Twenty Tricks for Mainframe Users

7/31/2019 Twenty Tricks for Mainframe Users

1/4

Mainframe Tricks

1.How to retrieve last 25 command line commands that areissued from ISPF

panal

Type RETP from command line then You will see last 25

commands that

you have issued

2.Suppose you are editing a program/copybook/ or file and

You want to

know the changes you have done since last Save command

Give Compare session at command line

3.How to create GDG base with out writing a IDCAMS job.

Place the cursor at GDG version in Proc/Jcl and issue

ZGDG at

command lime this will generate a jcl for you and it

will ask whether

you want to edit it or submit

4. Generally a PDS member or PS bears ID of the creator or

ID of the person

who modified it recently. Can I change these ID

values ???

Give G at line command area then it will pop up a

screen where you

can change tso id etc values.

5. How to Expand Copybooks and Includes for cobol programs

Open Cobol program in Edit mode then Issue ZXP fromCommand line

6. How to retrieve the TSO region information from ISPF

Screen

Issue the SAREA command from command line


2/4

7. Im in the middle of analysis of a cobol program and I

want to see the

declaration of a particular variable with out disturbing

my ispf edit panal

Place the cursor at variable and issue ZLOC at

command line then it will

Give the declaration of the variable

10.How can I Wrap the record of a mainframe dataset in ispf

panal like in

MS word.In other words How to see the full record(when

length more

than 80) with oput pressing F11 in Edit/view mode

After opening the dataset issue line command TF80 (80

chars per line)

11.Why packed decimal field is always declared with ODD

number of digits

processing time for odd numbers is 10 to 20% more

faster then using an

even number of digits

12. Rearranging columns in SDSF. Generally in SDSF to see

the return code

of a job we need to press f11 couple of times. How

can I rearrangethese sdsf fields so that I could see return code

next to the job name

issue ARR ? from command line in SDSF, then select

the order as per

rqmnt

13. How can I get the number of records in a PS or PDS

member with out

opening it

Issue Line command ZCNT

14. For selecting jobs in the SDSF queue , We either use

"?" or "S".When We

use "?" , We get the break-up output groups. When We

use "S" , the entire


3/4

job is selected without the above break-ups. Is there

any command to

view each output group when I use "S" to select the

job?

After opening the job using "S", use "N" (next) or

"P"(Previous) to

navigate between different output groups.

15. I have opened a File in File-ID in Browse mode but

later wished it was

EDIT in this situation, what we do generally is we

come out of the

browse mode and again open in edit mode.

Can I change Browse to edit or Vice Versa with out

coming out

Issue: GO EDIT

GO BROWSE

16. How to find last 30 datasets that you have worked on?

Go to 3.4 then select REFLIST( next to the MENU option

on top)

Then select option 1 in that then it will display

last 30 dataset

(ps/pds member) accessed by your TSO id

17.How to compare the changes that you made since last save

commandwith out coming out from the screen

Issue COM * X at command line

18.JCL analysis Macro: This will give you two reports for

each Jcl

1. Jcl->Proc->Pgm->Dataset

2. Jcl->Proc->Step

How to use:

Issue TSO ZJCL from any command line this will pop upa screen where

You enter the JCL for which you want to see above

reports

Note: This JCl should available in Production libs

19. Dataset Macro ZMAC.


4/4

You can use this macro when you are analyzing any

proc/jcl

Use this macro to know whether dataset is existing or

not/rec type/

rec length/for recalling etc

How to use:

Open Jcl/proc in view/edit mode place the cursor on

dd statement and

issue ZMAC on command line then enter it will pop up

a message

and you can select any option as per your requirement

20. How can I execute a sql which there in my cobol/ezt

program or spufi

member with out going to DB2I or spufi or qmf

(basically I dont want to

open another screen)

First you exclude all other statements and keep only

sql statements

In your ps/pds memmber, if you want execute multiple

sql separate

them with ; then issue zql from command line

21 How can I see any table description with out going to

DB2I

Issue TSO ZDESC .

22 How can I see any indexes defined on a table with out

going to DB2I

Issue TSO Zindx .

Documents

Twenty Tricks for Mainframe Users