Nothing beats "absolute track not available" as the error or an omitted SPACE parameter for a new DSD dataset.
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Charles Mills <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2025 5:05 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: How use a set symbol in a SET statement? External Message: Use Caution Oh man, is that the definition of a kludge or is that the definition of a kludge? Completely intuitive. I should have guessed that myself. <Slaps forehead> This is right up there with member = x'00' to indicate that SYSEXEC is a sequential file. Charles On Fri, 24 Oct 2025 18:27:12 +0000, Schmitt, Michael <[email protected]> wrote: >This code works: > >// SET Z='' >// SET CPPOBJ='/u/userid/CertRept/Obj/' >// SET SHELL1B=&Z'cd &CPPOBJ' >//JS010 EXEC PGM=IEFBR14,PARM='&SHELL1B' > >Reason is documented in the JCL Reference manual under Procedures and Symbols >> Using system symbols and JCL symbols > Determining equivalent JCL > Coding >symbols in apostrophes > >https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=jcl-coding-symbols-in-apostrophes > >Basically: > >- The system DOES pick up previous SET symbols on subsequent SET commands >- Yours didn't work because your CPPOBJ value is enclosed in apostrophes >- The system normally only resolves symbols in apostrophes when used in AMP, >PATH, SUBSYS, ACCT, or PARM parameters (DD and EXEC statements). Notice that >SET isn't in the list, hence your problem. > >But, guess what I learned today? "On parameters that are not in the list, the >system correctly resolves a symbol that is enclosed in apostrophes when the >symbol is immediately preceded by a symbol that is not enclosed in >apostrophes. " > >So by adding the &Z symbol before the apostrophe string, the symbols in the >apostrophes do get resolved. I set the &Z string to null. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
