Control Operations

Day 5
Objectives
• Task Control
– ENQUEUE/DEQUEUE
– SUSPEND
• Program Control
– Usage of COMMAREA in LINK, XCTL
– RETURN
– LOAD, RELEASE
• Storage Control
– GETMAIN
– FREEMAIN
• Interval Control
– ASKTIME, FORMATTIME
– START, ATI
– CANCEL, RETRIEVE
– DELAY, POST, WAIT EVENT
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Task Control
• SUSPEND
– Suspend a task
– To relinquish control to a task of higher dispatching priority
– Control returns to the task issuing the command when there is no other
task of higher priority to be processed

• ENQ/DEQ
– Schedule the use of a resource by a task
– Protects the resource from concurrent use by more than one task
ENQ
RESOURCE (data-area) DEQ
RESOURCE (data-area)
[LENGTH (data-value)]
[LENGTH (data-value)]
[NOSUSPEND]
Conditions: LENGERR
Conditions: ENQBUSY, LENGERR

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Program Control Commands
• XCTL
• LINK
• RETURN
• ABEND
• LOAD
• RELEASE

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Logic Levels

CICS LEVEL 0

PGM A
LINK B LEVEL 1
RETURN

PGM C
PGM B LEVEL 2
LINK D
XCTL C
RETURN

PGM D
LEVEL 3
RETURN
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XCTL
• EXAMPLE
EXEC CICS XCTL
PROGRAM (‘example3’)
COMMAREA (ws-commarea)
LENGTH (100)
END-EXEC.

• This causes control to be passed to ‘example3’,

with 100 bytes of data.

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LINK
• EXAMPLE
EXEC CICS LINK
PROGRAM (‘example3’)
COMMAREA (ws-commarea)
LENGTH (100)
END-EXEC.

• The calling program expects control back.

• Control to example3 with 100 bytes of data.

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XCTL Vs LINK
• XCTL does not expect
control back.
• Handle conditions in the
main program are not
available to the called
program. Establish new
handle conditions.
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• LINK expects control
back.
• Handle conditions in the
calling program are
needed again. Hence use
PUSH and POP
commands to restore
them again.
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XCTL Vs LINK Continues...
• XCTL does not expect
control back and hence
less overhead on system
resources like memory
etc.
• Similar to GO TO.
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• LINK expects control
back and hence the
overhead is more in this
case on memory etc.
• Similar to perform, and
control will be passed
back to the instruction
following this.
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CALL Vs XCTL/LINK
• Linkedited along with • Separately compiled and
the main module. link edited.
• Higher module size and • Single copy be shared.
higher memory • Dynamic loading may
requirement. slow down execution
• Single copy can not be speed.
used.

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CALL Vs XCTL/LINK Continues...
• Any changes in this
require compiling of all
other modules using this.
• A CALLed program
remains in the last used
state after it returns
control.
• Changes in this will not
effect other modules
using this.
• A LINKed or XCTLed
program always brings a
NEW copy.

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RETURN
• Return, always passes control back to the
program at one logic level higher when used
without any options.
• Return with TRANSID option passes control to
another program, in pseudo-conversation mode.
• It is important to note that RETURN is not at all
a replacement for LINK or XCTL.

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ABEND
• When a situation arises that the program can not
handle the program condition, can terminate
itself by giving an abend code to help the user.
EXEC CICS ABEND
ABCODE (‘abcd’)
END-EXEC.

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Storage Control

• GETMAIN - to get main memory

• FREEMAIN - to release the memory
acquired by GETMAIN

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Interval Control

• ASKTIME
• FORMATTIME
• START
• CANCEL

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Interval Control Continues...
• START can be used for starting a Transaction
from a remote terminal.
EXEC CICS START
TRANSID (‘TA01’)
[INTERVAL (hhmmss)/TIME (hhmmss)]
[TERMID (terminal-no)]
END-EXEC.

• CANCEL command can be used to cancel the

interval control commands given previously.

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Interval Control Continues...
ABSTIME (data-value)

[YYDDD (data-area)]

[YYMMDD (data-area)]

[YYDDMM (data-area)]

[DDMMYY (data-area)]
ASKTIME [ABSTIME (data-area)]
[MMDDYY (data-area)]

[DATE (data-area)]

[DATEFORM (data-area)]

[DATESEP [(data-area)]]

[YEAR (data-area)]

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Summary
• What are the task control statements and what
are they used for?
• What is the difference between XCTL and
LINK?
• How is CALL different from XCTL and LINK?
• Why is RETURN used?
• What are the commands for Storage control?
• How can we format the date and time from the
system?
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 Thank You!

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