Mainframe, MVS and zOS Discussion

Hi,

Can any body plz explain following questions

1. There are 10 steps in my job will it possible to execute 6 to 8 steps only ? I said - RESTART=STEP6in Job card and a // after 10th step. Interviewer said there are more ways to do it. Can someone please help what are other ways?

2. He then asked me if it is possible to by pass 6 to 8 steps other than using comment? I did not know what he meant so could not answer.

3. Is it possible to execute step 5 and then step10. He said, you could use RESTART for step5 to ztart from there but what parametr will be needed for step10? I did not know the answer.

Please help me.

1. It's correct. Possibly interviewer wanted to hear about IEBEDIT too.

2. IEBEDIT should do this. I think, it's a hint for the previous remark from him...

3. I don't think there is an easy way out apart from editing the JCL itself or make use of IEBEDIT.

Hope this helps.

Yes I agree..It's easily doable using IEBEDIT utility.

But my question here do we really used IEBEDIT in real world.

I am trying to find real time scenario since long..if anyone throw some light on this I will be very thankful

Regards,
Chandan

But my question here do we really used IEBEDIT in real world.

in the real world You would not have the problem of running steps 6 to 8 out of 10

On a serious note I agree with Enrico.

JCL was made to execute the things in batch - one after other - executing steps by skipping some in between is not what it is supposed to do, in general. However, it might be true (a hypothetical example in the context of original question) - say step6 creates a file, which gets modified in step7 and sent to some e-mail ID in step8. A fine day, the Job executed well but the step6 or step7 malfunctioned by some means -- well, you want to execute step6, 7 and 8 now - IEBEDIT can be handy among other ways for such a situation. (God forbid, such shops do not exist.)

yes I agree with both Enrico and Anuj

Anuj Dhawan wrote: (God forbid, such shops do not exist.)

hahaha. Why are you saying so?

Because that kills the whole purpose of executing something in batch...

Thanks for the answers and great discussion. This has helped me.