[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I know I can't do it (having read the manual and some SHARE
presentations), but can someone clue me in about why I can use static
system symbols such as &SYSNAME in started task JCL but not regular batch
JCL?
I presume, since they are started tasks, that these variables are
available to my job scheduler (currently Beta-42, possibly CA-7 in the
future) - so, are they exposed as variables you can substitute?
Tim Hare
Senior Systems Programmer
Florida Department of Transportation
(850) 414-4209
Much prior discussion/complaint about this on ibm-main.
Within a sysplex, the JCL for an STC is interpreted on the same system
as runs the STC. For a batch job the JCL Conversion/Interpretation
processing can easily be on a different system in the sysplex than where
the job eventually runs. Since the value of a system symbol could be
different on different systems, IBM made a design decision of not
implementing symbol substitution for batch jobs to avoid the issue of
possibly substituting values that might then be inappropriate for the
system on which the job eventually runs. They may have been afraid that
if they allowed batch symbol substitution, a new installation that
didn't understand the limitations would shoot themselves in the foot.
There is a REXX function to request the value of a system symbol, so if
the vendor chose to implement it a job scheduler should be able to
obtain the symbol values and partially circumvent this restriction by
doing some substitution in the JCL before sending the job to JES. On
the other hand, an installation JES exit might be a better place to
implement this; and perhaps by now someone has submitted an exit example
to the CBT collection.
--
Joel C. Ewing, Fort Smith, AR [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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