Re: bpxwunix

[Bob Bridges]

I've a REXX subroutine that uses DFSORT (or is it SYNCSORT?) to sort the
stack, but this is easier.  But it's gonna work only if I have at least a
UID and GID, right?

---
Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313

/* It is always the right time to do the right thing.  -Martin Luther King,
Jr. */

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of
Steve Beaver
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2024 13:36

/* REXX */
stdin.0=5
stdin.1="KIJJ" 
stdin.2="KQWR" 
stdin.3="ADGF" 
stdin.4="OEPE" 
stdin.5="VNVV" 

cmd="sort" 

call bpxwunix cmd,stdin.,stdout.,stderr.

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Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Sri Hari Kolusu]

>> It's unusual, having to add an un-necessary line split just to add a 
>> comment. I was expecting it to work more like IDCAMS, TSO or JCL.

What is stopping you from doing coding like this?

//TOOLIN   DD *
* Enter ICETOOL operators here *

* COPY INPUTA TO OUTA
  COPY  FROM(INPUTA) TO(OUTA)

* COPY INPUT1 TO OUTB
  COPY  FROM(INPUT1) TO(OUTB) USING(ALAS)

* COPY INPUTX TO OUTC
  SORT  FROM(INPUTX) TO(OUTC) USING(ALAK)
/*


>> I searched for every # in the the DFSORT Application Programming Guide to 
>> verify that ICETOOL line comments are not documented.

Not sure where you looked but it is documented here

ICETOOL can be called directly or from a program. ICETOOL allows operator 
statements (and comments) to be supplied in a data set or in a parameter list 
passed by a calling program.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.5.0?topic=overview-icetooldfsort-relationship


>> I was expecting it to work more like IDCAMS, TSO or JCL.

/*  comment is valid for JCL but not valid for IDCAMS SYSIN as it would signal 
the end of input.

Ie
//SYSINDD *
  LISTCAT ENT('HLQ.MLQ.TLQ') ALL
/* COMMENT-1 */
 LISTCAT ENT('A.B.C') ALL
/*

The second listcat command would NOT execute

So you have to move the comments to position 2 or greater also you need to 
enclose them between /* and */

//SYSINDD *
 /* COMMENT-1 */
 LISTCAT ENT('HLQ.MLQ.TLQ') ALL
 /* COMMENT-2 */
 LISTCAT ENT('A.B.C') ALL
/*

Every utility has its own rules and DFSORT has the most flexible rules. You 
just cannot compare to other utilities.


Thanks,
Kolusu


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Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Bob Stark]

You wrote:  I had the remarks/comments after the Continuation character (-).  

Sure enough, when I did that, it worked. 

It's unusual, having to add an un-necessary line split just to add a comment. I 
was expecting it to work more like IDCAMS, TSO or JCL.

I searched for every # in the the DFSORT Application Programming Guide to 
verify that ICETOOL line comments are not documented.

Thanks again for your help figuring this out. I'm updating our DFSORT and 
ICETOOL training course materials. The examples will be more readable now!

Regards,
Bob Stark


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Re: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C

[Farley, Peter]

Thanks Michael for the example and the documentation link.  All this is good to 
know.

Peter

From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Schmitt, Michael
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2024 6:12 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C


Last year I asked how you can call zEDC functions from a high-level language 
other than C. The point was that the Callable Service for High Level Language 
manual says you can use it from COBOL, but there's no information how to do it.



Peter Farley posted that IBM provides a sample of a COBOL program calling zEDC 
in the COBOL Programmers Guide.



That's true, and it is helpful, but before someone else spends a lot of time 
trying to figure out exactly how the sample program works, let me give an 
easier way.



The sample program is demonstrating a series of zlib functions:



 - defaultInit2 (a more complicated version of the deflateInit function)

 - deflate

 - deflateEnd

 - inflateInit2 (a more complicated version of inflateInit)

 - inflateEnd



Fundamentally zlib is built to support streaming compression or decompression, 
i.e. where you are not providing your entire input at once. So even if you DO 
have all of your input at once, you're still defining a stream structure, 
calling all these functions, handling the various buffer errors, and so on.



None of this is necessary.



All you need to do to use zEDC to compress from COBOL is:



   call 'compress' using output-area

 output-length

 input-area

by value input-length

   returning rc



where the lengths and rc are binary fullwords (pic s9(9) binary). You set 
output-length to the size of the output-area before the call, after the 
compress it is the size of the compressed data.



Uncompressing is the same, except you call 'uncompress' instead of 'compress'.



These functions are documented in the zlib manual Utility Functions: 
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://zlib.net/manual.html__;!!Ebr-cpPeAnfNniQ8HSAI-g_K5b7VKg!LF6jHm99PbJsgXLVANt_lTmRvfDIoeT5e4iqrNLbCBrZmMHEkPxI1Ra6qlvCJT2eGuOd3UklR8lwDee1ed4I4kJmpbIZ-6Q$



The utility functions are doing all the work for you, using the default options 
you'd probably pick if you were doing it the hard way.







-Original Message-

From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Schmitt, Michael

Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2023 1:04 PM

To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Subject: Re: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C [was: RE: 
Unzip on z/OS ?]



Thanks.



That seems like an odd place to put it. What's next, a chapter on how to call 
the Binder Fast Data API from COBOL?



I'd think this chapter should be in the Callable Services for High Level 
Languages manual.



-Original Message-

From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Farley, Peter

Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2023 10:43 AM

To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Subject: Re: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C [was: RE: 
Unzip on z/OS ?]



An off-list communication from another interested party pointed me to this link 
to the online Enterprise COBOL Programmers Guide V6.4, which has exactly the 
documentation I have been requesting, at least for COBOL programmers:



Chapter 36. Using zlib compression from a COBOL program 
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cobol-zos/6.4?topic=processing-using-zlib-compression-from-cobol-program__;!!Ebr-cpPeAnfNniQ8HSAI-g_K5b7VKg!PH7R6DqoJ4s46c2nl6ioiOH78zLOJ4b4RxXOpf7vArg5zC6Vhcau-QWdkO2kmNijOrUoC0S9_ZmGwWmvlwR4_cJxh92ULmY$

 


Ichecked
 my previously saved COBOL PDF's for V6.2 and it is there as well.



Interestingly the latest PL/I Programmers Guide (V6.1) has no reference to zlib 
at all, and the last published VS Fortran documents (all of which are dated 
1993) of course have no references to it.



I will be updating my RCF to ask that the MVS manual at least reference the 
COBOL Programmer's 

Re: 35th International Rexx Symposium in Brisbane (Australia) about to start

[Hank Oerlemans]

I really have to fix the title...

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Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Sri Hari Kolusu]

>> That is good news, but I cannot seem to replicate your results.

Bob,

If you noticed my example job keenly, I had the remarks/comments after the 
Continuation character (-).Btw TOOLIN statements are self-explanatory. You 
adding the remarks is kind of repeating the statements once again

Either way you can something like this

//STEP0100 EXEC PGM=ICETOOL
//TOOLMSG  DD SYSOUT=*
//DFSMSG   DD SYSOUT=*
//INPUTA   DD *
ABC
//INPUT1   DD *
DEF
IJK
//INPUTX   DD *
ABC
XYZ
DEF
//OUTA DD SYSOUT=*
//OUTB DD SYSOUT=*
//OUTC DD SYSOUT=*
//TOOLIN   DD *
  COPY  FROM(INPUTA) -  # COPY INPUTA TO OUTA
  TO(OUTA)
  COPY  FROM(INPUT1) -  # COPY INPUT1 TO OUTB
  TO(OUTB) USING(ALAS)
  SORT  FROM(INPUTX) -  # COPY INPUTX TO OUTC
  TO(OUTC) USING(ALAK)
/*
//ALASCNTL DD *
  INREC OVERLAY(10:C'BOB')  # Add BOB to every record
/*
//ALAKCNTL DD *
  SORT FIELDS=(1,3,CH,D)# sort field-1 Desc
/*


Thanks,
Kolusu
DFSORT Development
IBM Corporation



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How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C

[Schmitt, Michael]

Last year I asked how you can call zEDC functions from a high-level language 
other than C. The point was that the Callable Service for High Level Language 
manual says you can use it from COBOL, but there's no information how to do it.

Peter Farley posted that IBM provides a sample of a COBOL program calling zEDC 
in the COBOL Programmers Guide.

That's true, and it is helpful, but before someone else spends a lot of time 
trying to figure out exactly how the sample program works, let me give an 
easier way.

The sample program is demonstrating a series of zlib functions:

 - defaultInit2 (a more complicated version of the deflateInit function)
 - deflate
 - deflateEnd
 - inflateInit2 (a more complicated version of inflateInit)
 - inflateEnd

Fundamentally zlib is built to support streaming compression or decompression, 
i.e. where you are not providing your entire input at once. So even if you DO 
have all of your input at once, you're still defining a stream structure, 
calling all these functions, handling the various buffer errors, and so on.

None of this is necessary.

All you need to do to use zEDC to compress from COBOL is:

   call 'compress' using output-area
 output-length
 input-area
by value input-length
   returning rc

where the lengths and rc are binary fullwords (pic s9(9) binary). You set 
output-length to the size of the output-area before the call, after the 
compress it is the size of the compressed data.

Uncompressing is the same, except you call 'uncompress' instead of 'compress'.

These functions are documented in the zlib manual Utility Functions: 
https://zlib.net/manual.html

The utility functions are doing all the work for you, using the default options 
you'd probably pick if you were doing it the hard way.



-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Schmitt, Michael
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2023 1:04 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C [was: RE: 
Unzip on z/OS ?]

Thanks.

That seems like an odd place to put it. What's next, a chapter on how to call 
the Binder Fast Data API from COBOL?

I'd think this chapter should be in the Callable Services for High Level 
Languages manual.

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Farley, Peter
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2023 10:43 AM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C [was: RE: 
Unzip on z/OS ?]

An off-list communication from another interested party pointed me to this link 
to the online Enterprise COBOL Programmers Guide V6.4, which has exactly the 
documentation I have been requesting, at least for COBOL programmers:

Chapter 36. Using zlib compression from a COBOL program 
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cobol-zos/6.4?topic=processing-using-zlib-compression-from-cobol-program__;!!Ebr-cpPeAnfNniQ8HSAI-g_K5b7VKg!PH7R6DqoJ4s46c2nl6ioiOH78zLOJ4b4RxXOpf7vArg5zC6Vhcau-QWdkO2kmNijOrUoC0S9_ZmGwWmvlwR4_cJxh92ULmY$

I checked my previously saved COBOL PDF's for V6.2 and it is there as well.

Interestingly the latest PL/I Programmers Guide (V6.1) has no reference to zlib 
at all, and the last published VS Fortran documents (all of which are dated 
1993) of course have no references to it.

I will be updating my RCF to ask that the MVS manual at least reference the 
COBOL Programmer's Guide and chapter title as an example of non-C-language 
access to these functions.  I'm certain that any competent PL/I or Fortran 
programmer could figure out what to do in their language from the COBOL example.

Peter

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Farley, Peter
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 5:11 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C [was: RE: 
Unzip on z/OS ?]

To be more clear: I am asking for examples of non-C-language un-authorized HLL 
calls to the "zlib" un-authorized functions and a list of any COPY/INCLUDE 
members necessary to accomplish those calls, not the zEDC authorized functions 
nor the hardware-level DFLTCC instruction.

Peter

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Farley, Peter
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 11:53 AM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: How to call zEDC functions from an HLL other than C [was: RE: Unzip on 
z/OS ?]

I submitted an RCF on the subject of examples for actually using zEDC functions 
from HLL's other than C not long after this message chain and received no 
response at all from the RCF team.  A follow-up email requesting status or at 
least an acknowledgement that the documentation addition suggestion had been 
received did get a response, which was:

"Thank you for reaching out to IBM about your experience with our Documentation 
feedback.

A response is not provided for 

Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Bob Stark]

That is good news, but I cannot seem to replicate your results

ICE281I 0 ORIGINAL OPERATOR STATEMENTS FOLLOW  
  * Enter ICETOOL operators here * 
COPY  FROM(INPUTA) TO(OUTA)  # COPY INPUTA TO OUTA 
COPY  FROM(INPUT1) USING(ALAS)  TO(OUTB) # COPY INPUT1 TO OUTB 
SORT  FROM(INPUTX) USING(ALAK)  TO(OUTC) # COPY INPUTX TO OUTC 
   
ICE282I 1 PERFORMING SYMBOL SUBSTITUTION AS NEEDED 
   
ICE630I 0 MODE IN EFFECT:  STOP
   
COPY  FROM(INPUTA) TO(OUTA)  # COPY INPUTA TO OUTA 
 $ 
ICE604A 0 ERROR IN KEYWORD, PARAMETER, OR DELIMITER
ICE602I 0 OPERATION RETURN CODE:  12   
   
ICE630I 2 MODE IN EFFECT:  SCAN
   
COPY  FROM(INPUT1) USING(ALAS)  TO(OUTB) # COPY INPUT1 TO OUTB 
 $ 
ICE604A 0 ERROR IN KEYWORD, PARAMETER, OR DELIMITER
   
SORT  FROM(INPUTX) USING(ALAK)  TO(OUTC) # COPY INPUTX TO OUTC 
 $ 
ICE604A 0 ERROR IN KEYWORD, PARAMETER, OR DELIMITER

Regards, Bob Stark

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Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Tom Marchant]

I was on bitsavers, so I looked.I thought I remembered that the old Sort/Merge 
program supported comments on the control cards. See pages 11 and 12.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/os/R01-08/C28-6543-2_Sort_Merge_Apr66.pdf 

I'm sure that DFSORT would have always accepted any valid Sort/Merge statements.

-- 
Tom Marchant

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Re: [EXTERNAL] Line comments in DFSORT

[Pommier, Rex]

Sorry, I didn't see Sri's remarks (no pun intended) until after I had replied.

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Pommier, Rex
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2024 3:59 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Line comments in DFSORT

Actually it is documented.  They're just not called comments.  Look up "remark" 
in the DFSort application programming guide.
Rex

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of Bob 
Stark
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2024 2:03 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Line comments in DFSORT

I just did an experiment in DFSORT with JCL-style line comments after INCLUDE, 
SORT, and OUTREC, and they work!

The DFSORT doc says that comments are only supported when entered with * on 
column 1. 

When was this implemented, and why isn’t this documented? Do you think it is 
safe to rely on?

I sent this question to dfs...@us.ibm.com but it bounced right back, perhaps 
there are DFSORT developers here.

Regards,
Bob Stark

//STEP1EXEC PGM=SORT   
//SYSIN DD  *  
  INCLUDE COND=(9,1,CH,EQ,C'3',|, PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 3 
9,1,CH,EQ,C'5',|, PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 5 
9,1,CH,EQ,C'7')   PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 7 
  SORT FIELDS=(10,30,CH,A)SORT ASCENDING BY DESCRIPTION
  OUTREC BUILD=(2X,10,30,3X,1,9,3X,68,10) DESCRIPTION, PARTNO, CATEGORY
//SYSOUTDD  SYSOUT=*   
//SORTOUT   DD  SYSOUT=*   
//SORTINDD  DISP=SHR,DSN= 

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Re: [EXTERNAL] Line comments in DFSORT

[Pommier, Rex]

Actually it is documented.  They're just not called comments.  Look up "remark" 
in the DFSort application programming guide.
Rex

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of Bob 
Stark
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2024 2:03 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Line comments in DFSORT

I just did an experiment in DFSORT with JCL-style line comments after INCLUDE, 
SORT, and OUTREC, and they work!

The DFSORT doc says that comments are only supported when entered with * on 
column 1. 

When was this implemented, and why isn’t this documented? Do you think it is 
safe to rely on?

I sent this question to dfs...@us.ibm.com but it bounced right back, perhaps 
there are DFSORT developers here.

Regards,
Bob Stark

//STEP1EXEC PGM=SORT   
//SYSIN DD  *  
  INCLUDE COND=(9,1,CH,EQ,C'3',|, PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 3 
9,1,CH,EQ,C'5',|, PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 5 
9,1,CH,EQ,C'7')   PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 7 
  SORT FIELDS=(10,30,CH,A)SORT ASCENDING BY DESCRIPTION
  OUTREC BUILD=(2X,10,30,3X,1,9,3X,68,10) DESCRIPTION, PARTNO, CATEGORY
//SYSOUTDD  SYSOUT=*   
//SORTOUT   DD  SYSOUT=*   
//SORTINDD  DISP=SHR,DSN= 

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Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Sri Hari Kolusu]

>> Alas, ICETOOL does not support the same kind of comments.

Bob,

Not sure what you meant by that.  ICETOOL statements TOOLIN and XXXCNTL do 
support comments.  Here is an example.

//STEP0100 EXEC PGM=ICETOOL
//TOOLMSG  DD SYSOUT=*
//DFSMSG   DD SYSOUT=*
//IN   DD *
ABC
DEF
//CTL1OUT  DD SYSOUT=*
//TOOLIN   DD *
  SORT FROM(IN) -# My comment in toolin
  USING(CTL1)
/*
//CTL1CNTL DD *
  SORT FIELDS=(1,3,CH,D) # sort field-1 Desc
/*

Thanks,
Kolusu
DFSORT Development
IBM Corporation



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Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Bob Stark]

Thanks. That online doc is tricky, I read the detail page which didn't mention 
"Remarks". The higher level page that you shared did mention them.

I experimented with our legacy system, and it supported them too (but was 
missing other features like OUTREC).

Alas, ICETOOL does not support the same kind of comments.

Regards,
Bob Stark

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Re: Line comments in DFSORT

[Sri Hari Kolusu]

>> I just did an experiment in DFSORT with JCL-style line comments after 
>> INCLUDE, SORT, and OUTREC, and they work!
The DFSORT doc says that comments are only supported when entered with * on 
column 1.

Bob,

Of course, they work as you entered a REMARKS.

Remark Field :  This field can contain any information. It is not required, but 
if it is present, it must be separated from the last operand field by at least 
one blank.

This is documented in here .

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.1.0?topic=statements-general-coding-rules

≫ The DFSORT doc says that comments are only supported when entered with * on 
column 1.
When was this implemented, and why isn’t this documented? Do you think it is 
safe to rely on?

The behavior did not change. It stayed the same across releases.  You can rely 
on remarks working across releases.

≫ When was this implemented, and why isn’t this documented? Do you think it is 
safe to rely on?

AFAIK, the behavior is the same since the inception of DFSORT.

≫ I sent this question to dfs...@us.ibm.com but it 
bounced right back, perhaps there are DFSORT developers here.

The hotline is shut off and we updated the pubs to remove the references to 
that.  I am not sure which documentation you are looking for, but pubs for V2R5 
and higher will not have that reference.

≫perhaps there are DFSORT developers here.

I for one am an active participant on this list.


Thanks,
Kolusu
DFSORT Development
IBM Corporation



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Line comments in DFSORT

[Bob Stark]

I just did an experiment in DFSORT with JCL-style line comments after INCLUDE, 
SORT, and OUTREC, and they work!

The DFSORT doc says that comments are only supported when entered with * on 
column 1. 

When was this implemented, and why isn’t this documented? Do you think it is 
safe to rely on?

I sent this question to dfs...@us.ibm.com but it bounced right back, perhaps 
there are DFSORT developers here.

Regards,
Bob Stark

//STEP1EXEC PGM=SORT   
//SYSIN DD  *  
  INCLUDE COND=(9,1,CH,EQ,C'3',|, PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 3 
9,1,CH,EQ,C'5',|, PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 5 
9,1,CH,EQ,C'7')   PART NUMBERS ENDING IN 7 
  SORT FIELDS=(10,30,CH,A)SORT ASCENDING BY DESCRIPTION
  OUTREC BUILD=(2X,10,30,3X,1,9,3X,68,10) DESCRIPTION, PARTNO, CATEGORY
//SYSOUTDD  SYSOUT=*   
//SORTOUT   DD  SYSOUT=*   
//SORTINDD  DISP=SHR,DSN= 

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Fully off topic however

[Steve Beaver]

Fully off topic however this is to help the guys in the US

 

I have been beat to death will emails and calls looking for me

To do contract work.

 

I have told the Indian recruiters I no longer will accept contract

Jobs.  And I give then my permanent price.

 

I would suggest that all US based people tell all these recruiters

The same thing.  Also they ask if I have any friends that will accept

A contract job and I tell them NO.

 

They will get the point 

 

 


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Re: ZOS Sending Logs to Sumologic Experience?

[Dave Beagle]

Here’s the problem. When you “secure” the mainframe with LESS SECURE platforms, 
you actually open yourself up to hacks. Splunk has been hacked quite 
frequently. 

https://www.securityweek.com/high-severity-vulnerability-patched-in-splunk-enterprise/amp/




Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone


On Thursday, March 7, 2024, 11:07 AM, Charles Mills  wrote:

Well sure, over-reliance on any one "solution" as a panacea is foolish.

I had prospects tell me "we don't have any security issues -- we have RACF."

CM

On Thu, 7 Mar 2024 02:08:26 +, kekronbekron  
wrote:

>> You are making a mistake if you discount the effectiveness of 
>> industry-standard tools in analyzing mainframe data.
>
>Let me clarify... I'm not saying don't use it at all. Just saying that there 
>seems to be a tendency to lean too heavily on it, after it has gotten its foot 
>through the door (for receiving security events).

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bpxwunix

[Steve Beaver]

/* REXX */ 
stdin.0=5 
stdin.1="KIJJ" 
stdin.2="KQWR" 
stdin.3="ADGF" 
stdin.4="OEPE" 
stdin.5="VNVV" 

cmd="sort" 

call bpxwunix cmd,stdin.,stdout.,stderr.

 

Steve 

 


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Re: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

[Charles Mills]

Yes, that is exactly my impression. I have not run exhaustive experiments but I 
think that is it. Yes, for reasons related to other logic, this program 
contains Index. = "" but Sri's and my previous successful use of BPXWUNIX sort 
do not.

CM

On Thu, 7 Mar 2024 17:17:23 +, Jeremy Nicoll 
 wrote:

>On Thu, 7 Mar 2024, at 16:54, Charles Mills wrote:
>> Thank you! THAT is the clue I needed. I need to quote the stem names.
>> Passing plain Index. passes "", the value of Index., to sort.
>
>
>So... the difference between your code & Sri's is that you'd
>initialised index. = ""   whereas his didn't have a default
>value for the stems? ...
>
>... because his example didn't have quotes around stem names?

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Re: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

[Jeremy Nicoll]

On Thu, 7 Mar 2024, at 16:54, Charles Mills wrote:
> Thank you! THAT is the clue I needed. I need to quote the stem names. 
> Passing plain Index. passes "", the value of Index., to sort.


So... the difference between your code & Sri's is that you'd 
initialised index. = ""   whereas his didn't have a default 
value for the stems? ...

... because his example didn't have quotes around stem names?

-- 
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

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Re: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

[Charles Mills]

Thank you! THAT is the clue I needed. I need to quote the stem names. Passing 
plain Index. passes "", the value of Index., to sort.

Problem solved. Thanks all.

CM

On Thu, 7 Mar 2024 16:22:02 +, Alan Young  wrote:

>I think I have always used the position specification format. In a couple of 
>processes I ran before, I have
>
>xrc = BPXWUNIX("/bin/sort -bdu -k1.1,1.11 ","pl.","pls.")

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Re: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

[Alan Young]

I think I have always used the position specification format. In a couple of 
processes I ran before, I have

xrc = BPXWUNIX("/bin/sort -bdu -k1.1,1.11 ","pl.","pls.")

xrc = BPXWUNIX("/bin/sort -bd -k1.10,1.26 -k2.1,2.8","d.","ds.")

Maybe sort is aborting with a return code (RC, retval, etc.) and no message? 

Alan

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List 
Sent: Mar 7, 2024 9:04 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

Thanks all. The mystery deepens.

Using the same stem variable should not be the problem. I have done that before 
successfully, and the sort command documentation talks about how it uses a 
temporary file to avoid clobbering the input data if the files are the same.

BUT ... changing to a different stem variable revealed that sort is not 
populating my output file at all. The new stem variable was uninitialized after 
the sort! THAT is why Index. is unchanged -- sort is not writing to my output 
file/stem at all!

So that leaves the question: why is sort not populating my output stem? I know 
sort is available and actually running because in one test I fat-fingered the 
-k2 and got three messages in stderr.

Why would sort not populate the output stem?

Charles


On Thu, 7 Mar 2024 10:15:10 +0800, David Crayford wrote:

>Youre using the same stem variable for input and output. Use a specific 
>stdout. stem and see if that fixes it. Kolusus snippet works for me.

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Re: ZOS Sending Logs to Sumologic Experience?

[Charles Mills]

Well sure, over-reliance on any one "solution" as a panacea is foolish.

I had prospects tell me "we don't have any security issues -- we have RACF."

CM

On Thu, 7 Mar 2024 02:08:26 +, kekronbekron  
wrote:

>> You are making a mistake if you discount the effectiveness of 
>> industry-standard tools in analyzing mainframe data.
>
>Let me clarify... I'm not saying don't use it at all. Just saying that there 
>seems to be a tendency to lean too heavily on it, after it has gotten its foot 
>through the door (for receiving security events).

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Re: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

[Charles Mills]

Thanks all. The mystery deepens.

Using the same stem variable should not be the problem. I have done that before 
successfully, and the sort command documentation talks about how it uses a 
temporary file to avoid clobbering the input data if the files are the same.

BUT ... changing to a different stem variable revealed that sort is not 
populating my output file at all. The new stem variable was uninitialized after 
the sort! THAT is why Index. is unchanged -- sort is not writing to my output 
file/stem at all! 

So that leaves the question: why is sort not populating my output stem? I know 
sort is available and actually running because in one test I fat-fingered the 
-k2 and got three messages in stderr.

Why would sort not populate the output stem?

Charles

 
On Thu, 7 Mar 2024 10:15:10 +0800, David Crayford  wrote:

>You’re using the same stem variable for input and output. Use a specific 
>stdout. stem and see if that fixes it. Kolusu’s snippet works for me. 

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Re: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

[Schmitt, Michael]

Not the question you asked, but...


sort_stem = 'index.'
call sort 6, ???(see comments after code)


/* Sort sort_stem using combsort */
sort: procedure,
   expose (sort_stem)
   arg key_start, key_length
   size = value(sort_stem'0')
   gap  = size
   do until switches = 0 & gap = 1
  gap = gap % 1.3
  select
 when gap =  0 then gap =  1
 when gap =  9 then gap = 11
 when gap = 10 then gap = 11
 otherwise
 end
  switches = 0
  do i = 1 to (size - gap)
 j = i + gap
 if substr(value(sort_stem'i'), key_start, key_length) >,
substr(value(sort_stem'j'), key_start, key_length) then do
/* swap the entries */
hold = value(sort_stem'i')   /* hold   = stem.i */
x = value(sort_stem'i', value(sort_stem'j')) /* stem.i = stem.j */
x = value(sort_stem'j', hold)/* stem.j = hold   */
switches = switches + 1
end
 end
  end
   return


The problem is that as written, the code expects the key_length to be the same 
across all elements of the stem. If yours are variable length then the code 
will need to be adjusted. Maybe in your case it would need to be comparing 
subwords instead of substr.

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
Charles Mills
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2024 6:10 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: What am I doing wrong with BPXWUNIX sort?

I am trying to sort a Rexx "array" starting with the second "word" of the 
variables. My "array" is in Index.n and contains records of the form  where  is 0001, 0002, 0003, etc. and string is 2 to 5 
Rexx "words."

Here's my Rexx code:

  Say "Before sort" Index.0 Index.1 Index.2 Index.3
  stdout.0 = 0
  stderr.0 = 0
  Call BPXWUNIX "/bin/sort -k2",Index.,Index.,stderr.
  Do i = 1 to stderr.0
Say "Sort error:" stderr.i
End i
  Say "After  sort" Index.0 Index.1 Index.2 Index.3

And here is the output:

Before sort 8 0001 Main Check 0002 OMVS (FTP Session) 0003 C Validation
After  sort 8 0001 Main Check 0002 OMVS (FTP Session) 0003 C Validation

My expectation is that -k2 would have caused sort to sort on the "descriptive 
strings" (ignoring the ) but obviously that is not what has happened. What 
am I doing wrong? (I have tried both -k2 and -k 2, and also -k1 and +1 -- all 
with the same results.)

Thanks,
Charles

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Re: ZOS Sending Logs to Sumologic Experience?

[kekronbekron]

Awesome, I know & do tell you directly that you're doing excellent & needed 
work like zOS-ifying distributed tools.



On Thursday, March 7th, 2024 at 15:08, David Crayford 
<0595a051454b-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote:

> > On 7 Mar 2024, at 10:08 am, kekronbekron 
> > 02dee3fcae33-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu wrote:
> > 
> > > You are making a mistake if you discount the effectiveness of 
> > > industry-standard tools in analyzing mainframe data.
> > 
> > Let me clarify... I'm not saying don't use it at all. Just saying that 
> > there seems to be a tendency to lean too heavily on it, after it has gotten 
> > its foot through the door (for receiving security events).
> > I don't expect it to be great for either real-time processing of high 
> > volume perf data or for archival of said data efficiently, and allowing for 
> > historical reporting/charting etc.
> 
> I have a solid background in sending metrics to analytical platforms, having 
> focused on this for the past decade. While platforms like Splunk and Elastic 
> are primarily designed for logs, they excel in handling metrics, especially 
> when scaled out in a cluster with sensible retention policies. Incorporating 
> Kafka as a broker enhances this setup, allowing for efficient stream 
> aggregation and anomaly detection using tools like the Kafka Streams API or 
> ksqlDB. We've seen our customers adopt this approach, as evidenced by our 
> recent service update enabling Kafka to utilize RACF keyring for TLS 
> connections, a case initiated by your employer, KB.
> 
> The product I'm currently engaged with streamlines seamless streaming to 
> platforms such as Splunk, Elastic, Instana, and supports Prometheus metrics 
> visualized through Grafana. Additionally, we're actively pursuing 
> compatibility with Otel, driven by customer demand. Notably, the introduction 
> of the Grafana UI in RMF for z/OS 3.1 offers a modernized experience compared 
> to the outdated 3270 interface, earning praise even from our most seasoned 
> and skeptical professionals.
> 
> The mainframe is just one piece of a larger puzzle. Customers operate 
> distributed systems that have long employed modern stacks for visualization 
> and analysis, and they desire z/OS to seamlessly integrate into that 
> ecosystem. We face an abundance of requirements that need addressing. The 
> traditional approach of relying solely on batch reporting tools for 
> performance analysis is becoming obsolete. Here's a compelling customer case 
> study that illustrates how upgrading our tools supports them in their 
> modernization journey. You can find it at 
> https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/bankdata.
> 
> > On Wednesday, March 6th, 2024 at 21:32, Charles Mills charl...@mcn.org 
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > I of course saw first-hand a lot of mainframe -> SIEM or Splunk 
> > > integrations, and they ran the gamut. Some were as you describe; some 
> > > were quite effective. The worst I saw was one company that was printing 
> > > an SMF report to spool, using a mainframe product to convert the spooled 
> > > report to a PDF, and sending it to the SIEM, which dutifully archived it. 
> > > Made the auditors happy: mission accomplished. On the other hand, believe 
> > > me, there were customers doing truly amazing "production" and ad hoc 
> > > analyses both of security and performance data, using Splunk and other 
> > > tools. (Recall I have no financial or similar interest in BMC, Splunk, or 
> > > anything similar.) Splunk is not my favorite product -- the company was 
> > > extremely difficult to deal with and the product is expensive to license, 
> > > but it is an AMAZING product and many customers and customer people 
> > > absolutely LOVE it. (That of course is why they are able to charge what 
> > > they charge.)
> > > 
> > > I was personally on a Zoom call with a very major financial institution 
> > > that you would recognize in a heartbeat, doing a product new-feature 
> > > demo, when we caught an intruder in the mainframe, real time. It was a 
> > > contractor who was authorized to be on the mainframe but who had managed 
> > > to improperly elevate his privileges to SPECIAL. it was an amazing 
> > > moment, going from routine vendor product demo to "what the heck is HE 
> > > doing -- hey, we gotta go."
> > > 
> > > I was not aware of all of the exact details but our processing in 
> > > conjunction with a SIEM was instrumental in uncovering a money-laundering 
> > > scheme at a large bank in Mexico.
> > > 
> > > My main interest was the security stuff, but yes, customers are doing 
> > > very effective analysis of RMF and similar data. You are making a mistake 
> > > if you discount the effectiveness of industry-standard tools in analyzing 
> > > mainframe data.
> > > 
> > > Charles
> > > 
> > > On Wed, 6 Mar 2024 15:26:47 +, kekronbekron 
> > > kekronbek...@protonmail.com wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Exactly. I have my reservations on whether we as mainframe folks are 

Re: ZOS Sending Logs to Sumologic Experience?

[David Crayford]

> On 7 Mar 2024, at 10:08 am, kekronbekron 
> <02dee3fcae33-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote:
> 
>> You are making a mistake if you discount the effectiveness of 
>> industry-standard tools in analyzing mainframe data.
> 
> Let me clarify... I'm not saying don't use it at all. Just saying that there 
> seems to be a tendency to lean too heavily on it, after it has gotten its 
> foot through the door (for receiving security events).
> I don't expect it to be great for either real-time processing of high volume 
> perf data or for archival of said data efficiently, and allowing for 
> historical reporting/charting etc.
> 
I have a solid background in sending metrics to analytical platforms, having 
focused on this for the past decade. While platforms like Splunk and Elastic 
are primarily designed for logs, they excel in handling metrics, especially 
when scaled out in a cluster with sensible retention policies. Incorporating 
Kafka as a broker enhances this setup, allowing for efficient stream 
aggregation and anomaly detection using tools like the Kafka Streams API or 
ksqlDB. We've seen our customers adopt this approach, as evidenced by our 
recent service update enabling Kafka to utilize RACF keyring for TLS 
connections, a case initiated by your employer, KB.

The product I'm currently engaged with streamlines seamless streaming to 
platforms such as Splunk, Elastic, Instana, and supports Prometheus metrics 
visualized through Grafana. Additionally, we're actively pursuing compatibility 
with Otel, driven by customer demand. Notably, the introduction of the Grafana 
UI in RMF for z/OS 3.1 offers a modernized experience compared to the outdated 
3270 interface, earning praise even from our most seasoned and skeptical 
professionals.

The mainframe is just one piece of a larger puzzle. Customers operate 
distributed systems that have long employed modern stacks for visualization and 
analysis, and they desire z/OS to seamlessly integrate into that ecosystem. We 
face an abundance of requirements that need addressing. The traditional 
approach of relying solely on batch reporting tools for performance analysis is 
becoming obsolete. Here's a compelling customer case study that illustrates how 
upgrading our tools supports them in their modernization journey. You can find 
it at https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/bankdata.

> 
> 
> 
> On Wednesday, March 6th, 2024 at 21:32, Charles Mills  
> wrote:
> 
>> I of course saw first-hand a lot of mainframe -> SIEM or Splunk 
>> integrations, and they ran the gamut. Some were as you describe; some were 
>> quite effective. The worst I saw was one company that was printing an SMF 
>> report to spool, using a mainframe product to convert the spooled report to 
>> a PDF, and sending it to the SIEM, which dutifully archived it. Made the 
>> auditors happy: mission accomplished. On the other hand, believe me, there 
>> were customers doing truly amazing "production" and ad hoc analyses both of 
>> security and performance data, using Splunk and other tools. (Recall I have 
>> no financial or similar interest in BMC, Splunk, or anything similar.) 
>> Splunk is not my favorite product -- the company was extremely difficult to 
>> deal with and the product is expensive to license, but it is an AMAZING 
>> product and many customers and customer people absolutely LOVE it. (That of 
>> course is why they are able to charge what they charge.)
>> 
>> 
>> I was personally on a Zoom call with a very major financial institution that 
>> you would recognize in a heartbeat, doing a product new-feature demo, when 
>> we caught an intruder in the mainframe, real time. It was a contractor who 
>> was authorized to be on the mainframe but who had managed to improperly 
>> elevate his privileges to SPECIAL. it was an amazing moment, going from 
>> routine vendor product demo to "what the heck is HE doing -- hey, we gotta 
>> go."
>> 
>> I was not aware of all of the exact details but our processing in 
>> conjunction with a SIEM was instrumental in uncovering a money-laundering 
>> scheme at a large bank in Mexico.
>> 
>> My main interest was the security stuff, but yes, customers are doing very 
>> effective analysis of RMF and similar data. You are making a mistake if you 
>> discount the effectiveness of industry-standard tools in analyzing mainframe 
>> data.
>> 
>> Charles
>> 
>> On Wed, 6 Mar 2024 15:26:47 +, kekronbekron kekronbek...@protonmail.com 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Exactly. I have my reservations on whether we as mainframe folks are 
>>> choosing this (log analytics products) or are defaulting to it because no 
>>> one is challenging for appropriate options from the mainframe technical 
>>> side.
>>> For an org, there is of course the valid point of correlation that Charles 
>>> mentions, however, if you objectively work out costs and that, I don't 
>>> think it works out as cost-effective.
>>> 
>>> We may see kubernetes platforms sending auth logs, syslog, and 

Re: PCOM Question

[Gadi Ben-Avi]

Restarting the computer solved the problem. 

-Original Message-
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List  On Behalf Of 
ITschak Mugzach
Sent: יום ה 07 מרץ 2024 09:00
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: PCOM Question

[You don't often get email from 05a7ced721d8-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu. 
Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ]

Gadi,

The name is PCOMM. Did you copy (or edit) the keyboard map)?

ITschak Mugzach
*|** IronSphere Platform* *|* *Information Security Continuous Monitoring for 
z/OS, x/Linux & IBM I **| z/VM coming soon  *




On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 8:13 AM Gadi Ben-Avi  wrote:

> Hi,
> I upgraded from PCOM v13.0.1 to v 13.0.7.
> When I press ENTER, there is no indication in the OIA.
> How do I enable this?
>
> Thanks
>
> Gadi
>
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