Is it possible to FTP the COBOL program load modules to PC?

ankit.jain · New User Joined: 02 Jul 2009 Posts: 18 Location: Mumbai

Is it possible to FTP the COBOL program load modules from Mainframe to PC and then back from PC to Mainframe and be able to use them?

We have a mainframe tape that contains COBOL program load modules and some other items (like sequential files, JCLs, resource definition files, etc.) but it doesn’t contain any source modules. We use this tape to build a mainframe CICS environment. This works fine.

However, for certain reasons, we want to stop using the mainframe tape. Therefore, we are planning to unload the tape, download the unloaded datasets (and members) to PC, so that whenever we need to build the mainframe CICS environment, we can upload these datasets from PC to mainframe.

That said, we know that this process (download the datasets/members to PC and then upload them back to mainframe) works for source programs, JCLs, sequential files (after PACKing them), etc. However, we are not sure if it works for LOAD modules. I gave it a try and it seems that it doesn’t work – I downloaded them in both ASCII and BINARY format and uploaded them back in the same format but the LOAD modules failed to new copy. Is there any way we can download the LOAD modules to PC and be able to upload and use them on mainframe later?

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:28 pm

MY preferred and IMO safest approach is to use XMIT/RECEIVE
with the OUTDATASET/INDATASET options
for all the things that have to be shuffled around using a PC as intermediate store

XMIT will create an OUTDATASET with FIXED LENGTH RECORDS
which will make the FTP process easier to handle

just FTP the XMIT output with the binary option

Bill Woodger · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:54 pm

I use the same method as enrico, and have found it unproblematic. I've even e-mailed loadlibraries as attachments :-)

steve-myers · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 8:28 pm

The TS states they have the load libs on tape. In what format? IEBCOPY unload format?

Mr. Sorichetti's and Mr. Woodger's approach is fine as long as the libraries are on disk as a PDS, since XMIT runs the PDS through IEBCOPY and then transforms the IEBCOPY unload data set to its FB/80 format. You could even run the raw IEBCOPY unload data set through XMIT, but I don't think RECEIVE would build a PDS from it.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 8:32 pm

Bill Woodger · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:06 pm

The tape is not the source of the load modules, it is just the method they are transferred from one machine to another at the moment, which will no longer be used.

PeterHolland · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:18 pm

Why would one want to transfer mainframe load modules to a pc?

A kind of backup?

Did I miss something?

Akatsukami · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:31 pm

The OP suggests that the programmable calculator is being used as storage, although why the tape can't just be archived is unclear to me.

steve-myers · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:31 pm

Bill Woodger · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 10:33 pm

ankit.jain · New User Joined: 02 Jul 2009 Posts: 18 Location: Mumbai

Thank you all for your prompt responses !

I will give XMIT/RECEIVE a try, and hopefully it will work for me.

We already use TERSE/UNTERSE to package and download any VB files, so I am wondering if it will work for Load Library PDS as well. I will give it a try too.

Thanks again,

prino · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:15 pm

The TERSE/UNTERSE combo by itself cannot handle PDSE's, see recent thread on IBM-MAIN.

XMIT + TERSE -> UNTERSE + RECEIVE is of course not a problem.

Nic Clouston · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 10:41 pm

As this has nothing to do with COBOL but everything to do with FTP I have moved it to a more appropriate part of the forum.