIN (and such) was just a
comment or directed the JES3 system to do something.
JES3 also has a command to cause a JOB to run on a specific
"LPAR" (Back in the day, CEC).
//*MAIN says which MVS system(s) to select from to schedule this
JOB to run/execute.
You should really look at a JCL REF manual. All of this is
documented there. But the JES3 DOC may be gone. I don't know when
IBM will (or already has) pulled the JES3 JCL doc (z/OS 2.4 has
it). I haven't needed (yet) to get a full copy of the 3.1 manuals
to look at new stuff.
Steve Thompson
On 4/14/2024 8:36 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote:
On Sun, 14 Apr 2024 19:47:38 -0400, Steve Thompson wrote:
JES3 is not retarded.
I may have judged hastily from such as that the OUTPUT JCL statement
came to JES2 before JES3. You could pay extra to not get the feature.
JES3 has this:
//*DATASET parameters.
//*ENDDATASET
Those look like comments. I guess it provides a sort of compatibility
in that JES2 will ignore them. At the cost of making it harder to
detect and report typos.
Can the delimiter be changed to allow such lines within instream data?
This is what the z/OS MVS JCL REF has for the parameters:
...
//*DATASET DDNAME=ddname[,parameter]...
This allows one to put that data in-stream, define what DD will
be using it. And then the JOB Step that gets it, the data is
encapsulated better than JES2 does it.
I see little use in the feature. But if I don't like it, or dln't
understand it, I don't have to use it.
So I think this can handle the problem of "IEBUPDTE".
No. The problem is not in JES[23], but in IEBUPDTE, which
has nothing like a DLM= parm which would allow data lines
resembling IEBU{DtE commands to appear instream.
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Re: ./ ADD - which utility?
JES3 is not retarded.
JES3 has this:
//*DATASET parameters.
//*ENDDATASET
This is what the z/OS MVS JCL REF has for the parameters:
//*DATASET DDNAME=ddname[,parameter]...
The parameters are:
MODE= {E}
{C}
J= {YES}
{NO }
CLASS= {NO }
{MSGCLASS}
{class }
This allows one to put that data in-stream, define what DD will
be using it. And then the JOB Step that gets it, the data is
encapsulated better than JES2 does it.
So I think this can handle the problem of "IEBUPDTE".
JES3 had lots of interesting features. I noticed MVS getting
those features as we were moving towards SYSPLEX.
Steve Thompson
On 4/14/2024 12:30 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote:
On Sun, 14 Apr 2024 11:48:02 -0400, Steve Thompson wrote:
In a JES2 environment, DLM= can be up to and including 8
characters (JES3 is limited to 2, not sure of JES3+).
Why is JES3 so retarded? Useful features tend to be added to
JES2 earlier than JES3.
In that case, what odds are there of coming up with a safe string?
Almost certainty for any reasonable file size. The interesting
question then is, "What's the most efficient way to discovedr
a safe string?"
However, IEBUPDTE has no sort of DLM option, so there's
no way to protect data lies beginning with with "./" It's
puzzling that the IEBUPDTE designers never foresaw that
problem. Consider, letting the Devil provide the test case:
/*Rexx
./ADD perverse comment */
say 'Hello, World!'
--
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Re: ./ ADD - which utility?
In a JES2 environment, DLM= can be up to and including 8 characters (JES3 is limited to 2, not sure of JES3+). In that case, what odds are there of coming up with a safe string? Just asking. Steve Thompson On 4/14/2024 9:04 AM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: On Sat, 13 Apr 2024 20:01:50 -0500, Mike Schwab wrote: You can set it up for a //SYSIN DD DATA,DLM='??' and add the '??' Card at the end. That's not enough. If the input PDS contains a member with a line beginning with "./", which is likely in JCL with instream data, IEBUPDTE will improperly treat it as a command, not data. A similar problem arises if a data line begins with "??". And no DLM is safe to use with instream XMIT output. On Sat, Apr 13, 2024 at 6:52 PM Paul Gilmartin wrote: On Sun, 14 Apr 2024 08:34:30 +1000, Wayne Bickerdike wrote: I have some REXX code that extracts all members of a PDS and writes it to a sequential file. Each member extracted is prefixed with the ./ADD card with the original member name. Handy for moving a PDS to another system. IEBUPDTE was the utility of choice when all we had was a card punch and card reader. (1975). Have you just rediscovered IEBPTPCH? How does this work if your input PDS is a JCL library containing some jobs with IEBUPDTE steps with instream commands? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: IBM key management products
I clipped this to get to what I think is the real question being asked. Suppose that I am a person who has access for D/R purposes to all data sets in a data center. I only need to be able copy files. I don't have a need read the data in the file, just get it to the D/R system/LPAR/data center. The data is encrypted and stored (data at rest), and I can copy it but now I can't decrypt it so I can read it. Now suppose that someone makes a copy of that data over on the D/R system. The data is still encrypted. So how long will it take for them to decrypt that data when they don't have any access to any of the keys? How long will it take them to decrypt that data so it is useful to them? This is why data is being encrypted at rest. How would someone get to that data set so they can read it? Bad actor with access to an APF library and a system utility? So to cut that type of exposure off, the data is encrypted at rest. Now, Malware gets loaded and it copies files surreptitiously to Timbuk3. How long will it take them to crack the encryption? This is what we want to avoid. And the old truck carrying back up tapes that crashes and your data is being carried off by who ever. I hope this helps you with your question. Steve Thompson On 4/12/2024 12:21 PM, Jousma, David wrote: I personally am still having a hard time wrapping my head around the “real benefit” of dataset encryption. Everyone who has READ or more access to the dataset, must also be permitted to the Key. Those same people are still able to copy/print/steal that data.So who does that leave? Those that are not permitted to the dataset, and those who administer the storage.Those that don’t have access to the dataset aren’t going to get the data, encrypted or not. Those who administer the storage usually have access to move/manage the installations data. These are the people who dataset encryption is protecting against. That is a very small population to go to this effort on. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: PASSPORT 3270 emulator (PC) problem w transferring files
If that PC has email for/by the client, then if you can attach a file, that has been through translation from EBCDIC to ASCII (or the code page of your choice), then that might be the best way to get that to you. Just trying to think outside the box. Steve Thompson On 4/10/2024 6:15 AM, wrote: Yes a real ftp software would be much better. But as this pc is controlled by the client, installation of another software is out of the question, especially as I'm not employed by the client. At least not in the near future. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: STIMER
If you need to cancel it, I think you have to change to STIMERM. I was just looking at the manual for this (2.4) and I had thought there was a way to cancel it, but the book indicates that STIMERM must be used if one needs to do a cancel. "Cancels a specific timer request (CANCEL parameter)" << this is under STIMERM Steve Thompson On 4/8/2024 5:42 PM, Tony Thigpen wrote: How do you cancel an outstanding STIMER? Tony Thigpen -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
TEST of updated Email server security Config
This is a test of email after changing "security" settings of my email domain. Just ignore this please. -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Posting issues?
continuing the subject I just had a discussion with my domain host today, and they have updated my server with more appropriate settings -- after looking at rejects and email situations I had documented. So, hopefully nothing is getting rejected from the various list servers I'm subscribed to (IBM Main, VM_List, ISPF, REXX, Etc.). I'll be able to tell some time tomorrow (12 hours for this to propagate I'm told). It was an interesting conversation, they recognized the problems because it seems more and more "domains" and Hosting entities are doing as much as they can to stop spam, phishing, and forged emails... Interesting stuff. Steve Thompson On 4/7/2024 5:53 AM, Mike Schwab wrote: https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/03/outlookcom_blocked_by_gmail/ Might be part of the issue. On Sat, Apr 6, 2024 at 2:22 PM Phil Smith III <060e4b8f09b8-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Indeed. I'm thinking that either UA.edu or their provider stepped up their filtering. But that's why I'm asking: to see if other folks are in the same boat, so at least I'd *know*. So far nothing definitive. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Walt Farrell Sent: Saturday, April 6, 2024 9:41 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Posting issues? On Fri, 5 Apr 2024 15:36:21 -0400, Phil Smith III wrote: Yeah, I have SPF records. But, increasingly, it seems to be necessary to have DMARC and DKIM properly setup, too. I don't know if that would explain your problem with this mailing list, though. -- Walt -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Posting issues?
The issue, to me, started with M/S telling me that I can't use a work or school email address for an account (this was over a year ago). WKYR.NET is a private email domain that I own. WKYR, should it exist again, would be a radio/TV station probably using .com or .org. And then, as has been said, I've been blocked here and there for maybe a day or two and then things work again. I had to run things down with Marist for a group and it was an error in their system after maint. The paranoia in me asks if this is an attempt to control all emails. Look, just because I am paranoid does not mean they are not out to get me. ;-) Steve Thompson On 4/5/2024 3:24 PM, Rick Troth wrote: Let's see if this gets through. I THINK my posts are making it (seems like one did earlier this week), and this being a GMail identity, that would make sense. Phil, you're trying to use a custom address. That is to say, you're using a personal domain. I observe that such are increasingly challenged. I don't have a solution, but I'm chasing a couple of remedies. Maybe we can connect. Maybe we can achieve critical mass? It's all about trust. The major email providers don't "trust" akphs.com. I find that one of my personal domains cannot send to my wife's mailbox at Yahoo!. This is a real problem for us and gonna get worse. All email which is outsourced to Googoo gets through. (sometimes to the spam folder) But Yahoo! slams the door *hard* and won't accept email sent from a residential IP address. Googoo is reasonable about *accepting* traffic too. (again, sometimes to quarantine) I have not tried (e.g.) AOL or Hotmail. I did try a former employer's email service and got rejected. Two things I have in place which supposedly would help: SPF record and DKIM key. These are both in the DNS. The home IP address being in the SPF record should be enough for Yahoo! to accept it. Doesn't work. The DKIM key and the signature on the traffic should confirm that any given message is authentic. Doesn't help. Then too, some are starting to use "DNS SEC". (And some are not, even many luminaries. DNSSEC is a pain in all cases and impractical for most.) But I don't know if Yahoo! is flagging things based on DNSSEC or lack of. Anyone else having troubles, let's circle-up off-list and see what we can figure out. -- R; <>< On 4/5/24 14:34, Phil Smith III wrote: Starting about a week ago, I noticed that posts sent from my lists@akphs address weren't showing up in the archives. Email to mailto:lists...@listserv.ua.edu with QUERY IBM-MAIN got no response; same from my work address got the expected "not subscribed" message. Yet my daily digest to that address has continued. I tried repeatedly, and finally asked Darren, who kindly looked but didn't see anything amiss. Today when I tried to respond to Radislav's question about FTP, same thing: no post. So I subscribed this address as well. That worked, and I've been able to post (obviously). But I also noticed a couple of folks asking where the list had gone lately, which could just be chance (and isn't quite what I'm seeing, either, obviously). I looked at the archives and traffic seems to maybe be down over the last 8 days or so, though it wasn't so active before that I can be sure (see bottom of this note). I suddenly realized that if others were having similar issues, that might not be obvious beyond the reduced traffic--it's not like they'll be able to post to ask, eh? So: If you're having troubles similar to mine, send a note to ibm-m...@akphs.com and let me know. I'm asking you to use that address because it will make it easier for me to filter/collate responses. ...phsiii --- Traffic since March 1 in posts/day: Fri 1 Mar: 32 Sat 2 Mar: 9 Sun 3 Mar: 7 Mon 4 Mar: 42 Tue 5 Mar: 16 Wed 6 Mar: 25 Thu 7 Mar: 35 Fri 8 Mar: 14 Sat 9 Mar: 7 Sun 10 Mar: 3 Mon 11 Mar: 2 Tue 12 Mar: 11 Wed 13 Mar: 18 Thu 14 Mar: 46 Fri 15 Mar: 31 Sat 16 Mar: 20 Sun 17 Mar: 30 Mon 18 Mar: 17 Tue 19 Mar: 26 Wed 20 Mar: 34 Thu 21 Mar: 6 Fri 22 Mar: 10 Sat 23 Mar: 6 Sun 24 Mar: 12 Mon 25 Mar: 11 Tue 26 Mar: 28 Wed 27 Mar: 7 Thu 28 Mar: 36 Fri 29 Mar: 4 Sat 30 Mar: 3 Sun 31 Mar: 7 Mon 1 Apr: 6 Tue 2 Apr: 6 Wed 3 Apr: 17 Thu 4 Apr: 7 Fri 5 Apr: 6 -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Fwd: VM OpenEdition announcement letters
Cross posting this to VM-List. I know I don't have the info he is after. Steve Thompson Forwarded Message Subject:VM OpenEdition announcement letters Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2024 12:56:32 + From: Seymour J Metz Reply-To: IBM Mainframe Discussion List To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main Does anybody have links for announcement letters on 1. The change of VM OpenEdition from optional to standard 2. The name change from OpenEdition to OpenExtensions ? Thanks -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Is our LIST Active
It is working for me. On 3/26/2024 5:47 PM, wrote: I have not seen activity for a while. Is there a problem with the server? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: VSAM split activity and statistic questions
Yes, you can have a CA split without a CI split. You add a record that needs to go into a new cylinder because there is no room in the current one. Take, for instance, a file that has records added to it using the date and time for the key. Now you add 20 records, so we will say that 5 records will fill a cylinder for our argument. Assuming it hasn't changed, each cylinder is a CA. So you fill up a CA and then have to go to a new one. There are no CI splits in doing this with the proviso that the records are added in sequentially increasing order. CI splits happen when you need to insert in the "middle" of a CA and it causes the split and this requires there to be free space when that happens (if free space is specified which can be "ALTERed" in after initially loaded). HTHs Steve Thompson On 3/14/2024 5:49 PM, Pommier, Rex wrote: Hello list, I have a couple questions about VSAM KSDS and splits. For example, if I create a KSDS with FSPC(0 0) and load it, there is no free space in it. I then come along and try to insert a record somewhere in the middle of a CI. This will result in a CI split which will then result in a CA split. Does this sequence result in both a CI and CA split in the VSAM statistics? Assuming that this scenario results in an increment in both the CI and CA split counts, is there any way a VSAM dataset can incur a CA split without a corresponding CI split? I am looking at a test VSAM that was built with minimal free space (3 0) and then it had a batch job run against it, doing inserts, deletes and a minor amount of updates. Once the job ended I looked at the statistics and found this: SPLITS-CI--50319 SPLITS-CA--50555 Variable length records, average length 380, max length 4500. CISZ 18432. Non spanned records. How can I have 200 more CA splits than CI splits? Thanks, Rex -- 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 -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Mainframer Lunch
I'm interested. Steve Thompson On 3/12/2024 10:41 PM, wrote: Hey, I would like to have a LUNCH get together with any mainframer's in the Indianapolis Indiana area. Maybe once a month? If interested, let me know ming...@prodigy.net David Mingee 317 903-9455 Thanks -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: RACF, external password management
Hi Frank: 2FA, where it calls you to get a code, or prompts you for a code off some security device (RSA?) will be per logon attempt. Now, if you have a session manager (of some kind), that may only require one response with the "token" they want, and the session manager may then not trigger 2FA for each logon under its control. In the remote logons I've done, Cisco was effectively the session manager and handled the initial connection to customer site (using VPN). Once authenticated, it was basically a single sign-on -- with the exception of TSO and other Mainframe specific access/logons, but 2FA was not activated in that case. YMMV as usual. Steve Thompson On 3/1/2024 5:49 PM, Frank Swarbrick wrote: I have a curious question about MFA on z/OS. Does each login require a different token? Meaning, if I log on to TSO and to CICS, can I use the same token? I ask because I log on and off to various CICS regions throughout the day, and I'd hate to have to get a new token for each login. (We don't use MFA right now, except for our mainframe "outsourcer" teams (Kyndryl). I wish that you could just "logon to VTAM," as it were, and it would log you in to each VTAM application you use. I don't think this is available right now, correct me if I'm wrong! Frank From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Timothy Sipples Sent: Thursday, February 29, 2024 11:24 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: RACF, external password management Linda Hagedorn wrote: This is very promising. Do you know where I can read more about ZMFA? The documentation landing page is here: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zma I'm interested in knowing how to configure the external source, and how the token is passed back to RACF, and how long the token lasts. For example, if systems programmers are working a problem, we wouldn't want the token to expire in 3 hrs. Or does the token last for the duration of the session? If tso/ispf times out (sysprog is doing research or answering mgmt questions), will they have to generate a new token? If for example you’re configuring ZMFA to use a LDAP server as an “external” factor then this landing page has further details: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zma/2.3.0?topic=customization-configuring-ldap I put the word external in quotation marks because the LDAP server could be z/OS’s LDAP server or some other LDAP server running on the same IBM Z machine. And LDAP is just one example. Many “external” and external factors’ interfaces are supported. You can configure ZMFA for “out-of-band” authentication so that users obtain what’s called a “cache token credential” (CTC) to log into RACF (via TSO/E for example). You can choose whether the CTC is reusable and how quickly it expires. https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zma/2.3.0?topic=policies-setting-policy-token-timeout https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zma/2.3.0?topic=policies-setting-cache-token-credential-be-reusable — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity IBM Z/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific sipp...@sg.ibm.com -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: RACF, external password management
I think the exit point(s) mentioned by others is(are) where you would check the clear text against those common passwords, and reject that password change at that point. Specifically to your question "any development to ingest": Unless you can find a vendor to provide you with such, your "shop" may have to do this, updating the table (or disk file) that contains the proscribed passwords. And another thing you have to think about: Can you set rules that could keep such passwords from being tried? Let's say they all have in common the use of $$, or ## or some such, so you would restrict any character from being repeated. But at the same time, suppose this is only seen in passwords of less than 10 characters... [I've been exposed to many different systems with different rules]. Not that you would want to go this far, but you may need to go to 2FA, depending on how secure you have to be (that could be a pain in your submit a job to change pswd Another question: How do you make up your user-IDs? Now looking at the common passwords, can one know what user id was associated? This goes to the exposure you have to these common passwords. How many attempts to user-id revoked? How does one get their id restored? Suppose you are logged on, and a dictionary attack is done and your ID is now flagged as revoked. How do you get out of this? Many things to think about. But mostly what is your exposure to an attack? What if I wanted to shut down your biz? If I know how all of your user-ids are constructed, and I can get access to your system, somehow, and do dictionary attacks to cause all IDs to get revoked.... It has been done. Steve Thompson On 2/29/2024 12:44 PM, Linda Hagedorn wrote: Do you know if there's any development to ingest the list of passwords known to be involved in breaches, and match RACF password changes against them? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: RACF, external password management
Hi Linda: Could you define common passwords? Are we talking about commonly used passwords? Or are we talking about a password that is common to multiple users IDs? Suppose you were to use three Chars and then numbers to make up a TSO ID. These are the IDs used by people that do not need access to system level datasets other than read (PROCLIBs, MACRO, COPY, etc.). So for an example we have ABC01234. So ABC needs a second ID (I'm used to having 3 or more), so we have ABC1234, ABC1235, ABC1237 (someone else got in there). Are these three prohibited from having the same password? Now, take me for example. Not only do I have those IDs that I use for programming, looking at DUMPS and tests, I also have an ID for updating certain system files. So we will do this one differently. ABCX001 is my system level ID. I would NOT have it have the same password, but you might want to enforce that. RACF, as I understand it, may have the ability to keep a history so that a password can't be reused within 6 months or 9 90day cycles which ever is more restrictive. (I had to take RACF admin classes, I don't remember a lot because I never intended to be a RACF admin - it was needed for "SAF" and product security). So are these questions and "contrived" circumstances matching your situation for what you have to handle? Another thing that has to be recognized -- changing of passwords too often can result in problems for history. But changing not often enough is a different exposure. So, is this being driven by auditors, or something else? Steve Thompson On 2/28/2024 4:35 PM, Linda Hagedorn wrote: My company wants an external password manager to substitute for RACF. I need to know if anyone has experience with this, or common password matching in RACF. Background Regulations NYDFS require preventing common passwords to be used. Vendor tools (Courion, CyberArk, etc.) have a corpus to match password changes to prevent the use of common passwords. RACF passwords can be changed from TSO, the internal reader, JCL, Candle Session manager, etc., so trying to block password changing through RACF and forcing everyone through one of these 3rd party tools may be near impossible. Any input is appreciated. Thanks! Linda -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Signing off
I had to re-read that line "first started on an ICL 1904" a few times before I my brain realized that was a model number and not a year. Blue skies and tail winds. Enjoy your next set of activities. Regards, Steve Thompson On 2/26/2024 2:51 PM, Sean Gleann wrote: This list has been a great source of ideas and information, although I've never really been a 'contributor' here, but more of a 'lurker'. Whenever I've seen a thread that I might be able to respond to, someone else gets in first with a response very similar to the one that I thought of. So, I hope you won't mind me speaking up now to say that it's time for this tired old mainframer to toddle off into the sunset... after 50 years of working with mainframe systems, I feel it's time to hang up my keyboard and call it a day. I first started on an ICL 1904 - punched cards, paper tape, core memory, 60MB disks, GEORGE II - but quickly saw the light and moved to another employer that used a 360/30 roughly 8 years after the series was first marketed. Since then, aside from a brief entanglement with a Burroughs B4700, it's been IBM all the way. I have to say that it's (mostly) been a lot of fun. From one aspect, I've never really worked a day in my life. Instead, I've been paid a lot of money to play on other people's expensive toys. Here's wishing all of you good luck and good fortune for the future. I'll be thinking about doing some travelling - haven't made it to South America or Africa yet. Regards Sean o'bhaile na Gleann -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: [EXTERNAL] Question
Serena Developed it -- well, I know they were working on it and I had talked with them about a few things. Short story about this. I have forgotten all the names. ACS was based in Dallas TX. They thought they knew everything. I was hired to be a developer for ACS/WYLBUR (they had acquired OBS). I tried to explain to Dallas HQ that software development should not be done in a production MVS image. Especially if they had access to an APF library they could update (which I also happened to have). So Serena was doing testing of the startup and shutdown of Changeman after hours WestCoast. As I recall, we were losing an address space about every 10 minutes (This was about 9PM when I noticed it -- just as I wanted to leave for home). I checked the system and told the SVP (who was still in the office) for our location that come morning, we would be very short of address spaces for TSO users. Dallas HQ said we had to wait until the weekend to IPL, period. I got told by the SVP that, if I knew any special tricks that would not leave any finger prints, crash the system because we would be unable to get into TSO in the morning. Better to IPL and recover now than have irate customers in the morning. So I had a short routine that was APF authorized and I set the Master Sched ASCB to have the Eyecatcher of aSCB. About 10 seconds after that job ran, MVS Loaded a hard wait. Everyone that looked at the dump was using a 3278 in UPPER case. So no one noticed the lower case a in the ASCB eyecatcher. Yes, I had it in writing that I was to do that. Steve Thompson On 2/23/2024 11:32 AM, Pommier, Rex wrote: We use it for change control. We use it for Cobol, assembler, DYLs, JCL CICS maps etc. Opentext got it when they acquired MicroFocus who got it when they acquired Serena. IDK if Serena acquired it from somebody else or if they developed it. It does what we need it to do. I'm not that familiar with it as it is primarily used by our development staff and one of my cohorts handles its primary care and feeding. Rex -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Steve Beaver Sent: Friday, February 23, 2024 10:22 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: [EXTERNAL] Question What does anyone know about Opentext Changeman? Regards, Steve -- 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 -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: [Very much off-topic] Re: AI is the real deal.
Right now there is a move within the US Fed Gov't to convert ALC to Java. They need ALC programmers that know the old style programming because some of this code predates MVS/XA. Just say'n'. Steve Thompson On 2/22/2024 12:29 PM, Dave Beagle wrote: I don’t deny there will be assembler code running. It’s just that you won’t need assembler programmers. It’s been shrinking for decades as a needed skillset. Explains why hardly anyone teaches it and why assembler coding jobs are few. Also explains why the Assembler listserv is almost dead. Ray Mullins, many of whom would consider an expert agrees with me. Called it a niche skill. To deny the fact that companies are spending large amounts of time and money on AI is certainly a fools proposition. Literally, every IT company on the planet is falling over themselves to get a piece of that pie. Those who aren’t are going to have a hard time surviving. Even non IT companies can see a huge benefit and payoff from it. This will be the most important IT venture to date. People who want it to solve complex problems while AI is in its infancy, aren’t thinking straight. AI is going to change everything in the next decade or so. Anyone who is wondering what skills will be highly paid in the next 20 years, I’ll guarantee AI will be near the top. Plus, I’ve coded in numerous languages since 1980. Done just about everything in IT. Was right about the mainframe being around for decades to come circa 1995 as many here kept saying the mainframe was dead. Dave Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Thursday, February 22, 2024, 11:54 AM, Tom Harper <05bfa0e23abd-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Dave, I was told the same thing 54 years ago when I starting working at CalTrans. Managers would just be able to code in COBOL PROFITS = SALES - EXPENSES and we would all be out of a job. Of course, there are more programmers now than at any time in history. The question of assembler comes up from time to time, and the question has more nuances than you might think. As it turns out, there are lines of code and lines of executed code. What that means is that lines of code that are executed frequently are seldom written in a compiled language but are instead written in assembler. A good example is sort. In the 1970s sort typically used about a third of all processor and channel resources on a mainframe. Today that number is far lower, in the mid-teens despite the fact that much more data is being sorted. The reason for this is that some very brilliant assembler programmers at SyncSort and the IBM Dfsort team wrote code to highly optimize sorting and related functions. I’m counting PL/S as essentially assembler in this instance. The same is true at BMC Software and my own company Phoenix Software International: highly optimized assembler code greatly improved performance. Even though there are almost uncountable lines of COBOL code, it makes for a tiny fraction of executed code. Most compiled languages execute a few instructions and then invoke a CICS, IMS, or DB2 function. Starting in the 1980s, corporations the world over began to understand that it was much more cost-effective to buy or lease software from a vendor than develop it in house. These developers left the end-user companies and went to software houses where they primarily write in assembler. Now ever piece of software usually has parts that are not performance-sensitive, so they might get written in C++ or Rex or some other compiled language. I’ve grown up with software, having written my first program in 1960. Assembler won’t be gone in five years or anytime can the foreseeable future. So I would revisit your thoughts. Tom Harper Phoenix Software International Sent from my iPhone On Feb 22, 2024, at 11:07 AM, Dave Beagle <0525eaef6620-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Assembler programming will be almost nonexistent in 5 years. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Thursday, February 22, 2024, 10:32 AM, Robert Prins <05be6ef5bfea-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: AI? More AS! This is on LinkedIn, it's AI generated and you can probably sue them for jaw-dislocation due to excessive laughter: < https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-developers-take-ownership-bugs-skills-system-development-x9cve On Wed, 21 Feb 2024 at 23:37, Dave Beagle < 0525eaef6620-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: Well, today was NVIDIA earnings day. They are the bellwether for AI. Theirs is the premier AI chip commanding top dollar. And they didn’t disappoint. Their revenues are up 400% in the last year. To 22 billion in the latest quarter. They’ve got another chip on tap this year which should continue the incredible growth. If you had invested $10,000 five years ago, you’d have earned 2000%, and would have $200,000. If you had invested $10,000 ten years ago, you’d have earned over 16,465%. And have 1
Re: Something keeps releasing space on a large (annual) DS
Ask the storage guys about the preferred method to allocate a
file that will get very large during production runs. And you
don't want production to fail with a storage ABEND. And let them
know about the current behavior. They may have made a change that
is the cause of your problem.
Then you can modify the REXX code to include the class info they
give you.
Also, I suggest you allocate in CYLS not TRKS in the case they
are doing compression of space on data sets allocated in tracks...
I've seen various odd things done to recover space for files that
can't be on the tracks after 65xxx (forgot the last track
accessible by the old NOTE/POINT that causes products like
Panvalet to break).
And if I remember correctly, compression/decompression is done by
the access method. Double check to make sure this isn't a VSAM
thing.
I've not had to deal with these features for a few years So
things slip from one's mind.
Steve Thompson
On 2/21/2024 2:33 PM, Bob Bridges wrote:
Ooh, now that's interesting! The content of this file would lend itself
well to compression - all alphanumeric with a few parens, colons and the
like. But what happens when someone needs to view it? Does it compress
automatically or is another step required?
It's not something I can bring up now, because everyone's busy with a z/OS
upgrade. But next month...
---
Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313
/* For Sale: Parachute. Only used once, never opened, small stain. */
-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of
Michael Oujesky
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2024 13:49
You might consider SMS compression to reduce the physical size of the file.
If you do, change the BLKSIZE to 32760 as SMS compression writes full tracks
and the BLKSIZE becomes logical (the size of the buffer used in passing date
to/from the application).
--- At 11:44 AM 2/21/2024, Bob Bridges wrote:
I'm not a sysprog (just a security geek), but I can at least allocate
datasets, and at the start of this year it fell to me to allocate a new
dataset in which are logged all changes made in the security system.
Past year's log are in the 12000-track range, so I started with a
smaller allocation while I took the time to talk to our sysprog about
space requirements. It's populated from a daily production job, by the
way.
When I re-allocated it, on his advice I tried a multi-volume and
extended allocation (PS-E). Almost immediately the job started
bombing, claiming that the first four volumes it tried didn't have the
necessary space to add an extension. The sysprog is puzzled - says it
should have looked in volumes that DO have the space, not the ones that
don't.
Second attempt (I don't count the temporary smaller allocation) I kept
PS-E but dropped the multi-volume requirement. I've never done one of
those anyway, and don't trust 'em. The system promptly dropped the
extra tracks I allocated, and a day or two later the job started
bombing with a B37-04.
Third attempt: Forget PS-E (I'm unfamiliar with that too) and just used
SPACE=(TRK,(9000,1000)). That seemed to work for a whole week, but I
just noticed that something, somewhere, has released extra space AGAIN;
3.4 tells me it's now 1960 tracks and 83%. The job isn't bombing yet;
some time later in the year I'm guessing it's going to.
Pardon my frustration: WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? Why does it keep
releasing space although I never specified RLSE? The sysprog doesn't
know either - but he's an external contractor who just took over the
system a few months ago and if it's something simple he may not be
aware yet of ... I dunno, something in SMS maybe?
Some wrinkles that may or may not be relevant:
1) The dataset is written using a REXX exec that calculates the DSN by
reference to the current year. This relieves folks from having to
update the JCL every year, but maybe something about the way the exec
does the allocate is causing the problem? I'm guessing not, because as
far as I now this job has run correctly for years. But just in case:
"ALLOC DDN(CHG$$OT) DSN('') MOD CATALOG REUSE",
"SPACE(300,30) CYLINDERS RECFM(V,B) LRECL(304) BLKSIZE(27998)"
2) I don't know anything about SMS, but could something there be
releasing space?
3) What IS extended PS, anyway? I'm told it allows more than 16
extents, but a) how many more? And b) how else is it different?
4) I allocated the dataset each time using not batch JCL but 3.2 ...
expecting there's no difference.
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Re: Question
Yes. If you go this route, and you have your own file server(s) and backup systems, the first thing you do is uninstall ONEDRIVE. You may find that after doing this, you may have issues with Word and XL. (we did with W10) If you do not, it will back up various folders to the M/S cloud. And I think once you cross the limit (not sure what it is), you may start getting billed by M/$ for space for all your data it is backing up for you. Steve Thompson On 2/20/2024 1:36 PM, Steve Beaver wrote: I have run MS Office 2010 for years. Has anyone in the group Subscribed to Office 365 since there is No more MS Office. I also have my own domain for email Thanks Steve -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Principles of Op
On 2/19/2024 5:25 PM, Tony Harminc wrote: On Mon, 19 Feb 2024 at 16:50, Steve Thompson wrote: Thanx. I'm rather tired of IBM making people get an account just to download a free manual. Sorry Ed. I had thought that the Tech Library was still a simple click and download -- I'd been to that one. The first Google hit takes me to a clickable link to https://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/a227832d.pdf which doesn't require any signin. I opened it in a new FF Multi-account container, so it wasn't using some IBM cookies or local storage authenticator that I had leftover from a previous login. Tony H. Thanks. I had gotten to what appears to have been an older Tech Library and got a 2001(?) PoP. And I thought there should be a later one. Meanwhile someone had sent the "z16" one via private email. Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Principles of Op
Thanx. I'm rather tired of IBM making people get an account just to download a free manual. Sorry Ed. I had thought that the Tech Library was still a simple click and download -- I'd been to that one. On 2/19/2024 4:12 PM, Joe Monk wrote: linux.mainframe.blog Joe On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 2:46 PM Steve Thompson wrote: Any one know where IBM is hiding this now? I've been searching for this to find the latest copy, and I'm getting nowhere. I used to be able to put in IBM TECH LIBRARY and it would be in with the z/OS manuals. Can't seem to find it now. Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Principles of Op
Any one know where IBM is hiding this now? I've been searching for this to find the latest copy, and I'm getting nowhere. I used to be able to put in IBM TECH LIBRARY and it would be in with the z/OS manuals. Can't seem to find it now. Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Tn3270 back door
So you sometimes have to treat z/OS like Winderz ;-) Steve Thompson On 2/16/2024 1:29 PM, Geza Szentmiklosy wrote: You need to stop and start the TN3270 port to pick up the new cert. The PAGENT refresh was needed also but you have already done that. You can stop/start the port by: 1 - TCPIP VARY commands. 2 - Recycle TCPIP. 3 - IPL. Good luck. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Insecure security -- When broken how far it may reach.....
Reading the articles, I find a similar thing that is done: Paying for a year of ID theft insurance or some such. Here is the situation for those of us that were part of the OPM cracking from 2015: Random attempts to open bank accounts by bad actors in our name (which ever one of us it happens/ed to be) Random attempts to open credit accounts by bad actors in our name (which ever one it happens to). So OPM did the one year thing to find out that it would have to become permanent. So I get regular notices of attempts to open an account. One person I personally know who was in law enforcement and worked with Secret Service and Home land security is constantly having problems like this. My point is, once this has happened, you never know when you are going to get hit and from what direction. And so these guys think that 1 year of such "protection" is going to help. And for those of you who own property, you might want to make sure that you get notified if there is any activity, such as a lien for some credit thing, or even a quit claim deed being filed. You might have your property sold out from under you. Just say'n'. BTW -- that OPM crack included data on people that were not getting clearances, but had to be talked with about the person applying for the clearance(s). So this even included foreign nationals that one is related to!! So depending on the entity that is cracked, the information gets into the dark web and it may include people that didn't even know they had anything to do with the entity that got cracked. Security on mainframes (and others) sometimes has a greater reach when cracked than we realize. Steve Thompson On 2/15/2024 10:54 AM, P H wrote: Passwords and hackers. Is there anything safe? https://eandt.theiet.org/2024/02/15/southern-water-admits-data-breach-may-impact-nearly-half-million-customers?utm_source=related-content-bullet-list https://eandt.theiet.org/2024/02/15/state-sponsored-hackers-using-ai-cyber-attacks-microsoft-warns?utm_campaign=E%2BT%20News%20-%20Template%20Redesign%2015%20Feb%20%28Split%20test%29&utm_content=E%26T%20News%20-%20Members&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Adestra&utm_term=865089 Sent from Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Jack Zukt <059cd493dd41-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2024 3:25:18 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Insecure security - was SDSF PS Command column Hi Bill, I can relate to your suspicions about password managers. Not to long ago Lastpass found out that they have been hacked, which must have been a big problem for its end users (which, fortunately I am not). On the other hand, I have way too many passwords to be manageable without a password manager. So, I use not one, but two. With different master passwords. And using a password manager will not prevent you from sharing passwords with trusted friends. I usually tell my colleagues that use excel or notepad to keep their passwords to try and use keepass. It is as easy to use as those methods but far for secure. Regards Jack -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Insecure security - was SDSF PS Command column
I have disabled the camera in my laptop, and put painter's tape over it (because we found out some years ago when I was an IBM employee, that there was a way to have your camera turned on, and the indicator light to not light up). So in Teams (and related), all you see for me is a blue cloud if the camera gets activated. Hmmm. Never thought about the relationship there Oh well. And I do the same with my cell phone's cameras. Electrical tape (Black, Red, Green, etc.) is very gummy and kind of greasy. Getting that cleaned off is sometimes a chore. Just say'n' Steve Thompson On 2/14/2024 9:08 PM, Tom Brennan wrote: When I'm home my laptop is on a shelf under my desk, connected to a KVM switch so I can swap to it using my desktop keyboard and screen. I had standard black electrical tape covering the camera and on a meeting I expected to see black for my image, but I saw legs (in pants). I'm guessing the camera is somewhat sensitive to infrared. Doubling and tripling the tape didn't even help that much, so I taped a penny across the lens. On 2/14/2024 2:24 PM, Michael Oujesky wrote: Won't work when there is electical tape across the camera lens. Webcam when they open the binder to enter the password. -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: Insecure security - was SDSF PS Command column
Painter's tape for when I really do need to use the camera. On 2/14/2024 5:29 PM, Pommier, Rex wrote: Mine's a gum wrapper. 😊 -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Michael Oujesky Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2024 4:25 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Insecure security - was SDSF PS Command column Won't work when there is electical tape across the camera lens. Webcam when they open the binder to enter the password. -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- 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 -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
AI strikes again in another court...
This is from a Legal news paper (as it were) [law360.com] AI-Generated Fake Case Law Leads To Sanctions In Wage Suit By Rose Krebs The owner of a Missouri-based technology business that was ordered to pay an ex-employee roughly $311,000 in unpaid wages, damages and legal costs was sanctioned Tuesday by an appellate court for briefing "deficiencies," including *submitting fake cases generated by artificial intelligence. * --- How many more of these kinds of things are we going to see if we do not find a way to, in the hardware(?), effect laws to stop this (I keep thinking of Isaac Asimov's fiction about robotics...) What will keep us from having "creative accounting" that humans just wouldn't be able to "audit"? Imagine the IRS (or other national tax agency) implementing AI that is not neutral, but shaded toward the state Yes this can be done on any platform, but this ability can also be used by bad actors to exploit holes in security and that includes Mainframes. Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: SDSF PS Command column
Seymour, this is a very interesting observation you made. I'm now experiencing similar With a certain banking system we use, you logon, and then you have to prove you are the person you say you are by providing more information. While having 2 factor authentication. With a certain cell provider, you have to login, then provide your PIN, then tell them your IMEI How many people have that information memorized? At some point we make being secure, *insecure,* because we won't talk to you because we can't be sure you are who you say you are, even with 2 factor authentication, and your password. Corporate paranoia. Steve Thompson On 2/13/2024 11:31 PM, Seymour J Metz wrote: The problem is not auditors; it is incompetent auditors. In the Army they taught us that preventing authorized access is a security violation. An unthinking automatic timeout is a DOS attack when it prevents running an annual job. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Farley, Peter <031df298a9da-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 12:27 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: SDSF PS Command column I am constantly amazed at how much this whole “zero trust” meme is violating the concept of sharing everything among application developers. I for one have no qualms about any other application programmer at my shop seeing any coding I am doing (though I might be occasionally embarrassed by my own dumb mistakes). It is not “innocent” to share access to application programming information and styles and pitfalls, it is crucial to application programmer development and advancement. We learn from each other, especially from sharing our mistakes as well as our best practices and clever innovations. Add to that stupid security rules like “if you didn’t access this resource for the last 180 days we revoke your access to that resource”, which causes all kinds of headaches when you have to suddenly deal with issues in a yearly weekend production process and you don’t have read rights to the data files you need to view to resolve the issue and the security team only works 9 to 5 weekdays and the on-call is out shopping somewhere. Shakespeare was almost right – first get rid of all the auditors, the lawyers are easy to deal with compared to them. Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 11:02 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: SDSF PS Command column On Mon, 5 Feb 2024 11:02:07 +, Rob Scott wrote: ... As to "why don't you just fix it ?"tstyle questions, we have to consider quite a few compatibility issues across n-2 releases especially when the "fix" requires changes to configuration and security ... Such as users' embedding cryptographic keys in commands? Ugh! UNIX arose in a more innocent age when no one worried much about such as: ls -lt /u -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Reading a scratch tape
I had been thinking about that while working on something else and as soon as you said the EXCP part Some years ago I was working on NDM and was running all these tape tests using NDM (function testing as a result of prepping a new Release or Version). A few months later, as I recall, we got a letter from IBM announcing that EXCP would no longer be supported for SCSI type tape drives. As I recall, our EXCP code was still being used to read tape labels EXCP code could allow one to position a tape and read it without the system checking for labels, etc. Since I haven't touched that code or any like it for about 10 years, I wonder if VTS code in z/OS would allow EXCP. Meanwhile, EXCP would allow a data security exposure, wouldn't it? Unless it requires APF... On 2/8/2024 5:19 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: rpomm...@sfgmembers.com> wrote: In the "scratch category" settings, you can set an "expire hold" field that tells the TS77xx how long to keep an expired tape before releasing it to scratch. I believe that once that threshold is crossed, the TS77xx rewrites the tape mark to the beginning of the tape and all data is lost - unless IBM has some magic they can preform on the back end. "Expired" but not really!? This makes as little sense as expecting to read a temporary data set in a subsequent job. With a physical tape one might EXCP, bypass errors, and recover some data. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Connect:Direct question
I can make a suggestion. But if this fails, the following
questions would need to be addressed.
SYSOPTS=("STORCLAS=RKF1 DATACLAS=EXT") -
Don't know if that will work. I've not worked on/with NDM on a daily basis for
about 4 years now.
Why do you have to specify storclass and dataclas for the
receiving entity? Does it not have ACS rules to handle this?
Secondly, could you provide any error messages relative to the
sysopts processing?
One other thought: Can you do a run task on the other system to
define the dataset and then do the xfer?
Steve Thompson
On 1/31/2024 8:50 AM, Gadi Ben-Avi wrote:
Hi,
I am trying to transfer a file using Connect:Direct from one z/OS system to
another.
I need to specify both STORCLAS and DATACLAS.
This is what I am writing:
CPYSEQ PROCESS-
SNODE=RTST
COPY1 COPY-
FROM (DSN=G120NTN.KVTNKSP.UNLOAD-
DISP=SHR -
PNODE -
) -
TO (DSN=G120NTN.KVTNKSP.UNLOAD-
DISP=(NEW,CATLG) -
SPACE=(CYL,(999,),RLSE) -
SYSOPTS="STORCLAS=RKF1 DATACLAS=EXT" -
SNODE -
)
And I keep getting errors.
How to I specify more than one parameter in SYSOPTS. I've tried writing a comma
between the parameters with the same results.
Thanks
Gadi
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Re: How can I determine the User Name associated with the current Batch JOB RACF ID?
Great point. CICS is a good example. Connect:Direct is another. On 1/30/2024 3:21 PM, Jon Perryman wrote: You can get it from ACEEUNAM. The intended interface is likely one of the RACROUTE variants (EXTRACT?). Also keep in mind multi-user address spaces and that you are referencing the correct ACEE. MUSAS can occur in unexpected places. E.g. Just because your TSO address space is single user does not mean embedded TSO in my products address space is single user. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish*
Hi Cheryl: It has been a great run. You will be missed. Sorry to hear you are shutting down the company. I can tell you from those I've known who have retired, stay active. Physically and mentally. Regards, Steve Thompson On 1/22/2024 11:33 PM, Cheryl Watson wrote: * For those too young to remember, check out Wiki Hi all, I’m retiring, but first want to send out a thank you to all the IBM-Mainers still posting, as well as those who are no longer active. IBM-Main has provided a life-line to me at times when I had nowhere else to turn. (I remember one night at 3 am, where I was stuck on a problem, and found someone who could help me here.) I’ve found IBM-Main a wonderful place to learn new tricks, ponder the pros and cons of different approaches, and learn from some of the brightest in the industry. (I have to admit that I tend to ignore the posts that delve into the far annals of time, because I’m more focused on what is happening now.) I haven’t been too active recently because Frank Kyne, our outstanding Editor and President has been more involved in the technical side of things. But I want you all to know how valuable this group has been to me since it started. (Yes, I was one of those at the very beginning.) For more info on our retirement, please see our blog post at https://watsonwalker.com/were-retiring/. Thanks from the bottom of my heart! All my best, Cheryl Watson == Cheryl Watson Walker, CEO Watson & Walker, Inc. Sarasota, FL USA www.watsonwalker.com Cell/Text: 941-266-6609 == -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Another Getting away from the mainframe tale
Along those lines, if you get an office 365 subscription, bundled into this is one-drive. So unless you specifically save documents to a file server or on/in your computer (you do not use a one-drive path) you are using M/$ cloud. And what I have found is, if you turn off one-drive, Word, XL, and others have problems with saving, restoring data. But not if you have them using a file server. ?!? And this means as soon as you create a new spreadsheet/document/powerpoint/etc. you have to do a "save as" to the file server. Now, enterprise users of windows & Office, whole nuther thing. Steve Thompson On 1/22/2024 7:42 AM, Radoslaw Skorupka wrote: W dniu 20.01.2024 o 00:34, Steve Beaver pisze: The more they want to move away the harder it becomes. A few years ago Coca-Cola moved to AWS but I have no idea how They did it possible with Micro-Focus Cobol Move to cloud? Read details. I know some large financial companies which also "moved to cloud". And they still run mainframe. What is the truth? BOTH. They migrated MS Office to the cloud. *Partially*. Partially, because some docx or xlsx files containing data protected by the bank law cannot be kept in the cloud. What did they save? It is kept secret, but the guys form IT told me it is a lot of headache and no server or storage was released. People? Nobody fired, a dozen "cloud specialists" hired. Mainframe? Still processing the business transactions. So, if you want to follow trends just move anything small (and not crucial) to the cloud and you may say "Yes, obviously we use the cloud". -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Another Getting away from the mainframe tale -- Jammed it in Reverse...
They migrated to that mainframe environment as quickly as they could. A reverse Boot Hill story. Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Another Getting away from the mainframe tale
I can't resist this. A certain Electric Utility asked some consultants about how to remediate for Y2K. They were told the best way to do it was to migrate off their mainframe to some fad app/language. So they made the cut some months before Y2K and reports they had done on demand (where do we have xxx Transformer(s) and yyy steel angle iron) kind of things so they could repair downed lines after a tornado or straight line winds, now had to scheduled a week in advance of when they needed them. No joke. A few years go by and they have a chance to buy out another electric utility. And that entity was running on a mainframe. Guess what they did next? Steve Thompson On 1/19/2024 2:55 PM, Bob Bridges wrote: Yes, Tim, perennially entertaining. A client I did some work for a couple years ago has been working on a two-year project to dump their mainframe for the past six years; they're still plugging away at it. A year ago they got new a new mainframe box which of course involved upgrading z/OS and a bunch of attendant apps. But it turned out that an old app X wouldn't play nice with the new Omegamon, so they had to put the new mainframe hardware on the shelf for a while. I hear they just finished replacing app X, and are now (re)embarked on the project to upgrade z/OS and all the other stuff and take their shiny new mainframe off the shelf. I haven't yet asked my contacts there how this works with their goal of getting rid of the mainframe. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Another Getting away from the mainframe tale
Since this is a city, any way of getting reports that would allow you to see how much it cost to go off their mainframe? And then any way to project the cost of now (what ever architecture) to say a z14? I think it could be instructive. Steve Thompson On 1/19/2024 1:42 PM, Tim Ribble wrote: Greetings all, Haven't posted here in quite some time but I thought it'd be fun to post another "getting off the mainframe" story. Been working for the City of San Antonio for 25 years now. I started as part of the mainframe staff and that was my primary function until 2009 when it was decided to move away from the mainframe. In the intervening years, my primary function moved to storage/backup systems which made sense for me since I dealt heavily with storage/backup operations on the mainframe and HDS storage. We were supposed to be off the mainframe by 30 Sep 2012 but here we are in 2024 and it's still running production applications. It's just a handful but they're critical. So here I am maintaining both a z/890 & HDS USP-V with no IBM or Hitachi support (just hardware support contracts from third party vendors). I'm now hearing we'll be off of it by Nov of this year. You think I'm going to hold my breath? I may actually retire before it's gone. Anyway, I just thought this audience may be amused by this. Cheers all, Tim -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Opinion
I have used a curved screen and I have used flat screens as monitors for doing programming and monitoring of LPARs (VM and or z/OS). Curved was something over 30" and flat was a 43" 4K monitor. The curved screen, if you are in the middle, you can just use your eyes to look left or right, the characters will the same to you. On a flat screen you may need to move a bit toward what you are trying to see for it to be in correct focus (not closer to the screen but to the left or right towards the area having the data you want to look at. The further you get from a flat screen the less of a problem this is in my experience. To make my point, if you have three or more monitors, side by side, you will slightly turn the outer ones towards you, effecting to some small degree, a curved screen. So try it with 3 monitors of very similar or same geometry. Do you put them side by side pointing straight ahead, or do you take the left and right ones and turn them slightly towards you? The larger the viewing area, the more the curved screen works for you. So my opinion is, if you gots the $$$ get the curved screen. Steve Thompson On 1/15/2024 5:42 PM, Bob Bridges wrote: Tell me why. I'm trying to visualize, and can't see why curved would make a big difference. I'm interested in being persuaded, though. --- Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end (purpose) of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may. -Martin Luther King, Jr. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Bill Hitefield Sent: Monday, January 15, 2024 12:38 I have not used that specific monitor, but I do use a curved monitor. Love it! For me, much better than a flat monitor. I was hooked after I tried the first one (a Samsung). -Original Message- From: Steve Beaver Sent: Monday, January 15, 2024 12:33 PM Does anyone have an opinion on LG - 49" IPS LED Curved UltraWide Dual QHD 144Hz FreeSync and G-SYNC Compatible Monitor with HDR (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB) - Black -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Technical Reason? - Why you can't encrypt load libraries (PDSE format)?
In CICS one can have encrypted and non-encrypted files open simultaneously. This is kind of a MUAS, Multiple User Address Space. I was going to mention the problem of Connect:Direct but let it go. But since the CICS thing was also brought up C:D has similar issues to CICS where it can be a stand-alone or multiple address spaces working in conjunction with each other. Think CICS-Plex, or C:D-Plex. CICS can have Terminal owning, File owning, Application owning address spaces (REgions). And can share data between them. Steve Thompson On 1/15/2024 4:08 PM, Walt Farrell wrote: On Mon, 15 Jan 2024 14:45:06 -0600, Joe Monk wrote: How would that be practical? How would you, for instance, do a batch update to an encrypted dataset from a CICS vsam file? Sorry; I don't understand the question. How do you do it today? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Opinion
Opinions in general: Having used a 4K 43" flat TV/monitor and having had access to a curved monitor once, I'd go curved every time the $$$ were available for such a device. Note: I have a 8' wide desk that is ~3' "deep". So a 43" monitor sits on the back edge of the desk, center. I sometimes have to move my chair left-right because of the lack of curvature. So my opinion is, for that wide, curved is best. Generally, because of work I've done, two of these wide curved monitors side by side is better than 1 43" and 3 30-ish inch monitors. But you have to make sure your GPU of the computer driving these has the horsepower to handle it. I also suggest you get a mount that will attach to your desk/table so you can reclaim real estate as the monitor will sit within a few inches of the top of your desk/table. Which may take up room for manuals, or whatever else you need for working. From my experience, make sure you have long enough cables so you can go from computer to monitor, without cables crossing your desk and if at all possible go wireless via a KVM switch from a single keyboard/mouse to any other system you need to have keyboard mouse for. My 2 cents. Steve Thompson On 1/15/2024 12:32 PM, Steve Beaver wrote: Does anyone have an opinion on LG - 49" IPS LED Curved UltraWide Dual QHD 144Hz FreeSync and G-SYNC Compatible Monitor with HDR (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB) - Black Steve Beaver -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Regards, Steve Thompson -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Technical Reason? - Why you can't encrypt load libraries (PDSE format)?
I've been reading this thread and the question I have is what problem are we (or you) trying to solve, or prevent? Making auditors happy who may not understand how a system functions? Trying to prevent a bad actor(s) from making the system unusable (ransomware attack?)? If we start with the IPL, how could it be encrypted and load? A bit of a problem. So if we process the IPL, and the libraries that the O/S will be loaded from and check them via a check sum. If the HMC fails this Now if we pickup the LPA as it had been from the prior IPL, we would need to know its check sums and run that again. (Shades of FIPS). But if we do a CLPA, we now have to verify every program going into LPA. So how would we checksum the whole system so we can know if it has been tampered with? Eventually we will get to "modified" code from "user" libraries. If we cause those to go through check sums we might be able to detect something wrong. But encryption of all the programs leaves us in a bad spot if someone gets a script into the system and encrypts things for us, a malware attack kind of thing. So just what is it that we are trying to stop and detect and at what point will we have to have a PROGRAM environment "set-aside" that we run from so that we avoid such a problem with programs (otherwise ones and zeros making programs data to something :) ). I've recently had a class on the process out of the HMC and I've forgotten the tech name for it but a "signed" IPL as it were. That got me to thinking about other issues, and so here we are with an IBM Main discussion on this very issue/topic. Steve Thompson On 1/14/2024 1:09 AM, ITschak Mugzach wrote: I think that another major consideration not to encrypt programs is performance. Racf exits, for example, are not getting control of program calls. Pervasive encryption is done in bulks, programs may be called thousands of time during data processing. *| **Itschak Mugzach | Director | SecuriTeam Software **|** IronSphere Platform* *|* *Information Security Continuous Monitoring for Z/OS, zLinux and IBM I **| * *|* *Email**: i_mugz...@securiteam.co.il **|* *Mob**: +972 522 986404 **|* *Skype**: ItschakMugzach **|* *Web**: www.Securiteam.co.il **|* בתאריך יום א׳, 14 בינו׳ 2024 ב-1:38 מאת Seymour J Metz : Off course they're files; they just aren't in EUnix file systems. Part of the file contents for load modules is in the directory entries, and Fetch relies on those data. As for program objects, if I knew they'd have to shoot me; I don't have FAMS. The issue on STEPLIB is simply that IBM doesn't see a business case to support it. Part of that support would be an update to APF and program control for paths. Would you want individual executables in STEPLIB, or only directories? RFE? -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Paul Gilmartin <042bfe9c879d-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2024 1:57 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Technical Reason? - Why you can't encrypt load libraries (PDSE format)? On Sat, 13 Jan 2024 18:06:24 +0100, Radoslaw Skorupka wrote: I can imagine technical reason to not encrypt such libraries. However encryption is a kind of data protection. Data. Not programs. But some load modules/program objects aren't really files. As Ifond out to my dismay as a novice when I tried to use IEBGENER to copy a load module to a different PDS. But UNIX program objects are "really files". "cp -p" works on then. But content Supervision relies heavily on the elaborate format. Part of the reason that UNIX directories don't work in STEPLIB concatenation. (Idea?) What about Format preserving encryption? Should the directory be encrypted likewise? What about driver-level encryption of virtual DASD? Unload it and encrypt the archive? What authority should be needed to use an encrypted program? W dniu 13.01.2024 o 17:28, Steve Estle pisze: Everyone, Our team is knee deep into pervasive encryption rollout on ZOS 2.5 and despite the fact such functionality has been out for years by IBM to do this, it is quite surprising how many software vendors when you contact them they have no clue what you're talking about - that is a complete aside - I'm not going to name vendors here but if you want some examples you can contact me offline. My true reason for composing this is that we've discovered the inability to encrypt load libraries - even in PDSE format. I've yet to get a straight answer from IBM on why this is?... Is this a "giant" technical hurdle for IBM? Or is it just cause there hasn't been anyone who raised the need yet? If the latter does this
Re: allowed characters in member name
Why the use of data set names enclosed with apostrophes, that are
not TSO oriented?
Back in the days when I was doing DOS to MVS migrations, to
access certain DOS data sets, you needed this because they could
contain names like this:
'PAYROLL STR 12MAY75' for either a Tape label or disk DSN. (where
STR was the ID of the company you were doing payroll for -- In
various service bureaus I've worked in).
DOS did not enforce the same restrictions as OS did (or MVS) for
"File names" (DDNAME for OS) UNTIL VSAM (IIRC). VSAM in DOS, as I
remember it, did enforce the same naming restrictions. BUT!!!
SHARE options were different because VSAM was at the "domain"
(O/S) level, for DOS where it is at the address space level for OS.
I mention this because there were migrations from DOS to
OS{MVS|z/OS) for CICS that did not take this into account and so
used multiple FILE names (DDN in MVS terms) and so cause
performance issues under MVS-OS390-z/OS if that file is not
accessed using a single DDNAME. --- I was just dealing with
such a situation with a client where the applications group
managment did not want to hear it -- because they didn't want to
make the changes that needed to be done. So IAM was brought in
which addressed those problems!!
Long ugly story. But thought there might be a few that would need
this deeper knowledge.
Also, back in the day (don't know if this is true to day with
zVSE) there was a "dirty" bit set in the VTOC (DIRM if I remember
correctly) that caused MVS to see that it may not have space
extents correct (forgot the name of the DSCB) and so would re-org
the VTOC and maybe the volume (holding a RESERVE) every time DOS
would write to such a shared volume where it would set the VTOC
dirty bit on.
Depending on what was on that volume, that RESERVE could and did
affect the DOS and MVS sides.
Some of the things we run into today were caused by some
decisions made years ago.
But as was noted, those names could be cataloged at one time in
"MVS".
Steve Thompson
On 1/8/2024 10:10 AM, Paul Gilmartin wrote:
On Mon, 8 Jan 2024 11:00:38 -, Lennie Dymoke-Bradshaw wrote:
Using quotes around the DSNAME will allow any combination of Hex chars for a
Dsname I think (possibly excluding 44X'04' which represents the VTOC). However
these are not supported for SMS datasets, nor can they be catalogued, nor can
they be protected by RACF.
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=statement-dsname-parameter
Where I read such as:
- The system ignores blank characters at the end of a data set name.
Wouldn't it be better to say, "data set names shorter than 44 ccharacters
are padded with blanks to 44"?
- Double ampersands to identify a temporary data set name. Note that
if you use apostrophes, DSNAME='&&AB' and DSNAME='&AB' refer
to the same data set.
That doesn't belong here. It's described better in "Determining Equivalent
JCL". It's incorrect here because it depends on the symbol AB being
undefined.
"Determining Equivalent JCL" states that double ampersands not enclsed
in apostrophes are reduced to single. Does this suggest that within
apostrophes they are nor so reduced?
I once tried a DSN enclosed in apostrophes ("unqualified") beginning with
a period. It failed with a syntax error. I have never found this restriction
documented.
The data set name should not contain the 44 special characters (X'04')
created by hexadecimal editing or any operation that converts the
value of characters to X'04'.
The "created by ... converts" clause is improperly restrictive. It doesn't
matter how they got there, "converted" or otherwise.
And no one has mentioned DISABLE(DSNCHECK) before now.
<https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=functions-enabling-disabling-data-set-name-validity-checking>
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Re: allowed characters in member name
Going back to hazy memories... GDGs needed the DSN specified, and the DCB info DCB=(dsn,) so that the allocation routines would correctly set the DSCB info for the data set by getting the LRECL, RECFM, etc. so that allocation would have all that. I'm not sure that DFP V3 fixed this, or SMS or what. But I remember having to remember to do these things back in the day, for SMF tapes and the like, when doing the initial allocation for a GDG generation data set (GDS) (+1, etc.). Steve Thompson On 1/7/2024 5:15 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: On Sun, 7 Jan 2024 21:50:07 +, Gibney, Dave wrote: DCB for the subparameters as been depreciated and, in my opinion, bad form for most of the 40 years I worked on mainframes. The DCB=modeldscb form used for new GDS allocations hasn't been needed since SMS came along. Early 90s'? I may recall wrong, but I think LIKE was new with SMS. Formerly needed; now deprecated. Why was it ever needed? I suspect the change was less to accommodate SMS than UNIX files, which support attributes but no DCB. Answering my earlier question (IRTFM): <https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=parameter-examples-like> Example 2 //SMSDS7 DD DSNAME=MYDS7.PGM,LIKE=MYDSCAT.PGM,DISP=(NEW,KEEP), // LRECL=1024 In the example, the data set attributes used for MYDS7.PGM are obtained from the cataloged model data set MYDSCAT.PGM. Also, the logical record length of 1024 overrides the logical record length obtained from the model data set. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: allowed characters in member name
Would that be because of a Catalog issue? As in an Alias can't contain "-"? Steve Thompson On 1/6/2024 6:18 PM, Ed Jaffe wrote: On 1/6/2024 2:14 PM, Radoslaw Skorupka wrote: For dataset names the addition is "-". This character can be used in dataset names with no tricks like name in apostrophes, uncataloged ones, etc. We tried using this for our PHX-BDT product. It worked great in the second qualifier (e.g., SYS2.PHX-BDT.SJBDMAC), but not in the first. Since we prefer to deliver product data sets with the product name as the first qualifier, we settled on using PHXBDT instead... -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: allowed characters in member name
Sounds like something NETVIEW might do. I also forgot to mention it does STOW, and so with that interface you can ignore the member name rules of JCL. Steve Thompson On 1/5/2024 3:40 PM, Nash, Jonathan S. wrote: We have a PDSE with member names starting with a left paren which were created with some old software. I am unable to create such members in ISPF edit or to copy them with IEBCOPY. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Lennie Dymoke-Bradshaw Sent: Friday, January 05, 2024 12:49 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: allowed characters in member name Radoslaw, From memory, this is simply the ALPHANUMNAT set. Alphabetic chars (upper case), Numerics and the national chars (#$@). First char may not be numeric. Lennie -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Radoslaw Skorupka Sent: 05 January 2024 17:18 To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: allowed characters in member name (This is somehow Friday question, but at least on topic. :-) ) What characters are allowed in JCL when specifying member name? I mean constructs like the following: //ANY DD DSN=HLQ.DATASET(MEMBER) Note, it is not about PDS/PDSE itself and I have seen SMPSCDS member names (as well as PDSMAN generated), but I mean JCL-acceptable names, which are also supported by ISPF (I think so). -- Radoslaw Skorupka Lodz, Poland -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: allowed characters in member name
Along those lines, does NETVIEW still use "hex" values in member names? I wondered how that would work if it (NETVIEW) was pointed to a PDSE. If I remember correctly it was using SVC 99 for some of this. Steve Thompson On 1/5/2024 3:08 PM, Seymour J Metz wrote: What about JES2 member names starting with $? -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Steve Beaver <050e0c375a14-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Friday, January 5, 2024 3:06 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: allowed characters in member name The last time I saw PDS Member names that were not A-Z 0-9 was in Endevor. Those were/are the prior Member name backup until the package was committed Steve -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Friday, January 5, 2024 2:03 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: allowed characters in member name On Fri, 5 Jan 2024 18:33:40 +, Sri h Kolusu wrote: What characters are allowed in JCL when specifying member name? Radoslaw, In general, PDS member naming rules are ( assuming code page 037) • A member name cannot be longer than eight characters. • The first member character must be either a letter or one of the following three special characters: #, @, $. • The remaining seven characters can be letters, numbers, or one of the following special characters: #, @, or $. • A PDS member name cannot contain a hyphen (-). • A PDS member name cannot contain accented characters (à, é, è, and so on). The last two bullets are pleonastic. ISPF also supports the same. https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=types-member-name-conventions I consider it bad design for middleware such as JCL or ISPF to impose syntactic restrictions not present in the primitives, STOW/BLDL. Special/national characters may differ based on the code page Either: o the supported code points should be specified in the Ref. or, o the middleware should be aware of the code page and adapt to it as ISPF does for regular expr3essions. <https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=string-regular-expressions-string1> I hate EBCDIC! -- gil -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: test. please ignore -- IGNORING YOU IGNORING YOU [not]
I am glad you brought this up. I get these things on individual/entity emails sent directly to me. I didn't sign for this. How could they prove I got it? Per USPS regs and some other fed Agency whose name I've forgotten, if you receive something in the mail addressed to you, that you didn't ask for, it is yours, even if a bill is sent with it requiring you to either return it or pay for it. Most may not know about this. But this went back into the Sixties when different mass marketing companies that would send out something like a medallion to hang somewhere (just an example). Well, the law/regs were changed to make that a free gift to you because why should you have to return it at your cost when you hadn't asked for it? Enter FAX machines used by attorneys. We need to put CYA verbiage at the bottom of this document. The question is, is it actually enforceable? This then went to boiler plate on emails from medical entities (HIPAA stuff). But the regs tell you that data must be secured So is a statement to the effect of "this being a non-disclosure thing" enforceable since one had no other relationship to the sender, such that no NDA had ever been signed? So, yeah, glad you mentioned this. Imagine if it had been marked as classified Top Secret EYES Only. Could you be charged for having unauthorized classified data? And just who would you report this to? On 1/3/2024 4:08 PM, Joel C. Ewing wrote: A test of another long-winded, non-enforceable corporate disclaimer perhaps? Don't you just love corporate lawyers. The named recipient in this case is the IBM-Main list, and since this list is echoed to a world-accessible newsgroup, no one posting anything to this list can reasonably expect anything on this list to be treated as "Confidential" or any viewing of any item on this list to have been "received in error". That the views represented are "solely those of the author" is the only part of the DISCLAIMER that has any validity in this context. By simply replying to this post without excluding all of the original post I have violated the non-enforceable parts of the disclaimer. JC Ewing On 1/3/24 10:24, Allan Staller wrote: Classification: Confidential test ::DISCLAIMER:: The contents of this e-mail and any attachment(s) are confidential and intended for the named recipient(s) only. E-mail transmission is not guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or may contain viruses in transmission. The e mail and its contents (with or without referred errors) shall therefore not attach any liability on the originator or HCL or its affiliates. Views or opinions, if any, presented in this email are solely those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of HCL or its affiliates. Any form of reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and / or publication of this message without the prior written consent of authorized representative of HCL is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please delete it and notify the sender immediately. Before opening any email and/or attachments, please check them for viruses and other defects. ... -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
Honestly, I was thinking of separate source for the "sub
program/routine" not all of it in a single source "deck".
I'd only recently been working with multiple Procedure Divisions
within a single source [I've been working with some IBM provided
samples for invoking REXX from COBOL, call and data return...]
Guess I'll need to do some more experimenting.
And I don't think you wasted bandwidth. This short discussion
might answer a question for someone else.
BTW - some of what I said was copied from either the COBOL 6.2
REF or User Guide.
Steve Thompson
On 1/1/2024 10:36 AM, Paul Feller wrote:
Peter, I'm glad it worked. Don't you just hate it when you try something and
it fails only to try again later and it works. I've had that happen to me a
time or two over the years.
Paul
-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of
Farley, Peter
Sent: Monday, January 1, 2024 1:05 AM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
Steve and Paul,
I tried using the “SOURCE-COMPUTER” paragraph and WITH DEBUGGING clause in the
subroutine in an earlier iteration of this testing, but at that time I saw that
the compiler did not allow that – I gave a severe error if more than one
CONFIGURATION SECTION occurred in the same compiler input file.
However, I just re-added the CONFIGURATION SECTION and WITH DEBUGGING clause to
the subroutine as posted earlier and it Just Works (tm).
Probably PEBCAK. Mea culpa for wasting bandwidth.
Peter
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of
Steve Thompson
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2023 8:10 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
Each program/subprogram, that you need to debug, you must specify
in its source
"WITH DEBUGGING MODE"
That "Activates a compile-time switch for debugging lines written
in the source text.
"A debugging line is a statement that is compiled only when the
compile-time switch is activated."
So If you only need to debug a subprogram, then you only compile
and link it with the debug logic generated/activated.
HTH
Steve Thompson
On 12/31/2023 7:22 PM, Paul Feller wrote:
Peter, I'll start by saying I've never used this option. It does
sound
interesting. From what I have read would you not also need the "WITH
DEBUGGING MODE" setup in the called program.
Paul
-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List
mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU>> On Behalf
Of
Farley, Peter
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2023 5:50 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU<mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
P.S. - COBOL compiler is Enterprise COBOL V6.4.
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List
mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU>> On Behalf
Of
Farley, Peter
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2023 6:46 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU<mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU>
Subject: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
I have a little mystery concerning debugging lines ("D" in column 7)
in
COBOL subroutines compiled in the same input file as the main program.
Sample output and code are pasted below.
The execution JCL for this sample program includes a CEEOPTS DD with
the LE
"DEBUG" option set so debugging lines SHOULD display on SYSOUT. In my
little test, only the debugging line in the main program displays on SYSOUT.
Q1: Can anyone tell me why the debugging line in the subroutine does
not
execute at run time?
Q2: Is there any way I can adjust the code or the compile process to
cause
the subroutine debugging line to execute at run time?
Peter
Sample SYSOUT output:
DBGSAMPL I=+3,J=+4,K=+2
Sample COBOL code compiled as a single SYSIN file to the compiler,
using
options 'AR(EX),DS(S),NOSEQ':
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. DBGSAMPL.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
SOURCE-COMPUTER.
Z-SYSTEM
WITH DEBUGGING MODE
.
DATA DIVISION.
LOCAL-STORAGE SECTION.
01 IPIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 1.
01 JPIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 2.
01 KPIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 3.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
MAIN-PARAGRAPH.
CALL "SUBSAMP1" USING I, J, K
DDISPLAY "DBGSAMPL I=" I ",J=" J ",K=" K
GOBACK
.
END PROGRAM DBGSAMPL.
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. SUBSAMP1.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
LINKAGE SECTION.
01 I1 PIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 1.
01 J1 PIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 2.
01 K1 PIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 3.
PROCEDURE DIVISION USING
Re: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
Each program/subprogram, that you need to debug, you must specify
in its source
"WITH DEBUGGING MODE"
That "Activates a compile-time switch for debugging lines written
in the source text.
"A debugging line is a statement that is compiled only when the
compile-time switch is activated."
So If you only need to debug a subprogram, then you only compile
and link it with the debug logic generated/activated.
HTH
Steve Thompson
On 12/31/2023 7:22 PM, Paul Feller wrote:
Peter, I'll start by saying I've never used this option. It does sound
interesting. From what I have read would you not also need the "WITH
DEBUGGING MODE" setup in the called program.
Paul
-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of
Farley, Peter
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2023 5:50 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
P.S. - COBOL compiler is Enterprise COBOL V6.4.
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of
Farley, Peter
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2023 6:46 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Questions about COBOL debugging lines in subroutines
I have a little mystery concerning debugging lines ("D" in column 7) in
COBOL subroutines compiled in the same input file as the main program.
Sample output and code are pasted below.
The execution JCL for this sample program includes a CEEOPTS DD with the LE
"DEBUG" option set so debugging lines SHOULD display on SYSOUT. In my
little test, only the debugging line in the main program displays on SYSOUT.
Q1: Can anyone tell me why the debugging line in the subroutine does not
execute at run time?
Q2: Is there any way I can adjust the code or the compile process to cause
the subroutine debugging line to execute at run time?
Peter
Sample SYSOUT output:
DBGSAMPL I=+3,J=+4,K=+2
Sample COBOL code compiled as a single SYSIN file to the compiler, using
options 'AR(EX),DS(S),NOSEQ':
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. DBGSAMPL.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
SOURCE-COMPUTER.
Z-SYSTEM
WITH DEBUGGING MODE
.
DATA DIVISION.
LOCAL-STORAGE SECTION.
01 IPIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 1.
01 JPIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 2.
01 KPIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 3.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
MAIN-PARAGRAPH.
CALL "SUBSAMP1" USING I, J, K
DDISPLAY "DBGSAMPL I=" I ",J=" J ",K=" K
GOBACK
.
END PROGRAM DBGSAMPL.
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. SUBSAMP1.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
LINKAGE SECTION.
01 I1 PIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 1.
01 J1 PIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 2.
01 K1 PIC S9(9) BINARY VALUE 3.
PROCEDURE DIVISION USING I1, J1, K1.
MAIN-PARAGRAPH.
MOVE K1 TO I1
MOVE J1 TO K1
MOVE 4 TO J1
DDISPLAY "SUBSAMP1 I=" I1 ",J=" J1 ",K=" K1
GOBACK
.
END PROGRAM SUBSAMP1.
--
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Re: Stupid JCL question
"Prudently, you should inspect your JCL to ensure there are no happenstance occurrences of your chosen delimiter." Oh has that come back to byte people!! (data stream(s) having any hex character in any position). Just say'n Steve Thompson On 12/22/2023 2:46 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: On Fri, 22 Dec 2023 17:30:10 +, Sri h Kolusu wrote: ... Your option works, however, there is another option to make jcl skip steps with enclosing the steps as data. For example, if you had 10 steps and you want only first 6 steps to run then simply add //SAVEDD DATA,DLM=## after step 5 and everything else below it will be ignored . It also will give the flexibility of skipping some steps in between and run later steps too. I've used that technique also to introduce free form comments, avoiding the tedious "//*". Prudently, you should inspect your JCL to ensure there are no happenstance occurrences of your chosen delimiter. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Can this be done?
If you use SVC 99, you can query the dataset to find out what it is. And then you can do SVC99 to allocate. It will keep you busy for a while understanding the text units and looking at control blocks Steve Thompson On 12/14/2023 10:43 AM, Billy Ashton wrote: Hey everyone! I have a little down time here at the end of the year with our freeze, and I wanted to play with some ideas I have had. I would like to write a program that can open any kind of file - PDS, Sequential, Panvalet, loadlib, and maybe even VSAM components. I want to open the file in "raw" format, as if I were going straight to the disk pack and scooping up the bytes from the beginning of the allocation to the end. Is there any way to do this without caring about the catalog RECFM? Obviously, the easiest way is through some JCL parameter that says "force as PS" but I doubt that is likely. I can't go into more detail at present, sorry! What do you think? Thank you and best regards, Billy Ashton -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Passed vs. Cataloguee?
The newbie would figure it out by the error messages. You can't allocate (create) using DISP=SHR. That would have to be DISP=(NEW,PASS) OR DISP=(MOD,PASS). Next, your "xxx,pass" would need a DSN that one could reference the data set with so that you would not have to resort to refer-backs. So DSN=TEMP (preferably, &&TEMP) would then be referenced by DSN=&&TEMP,DISP=(OLD,PASS) OR (OLD,DELETE) OR (MOD,PASS). I think this is in both JCL REF and JCL User's guide. Lastly, (Does SMS allow that nowadays?) -- As far as I know, not having needed to do this for a while, yes. But, you have to have the authority, and rule(s) Class, have to be set up for it. This is how one can have shared volumes between LPARs where the one LPAR is a sand-box (or even another supported O/S) so that one can get data/JCL/LOADMODs available to the other system. HTHs. Steve Thompson On 11/27/2023 2:31 PM, Paul Gilmartin wrote: Suppose I have two identical DSNs on different volumes. One is catalogued; the other not. (Does SMS allow that nowadays?) In a job step I allocate DD DISP=(SHR,PASS),VOL=SER=... In a subsequent step, I allocate by DSN with no explicit volume informarion. Which one wins, the passed or the catalogued? Where is this clearly documented? I don't see t in <https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=parameter-passing-data-set> How would a novice suss this out without a priori knowledge? What would ChatGPT say? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
