Restarting in JCL

AADHAV KRISHNA · New User Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 6 Location: India

Hello all,
consider a requirement as follows,
In a job, say there are two steps, in step1, a cobol program has been called which compares 2 files and generates a file only if there is some difference between the records.
step2, will check whether the generated file is empty or not, if it has some records, it restarts the job.
once the job is restarted and the step2 executes in same fashion except that it should abend the job instead of restarting.
so is there any way to capture whether the job has been restarted?
or else I have to create a step before step1, which allocates a PS file and writes a counter into it, by checking the counter in step 2, I can achieve the logic!!!!!

Pandora-Box · Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:22 pm

Atleast I am not aware off

How do you restart the job from a step

PeterHolland · Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:29 pm

In REXX you could do something like this :

execute cobol pgm
check if file empty
if not reexecute cobol pgm
check if file empty
if not terminate abnormally (abend or rc > 0)

Bill Woodger · Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:52 pm

The whole thing is a bit silly from what you have described. If the data remains the same, you'll get the same result the second time. So, what have you failed to mention...?

Anuj Dhawan · Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 3:07 pm

David Robinson · Active User Joined: 21 Dec 2011 Posts: 199 Location: UK

As Bill as said, the whole thing seems a bit odd. But would the simplest approach not be -

Step 1 - Cobol program
Step 2 - Compare - set return code if (not) different
Step 3 - Cobol program executes conditionally based on return code
Step 4 - Compare - abend job if different

rather than trying to restart the job and then apply some different logic on the second run.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:45 pm

we all 'are missing' and I guess we all are anxiously waiting for the draconian/historical reply ...

that' s the requirement

AADHAV KRISHNA · New User Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 6 Location: India

Thanks all for responding!!!!! thanks david followed ur algorithm, it works!!!!!!

Anuj Dhawan · Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:50 am

Thanks for coming back and telling us what worked for you, appreciate it.

Good Luck!

Dale Robertson · New User Joined: 21 Jun 2013 Posts: 44 Location: U.S.A.

David Robinson,

Your approach is precisely what came to mind the moment I read the requirement.

r

Economics is what you already know made difficult.
--Wounded Eagle's Law