Mainframe, MVS and zOS Discussion

I think ZD&T is a paid service, not free. I knew someone would point that out! Yes, I did list services that require payment. The ZD&T Learner's edition, if it were available right now, would be the cheapest option if it maintained its previous pricing of 120USD, but other than IBM's Zxplor...

How easy it for someone to install Hercules? If one has never done it before. Probably the easiest way to install it is through what are called the "Turnkey" systems. These consist of the emulator software and a pre-installed copy of MVS 3.8j so it should just be a matter of copying the r...

Hello. Assuming that you have no nice REXX add-on function packages to play with that will allow you to get the information more easily, you can trap the output of the TSO "LISTCAT" command. For example, this will pull the value of "KEYLEN": /*REXX*/ Call OutTrap "OUTPUT.&qu...

It has occurred to me to suggest non-mainframe versions of some of these products. IBM did produce a version of CICS for OS/2 along with a version of DB2 and the VisualAge COBOL compiler. All have long since falled out of production and support. Now this is of questionable legality, but those produc...

Hello. If this is one of those no choice situations, then yes, look on this as something you can learn from. As a subcontractor, I've had to jump in to new systems repeatedly over the years and it does take a little time to get accustomed to each system and it's particular foibles, but it does ease ...

Hello. If the job is not ending with an error or abend, then the most likely reason would be down to condition code checks. These will take the form of the "COND" parameter on the "EXEC" statement or steps being enclosed within "IF ... ENDIF" statements. The reason for ...

Hello. The COBOL standards specified a maximum numeric length of 18 digits. By default, the compiler is configured to enforce this limit which is where the message is coming from. The IBM compiler does have the facility to override this if the "ARITH" option is specified. The default is &q...

The "FindClass" function does return an exception, but you need to explicitly call the exception's "printStackTrace" method in order to get the output for it. However, first things first; what does your working storage look like?

Hello.

You've got the answer already. The code you've clipped will do the job!

Hello.

They most certainly do. It can be found in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Hello. As far as I'm aware, there isn't really a way around it. If you've used the primary and all the secondary extents or all the entries in the directory then you need to change the allocation information and the only way around that is the reallocate/copy/delete/rename method. One possible alter...

Hello. A CSECT is a code section within a program. With high level languages it's not something that's really visible, but with an assembler program you need to specify one in which to write your code and its associated data. Generally, you'll only write one within a program, but there are situation...

Hello. IBM did put out a version of the ZD&T package called the "ZD&T Learner's Edition" for a while. It was basically IBM's emulator along with the ADCD distribution of z/OS for which they were charging 120USD a year. The trouble is, it was only available in the US, and they have ...

Haven't seen that one since around 1997! Page 5-11 of the Xpediter/TSO COBOL User Guide has a section on "Displaying and Modifying Program Variables". There's reference to a "PEEK" command that seems to suggest that the values can just be overtyped. It's a bit difficult for me to...

Hello. An E37 abend usually indicates that the dataset needs to be extended but there is no space available on the volume. The dataset name you've given implies that this may belong to a running instance of TCP/IP; if that's the case, you won't be able to reallocate it until it's shut down. One alte...

Hello. I'm presuming that you're using some sort of debugging software, in which case most of the ones that I have come across (both mainframe and non-mainframe) have the facility to alter the current in-storage data. How you do that will depend upon which debugger you are using. I've certainly done...

The linkage editor can read from USS, it's just a matter of providing the appropriate "INCLUDE" statements. I've managed to dig out a rather old example of linking a JNI program from my brief period of tinkering with it several years ago: INCLUDE NCAL(TESTPROG) INCLUDE '/usr/lpp/java/IBM/J...

Hello.

It should just issue a warning like this for the members that weren't found
and give you condition code 4. The rest of the selected members (where they exist) should have been copied.

Hello. What controls when a job can run is the availability of a free initiator. The PRTY option is a way of prioritising which job gets the next free initiator. Who submitted the job doesn't come into the decision making, although it should be noted that the running job names need to be unique and ...

MVS abend codes can be found in the manual entitled "z/OS MVS System Codes". The "S" prefix indicates a system completion code.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=codes-906