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Few ISPF Tips


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anuradha

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Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 247
Location: Hyderabad

PostPosted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:37 pm
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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
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ovreddy

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Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 211
Location: Keane Inc., Minneapolis USA.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:10 pm
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Hi Anuradha,

Better to post complete Tips from "100 Cool Mainframe Tips".
Regards,
Reddy.
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anuradha

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Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 247
Location: Hyderabad

PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:00 pm
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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.
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MGIndaco

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Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 432
Location: Milan, Italy

PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:58 pm
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Can I add an utility that allow everyone to see all the system and user information?

TSO ISPVCALL STATUS

Use this carefully!
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rajp26

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Joined: 12 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 4:05 pm
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Need ISPF tips - more
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radhakrishnan82

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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:31 am
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I am having "100 Cool Mainframe Tips" as an the attachment.But iam not able to upload it.
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mcmillan

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Joined: 18 May 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:56 pm
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Our system will not allow to upload more than 2 MB. You have to split it first.
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radhakrishnan82

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 4:10 pm
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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.
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MGIndaco

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Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 432
Location: Milan, Italy

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 3:34 pm
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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.
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spanda

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Joined: 31 Aug 2005
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Location: U.K.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:09 pm
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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.
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MGIndaco

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 6:38 pm
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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.
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padma_prakasam

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Joined: 06 Oct 2005
Posts: 31

PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:00 pm
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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
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radhakrishnan82

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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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Location: chennai, India

PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:00 pm
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padma,

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

hope this helps.
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iknow

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Joined: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 411
Location: Colarado, US

PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:40 am
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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.
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monasu1998

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Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 176
Location: India

PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 12:08 pm
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Hi All:
All most all Tips are working fine. I tried the following one, but that did not yeild the desired result for me. The command is disappearing.
Can anyone guess, what would be the reason?

TIP # 004
ISPF
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:
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.
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monasu1998

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Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 176
Location: India

PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 12:13 pm
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Hi Anu:

fortunately I have the 100 Cool mainframes tips.
But can you give me a brief list of ISPF commands in different option Menus that I can use? Like which commands,NP commands, and combination of NP command and main commands those are frequently used. I get a lot of confusions.
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iknow

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Joined: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 411
Location: Colarado, US

PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:03 am
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Hi Folks,

Check out some new ISPF tips.


1)How to save in VIEW mode?
Use Replace command and save with the same name.

2)How to open the PDS with mask?

If you want the list of all the members which ends with ?A?
Write in front of the PDS ? M /(*A)
If you want the list of all the members which ?ABC? in between
Write in front of the PDS ? M /(*ABC*)

Use APPEND in =3.4 data set listing.
E.g., Append ?Mydataset? will add the ?Mydataset? in the current listing. RESET will remove it from the listing.

3)How to delete everything from a member through one line command? DEL NX ALL


Hope this helps.
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mmwife

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Joined: 30 May 2003
Posts: 1592

PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 3:13 am
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Hi Panda,

Up to 32 split screens were available from the time IBM offered the expanded option. The default was 8 annd the sysprogs in most shops never opted for more than the default (8).

I wonder if ibm boosted the default to 12 or your sysprog just got ambitious. icon_smile.gif
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CMullen

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Joined: 26 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:00 pm
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I don't know how many releases of z/OS have permitted this, but I have found that in option 1 or 2 of ISPF, I can enter such patterns as *mid* in the Member field under ISPF Library to list only members whose names contain the string, "mid".
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iknow

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Joined: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 411
Location: Colarado, US

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:38 am
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Hi All,

I would also like to add some more tips to the above list of wonderful collections.

Use this in ISPF 3.4 (Use these in the 'COMMAND' field after your dataset is displayed)

1) DUP - One step method to allocate and/or copy sequential and partitioned files. A real time saver!

2) ATR - Displays LISTCAT information in an edit session (line commands!). Especially useful for VSAM, tape info.

3) QDS - Who has your file? Find out the job, task, or TSO user
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ofer71

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Joined: 27 Dec 2005
Posts: 2358
Location: Israel

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:55 am
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iknow -

All the three commands you specified are not ISPF's, probably local REXX/CLIST.

O.
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Steve Coalbran

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Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 89
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:07 pm
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killer wrote:
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.


If you try and view this you get (or rather 'I got') the following displayed...

This file is hosted by Tripod, a Lycos?Network Site, and is not available for download.
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Steve Coalbran

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Joined: 01 Feb 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 8:09 pm
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on the other hand, I just posted that into a Firefox browser and it jumped me directly into Word on it so - NO PROBLEMS?!
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Steve Coalbran

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:57 pm
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I tried the tip # 002 and it didn't work at all !
Then I tried it on my other TSO and it did.

Then I realised that the first one is a DEMOpkg on IBM TESTMVS where it's running under ISPF IPT which I am kinda testing in a slow meandering way whilst between projects !

There is a very similar option Z by the same path 3.4 -> Sel member of PDS and type Z ...
Code:
IQIMSTAT -------------------- MSL STATS SETTINGS PANEL ------------------------
COMMAND ===>                                                                   
                                                                               
Remove statistics ===> N (Y=yes, N=no)                                         
                                                                               
For option N above, specify below the statistic values to be applied.         
                                                                               
                          CHANGED                                             
MEMBER   VV.MM CREATED  DATE    TIME   SIZE  INIT  MOD   USERID               
SUBPARM  =_ =_    =       =       =      =     =    =    =_______             
Example: 01 =                                            SE16661               
                                                                               
NOTES: - A blank field indicates that the statistic field be calculated.       
                                                                               
       - An equals sign (=) indicates that the current statistic field         
         should not be changed.  For members without current statistics,       
         the equals sign is treated as a blank.                               
                                                                               
       - Under VV, MM, and USERID you can type in the values you want to       
         store in the corresponding statistic fields.                         
                                                                               
                 Press ENTER to proceed or the END key to cancel.             


IPT is IBM's ISPF Productivity Tool was formerly sold as SPIFFY for ISPF from Isogon Corporation.

I checked up on the general availability of this release...

IBM Software Group, NY wrote:
It so happens that we recently updated the free-for-all "IPT Trial Version" with an expiration-date of 12/31/2007. Note: this is actually the full GA release with all available maintenance. There is just one module that includes a built-in expiration-date "time bomb" that (at expiration) simply disables the IPT functionality. If a customer that installed this version (via SMP) signs for a license, he gets a ++APAR to remove the "time bomb" without a need to reinstall the product.


Please visit and download it at:
Code:
http://www.ibm.com/software/os/zseries/trials/ispf/

There are also some useful documents on the many ways to use this mass of tools to save time and make you more productive.
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Jagan-S

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Joined: 16 Feb 2007
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Location: Kolkata

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:57 pm
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Hi All,

I want to use SPLITV command..

But If I use that I am receiving a message as command not active.

Also for Autotype..

Please help me on this..

Jagan
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