Few ISPF Tips

anuradha · Global Moderator 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:

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 · Global Moderator 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 · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:58 pm Post subject: Re: Few ISPF Tips

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

TSO ISPVCALL STATUS

Use this carefully!

rajp26 · New User Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 1

Need ISPF tips - more

radhakrishnan82 · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:31 am Post subject:

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

mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 883 Location: India

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

radhakrishnan82 · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 4:10 pm Post subject: Re: Few ISPF Tips

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 · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 3:34 pm Post subject:

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 · New User 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 · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 6:38 pm Post subject:

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 · New User 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 · New User 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 · Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: Few ISPF Tips

padma,

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

hope this helps.

iknow · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:40 am Post subject: Re: Few ISPF Tips

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.