Getting the GDG version used by a COBOL program

ranjanp · New User Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 25

I have a job. It executes a COBOL program when submitted. Now we can see the version of GDG used in that particular run by looking into the SPOOL.

But is it possible to get this name in the COBOL code itself and write it in a output file i.e whenever the job runs the code itself will write e.g. XXXX.YYYYY.G00001V05 (or whichever version is picked up by the job) in the output file.

expat · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:57 pm

Yes it is possible, but it means that you need to chase MVS system control blocks. And by chasing them it is possible to alter them, which could have catastrophic effects on the whole system.

Why do you need to know the generation number ?

There are easier ways of doing this, usually batch REXX using SDSF being one of them, although you could code a COBOL or whatever program to invoke SDSF. This has been discussed to death in the forum.

superk · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:57 pm

How about this previous topic?

Earl · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:20 am

in the old days, not sure if still true, name of dataset used to be at offset +44 out of the cobol FD after open.

FD GDG-FILE

PROCEDURE DIVISION.

OPEN GDG-FILE.

MOVE GDG-FILE(44:32) TO WS-AREA.
DISPLAY WS-AREA.

you could also code an assembler subroutine to get dataset name out of
the JFCB, and call that from your COBOL program.

ofer71 · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:55 am

If you decide to chase MVS data areas, the relative GDG number is placed in JFCBELNM.

O.