IBM MAINFRAME HELP & SUPPORT FORUMS

anuradha · Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 257

Hi All!

Here are few ISPF tips.

TIP # 001

Lets start with a generic and simpler one.
Consider that you are editing a file/program and you want to know the changes you have done since the last SAVE command. How to find that?

Answer:

Give COMPARE SESSION on the command line
Further use of COMPARE commands...
- Can be used like 3.13 option

TIP # 002

Usually the PDS or PS bears the ID of the creator or the ID of the person who modified it recently.But is it possible to change these ID values without leaving trace of one?s own ID?

Answer:
Yes its possible! In the command area against the member name or PS name, by giving ?G?. Dialog box will pop up allowing you to change the ID values.

TIP # 003

Suppose you are in a ISPF Screen and want to know in which TSO Region ( Development, Production, or other TSO regions) you are now .

Answer:
Issue on the command line : SAREA

ISPF STATISTICS Pop-up window will show you the region( and other info too)

TIP # 004

Any command entered in the COMMAND LINE disappears after the successful execution of its intended function. If you want to repeat the same command , you got to re-type it or use some PF key to retrieve the last command entered.

But here is a cool method the make the command entered not to disappear and stay on the screen.

Precede commands with '& '
For Example:
Code: COMMAND ===> &C '110-PARA' '220-PARA' SCROLL ===> CSR

****** ************************ TOP OF DATA **************

000001 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.

000002 PROGRAM-ID. COBOLSAMY.

000003 DATE-WRITTEN. APRIL 2004.
After the execution of the command, the below command stays on the screen.

This way you can entering the same command or modifying the command a little and using it multiple times.

TIP # 005

While trying to open any member in a PDS, we sometimes come across
"member in use" message. In that situation, if you want to know who is using the member currently, press F1 twice.

TIP # 006

We usual search for members in a PDS by the first string of the members.

Consider this situation .

I have a PDS and I want to search it for member only by middle string of the members.
e.g. there are some members like BESTJCL1,RESTJCL2,PESTCBL1, BESTCBL2, WESTCBL3,TESTASM1,BESTASM2...etc
I want to find members which have CBL in them. How can I search and find these members?

Answer:
Use ISPF 4.12 option.
Specify the dataset to be searched and the pattern of the string.
Specify the LANG type as COB
And select the browse option.

TIP # 007

How can I find the last 10 datasets that I have accessed ?

Answer:

1.GO TO ISPF 3.4 option.

2. On the top, there is a MENUBAR. Select REFLIST

3. Select Option 1 in it.

Using this option you can find out the last 30 datasets that you have accessed....

TIP # 008

Alternate to SuperCE Option(3.13) is to use the macro COMPARE .
Use this when you there is less difference between the two files.

1.Open a DSN in EDIT or VIEW Mode

2. On the Command line , issue COMP 'YOUR.SECOND.COMPARISON.DSN'

3. If you want only the changes to be listed, issue COMP

'YOUR.SECOND.COMPARISON.DSN' EXC

TIP # 009
While Browsing Internet, we have some cool option called address autocomplete?we enter some letters in the address bar and the browser auto completes it with the closest guess.
Does MAINFRAME has the same feature??

Answer:

Yes! It has ?Autocomplete? feature!!!
How to use it?

1.go to ISPF 3.4 ,

2. enter KEYS in the command line,KEYS window will popup

3. set any key to AUTOTYPE, save and exit

4. now type any Dataset partially and press the assigned PFkey!!

Note: It will not retrieve GDGs and VSAM files.

TIP # 010

I want to find a member but I don?t know the PDS to which it belongs. I only know the high level qualifier of the PDS.

Answer:

For example, lets consider high level Qualifier as MYID.MYAPPLN.* and member as MYMEM

1. Go to 3.4 and list all PDS with MYID.MYAPPLN.*

2. Now issue, MEMBER MYMEM on the command line

ovreddy · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:10 pm Post subject:

Hi Anuradha,

Better to post complete Tips from "100 Cool Mainframe Tips". Why 10 only..

Regards,
Reddy.

anuradha · Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 257

Hi Reddy!

Right now I dont have that material with me. If I get time I try to recollect some more and post here. But you are welcome to post all the tips here, if you have them with you.

MGIndaco · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 478 Location: Milan, Italy

Can I add an utility that allow everyone to see all the system and user information?

TSO ISPVCALL STATUS

Use this carefully!

rajp26 · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 1

Need ISPF tips - more

radhakrishnan82 · Joined: 31 Mar 2005 Posts: 386 Location: chennai, India

I am having "100 Cool Mainframe Tips" as an the attachment.But iam not able to upload it.

mcmillan · Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 919 Location: India

Our system will not allow to upload more than 2 MB. You have to split it first.

radhakrishnan82 · Joined: 31 Mar 2005 Posts: 386 Location: chennai, India

mc,
the file size is less than 500 kb.
The problem is the link was down at the time.so i was not able to upload.
Able to do it now.

Pls find the attachment here.

MGIndaco · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 478 Location: Milan, Italy

Just some questions:
TIPs # 009 - 010 - 014 - 020 -> are default or custom?

...and some opinion about these tips:
TIP # 012 -> really when you don't specify the visualization mode it takes the mode of access to the PDS(if you enter with B/V/E your default will be Browse/View/Edit).
TIP # 016/017 -> Use of CUT, usually, has Append as default. If you want to replace the data you muste use CUT REPLACE. CUT Can be followed with a name of 8 char( as CUT A; CUT B...;CUT C and so on ) to put your data in different "members" that can also be viewed thru CUT DISPLAY.

spanda · Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 49 Location: U.K.

May I bring to your notice that your tip #10 may be useful to MVS users running z/OS at their sites. The Member command and a few other ISPF commands are only available with ISPF running under z/OS.

So, there may be a lot of people complaining that the tip does not actually work, which may be because they are running OS other than z/OS.

I am aware of some features that are available to ISPF ver 5.0 and over. Such as the one that you can have upto 12 split (logical) screens in a TSO session. Earlier versions allowed for only 8. Another one is that when you attempt a move or copy member the target dataset had to exist previously. With newer ISPF (>ver5.0), the copy/move option prompts to create a target dataset.

It will be worth supplying such info rather than generalising such tips for users benefit.

On another note, I personally find the DSLIST command very useful. I have actually assigned a PF key to DSLIST. So, I can simply type a dataset name or the high-level qualifier (in the form 'A.B.*') in quotes on the command line and press the PF key to see the matching datasets in DSLIST view. When I press PF3, I get back to the view I was in when I started. This actually saves me STARTing a new split screen. I believe the DSLIST command is available to ISPF (>ver 4.0).

Panda.

MGIndaco · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 478 Location: Milan, Italy

Ok, really thanks you have clarify my doubt!
Actually I'm working mainly in a OS/390 2.10 with ISPF 5.0 but
I tried in another machine with z/OS 1.4 and it works fine.

Really thanks.

killer · Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 3

Hi all

I googled the title, and fount this link

http://madhavak.tripod.com/Mainfram100tips.doc

Don't know if it's an official version, if one such exists, but you can take a look.

padma_prakasam · Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 31

Hi radhakrishnan,

I'm not able to download the attachement u have given for mainframe tips. when i click that to download only a blank window is opening. nothing else is diaplayed. please help me to download that.

thanks
padma

radhakrishnan82 · Joined: 31 Mar 2005 Posts: 386 Location: chennai, India

padma,

right click on it "SAVE TARGET AS".It will then be download into your desired location.

hope this helps.

iknow · Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 582 Location: Colarado, US

Hi All,

As a follow up to the above posts I am just adding one more tip on sending messages in MVS.

Send a message to a TSO user. In this cmd, the message is cancelled if the user is not logged on.

Code: SEND USER (USERID) ?message?

If you give * in place of USERID, you?ll get the message.

Wait until the user is able to receive the message.

Code: SEND USER (USERID) ?message? WAIT

Send a message to another user, so that if the user is not logged on currently, the message will be delivered when the user logs on.

Code: SEND USER (USERID) ?message? LOGON

Display messages sent to you while you were logged off.

Code: LISTBC

Hope this helps.