Mainframe, MVS and zOS Discussion

Hi,

Infinite records written in the SPOOL, what abend will be called? If infinite records are being written in the SPOOL, whatcan be reason for that?

I did not answer this question, can you please help me for this.

It would be caused by a program loop of some type.

Look at the LINES parameter of the JOB card. There will (you'd hope) be a site default which will prevent the spool filling.

The Operators, human or otherwise, will get messages from your JOB and warning messages about spool-space available (as it shrinks).

If you actually get to fill the spool doing this, that can be bad, and you'll probably be approached by someone with a baseball bat, or you'll receive a somewhat pointed email.

The answer partly depends upon the site. JES3, for example, suspends job processing when the spool free space drops below 25% (or whatever the site-specified value is) and stops SYSOUT processing when the spool free space drops below 10% (or whatever the site-specified value is). What this means is below 10% free spool space, a JES3 system won't let someone log onto TSO and in general won't let much happen on the system. There is no system ABEND, but the job causing the spool shortage will probably get an S222 ABEND.

Thanks for the replies.

Will the behavior be different for the JES2 shops? And S222 is just a probable abend not a sure one?

William Collins wrote:Look at the LINES parameter of the JOB card. There will (you'd hope) be a site default which will prevent the spool filling.

William,

I looked at the job cards but I don't see any LINES parameter coded in the job card. What happens with out it? Will the spool be just filled in?

No. There is a default value at your site. I think the standard default is to put a "LINES EXCEEDED" message on the Console every three thousand lines.

Thanks but these values should be defined in system somewhere and a developer can not change this their own, right?

Yes, the values are defined at the site. For JES3, there is a parameter in the initialization deck (inish deck) that defines the lines / cards / bytes / pages limits (after which the EXCEEDED message is generated) and the repeat limit (expressed as a percentage of the original limit) after which the message is repeated. The repeats continue until the job ends.

The values (whether JES3 or JES2) are set during the start up process and cannot be changed by the application programmer. They apply to the entire site.

Thank you Robert and William. This is very useful.