Tips & Techniques > Systems Management

System Programmers' Tips and Tricks for ISPF Revisited

When viewing large jobs consisting of many sysout data sets or job steps (i.e., a CICS region), many people prefer to use the question mark at the first job-selection panel to expand the job into its constituent parts and then select the data set or job step they wish to examine. This makes a lot of sense. When viewing smaller job results, I tend to use the N for Next command. Just select the entire job with an S at the job selection panel and then type an "N" at the command line to skip to the job's next data set (you can jump to the third data set with N3).

One of the most useful diagnostic commands in SDSF, in my opinion, is SET DISPLAY ON. Despite occupying a valuable line of screen space in the job selection screens, I've lost count of the number of times this option has saved me from the embarrassing statement (usually put to another systems programmer): "I can't seem to find my output-it's simply gone."

The SET DISPLAY ON/OFF command adds or removes a line that displays your current job PREFIX, DEST and OWNER settings. If you forget that you used SDSF previously and you set an OWNER of USERA-since you submitted jobs under that user ID-then today you can't see your output, the display line will let you know why you haven't even selected your output to view in the first place.

Other valuable diagnostic tools available in SDSF include the two commands WHO and QUERY AUTH. WHO simply displays the information that SDSF has on your current identification, with the most useful being the ISFGRP setting determined from your access to RACF* resources or the ISFPARMS. QUERY AUTH informs you of the SDSF screens, options and commands available to you.

When viewing job output, it's useful to see the temporary files that JES creates as input data for job steps. Use the SET INPUT ON command to view this data.

Other useful SDSF commands include the ampersand character, which can be used to automate the pressing of the enter key. Type &5 into the SDSF command line, and the input inhibited icon will display at the bottom left of your emulator session. SDSF then updates the display as if you pressed "Enter" every five seconds.

Line commands available at either a job-selection screen or within a job expanded with the ? command, include useful capabilities such as:

• XDC-Copy the selected data to an external file
• SJ-Select the original JCL for the job
• SE-Edit the output in an ISPF editor screen

There are many others and I encourage you to review the online tutorials and help screens built into SDSF to discover more about these powerful commands.

A Final Question
I leave you with a question. Is it possible to turn off the drop-down menus-and regain the line of screen space occupied-in an editor session? Drop me a line if you know the answer and I'll see you next time.