You are here: Home > Knowledge Refreshers

KR edition 170 to 172

 

KR-170 : SDSF tip  - contributed by Gowri

 

Hi everyone,

We start off the week with a SDSF tip...

  • To search for a job submitted in any ID by its name or number, we can use the command                       ‘S jobno/name’ command in SD; ST option (i.e. SDSF status of jobs option). 

  • Job number must be given only with the numeric number (don't precede the number by the characters).

  • For e.g., to search for the job name TESTBTCH, we need to give S TESTBTCH on the command line and it lists out all jobs with this name submitted by different owners. 

  • Similarly, to search for a job number, say JOB11223, we need to just give S 11223 on the command line and it takes us to that job.

SCRNAME command

  • Most of the times we tend to open multiple screens within a single mainframes session. 

  • We can have around 8/9 screens at any point of time. 

  • To create a new screen we type: START  on the command line.

  • To switch between these screens we enter a number and press F9 to switch to that screen. 

  • Internally TSO assigns a number to each new screen we create and to switch to a particular screen we use that screen number.

But wouldn't it be better to use names instead of numbers?

  • In the command line for each screen, just give SCRNAME XXXX where XXXX is any user defined name. 

  • Assume we have opened 3 screens and named them CODE, TABLE & TEST. To go to CODE screen being in say TABLE screen, just give CODE on the command line and press F9. 

  • To get a list of open screens, just give LIST in the command line and press F9.

Note: Some keywords cannot be used as screen names; for example: LIST cannot be used as the name of a screen.

KR-171 : Personal lists - idea triggered by Venkat

 

Did you know that ISPF maintains a record of the datasets that you've accessed?

There is a list called REFLIST (short for "reference list") which contains the list of PDSes accessed by us lately.

How can we use this?

In the 3.4 listing option we can pull up the entire list.

Where can we see what datasets are there in this list?

Use the command REFOPEND on the command/option line and you'll be taken to a screen where the REFLIST will be displayed.

We can even edit the list of datasets that appear in this list (can add or remove items). To use this list on the option 3.4 we can use the below command to get the entire list on the screen.

                     APPEND REFLIST

Or in the REFOPEND screen there is an option called DSLIST which will list out all the PDSes within that list.  

There are even a few more things which can be done in the REFOPEND screen but we won't get into all those options here; you can explore and find out what more can be done.

But won't it be better if we could create our own PDS lists instead of working on REFLIST? More on that in the next edition...

KR-172 : Personal lists II - idea triggered by Venkat

 

Continuing with personal lists....

We saw personal lists in our previous edition; specifically we came across a list call REFLIST which is maintained by ISPF. We can create our own list of datasets as well instead of using REFLIST...

How to create our own list; 2 ways:

First method:

  • In option 3.4, choose a dataset and press enter.

  • The data set list actions menu will pop up.

  • Here choose REFADD and you will be able to give a name for the reference list.

  • If this list doesn't exist ISPF will create the list with that name and add the dataset to the list.

  • If the list already exists then ISPF will append this dataset to the existing list.

Second method:

  • In the REFOPEND panel (i.e. the personal data set list panel) we can perform the "SAVE AS" action to create a new list.

  • We can even provide a description for each list in REFOPEND panel. And the personal lists which are created are stored across sessions (ISPF will remember the lists even after you logoff).

Uses: Can list specific datasets that you frequently refer to in one list so that the next time you go to 3.4 listing screen you can pull up the entire list (kind of like maintaining a list of favourite PDSes).