Output Class J Now Available

Output class J—available for all jobs run on the MVS South system—suppresses the printing of output. For example, specifying

MSGCLASS Now Available

The MSGCLASS parameter on the JOB statement—prohibited for many years—can now be used to specify where the system message portion of job output will be printed. The system message portion of a job typically contains the JES2 JOB Log, JCL, and data set allocation messages. MSGCLASS=J can be used to specify that the system messages should not print. Over the years a number of users have requested the ability to print only a specific part of a job’s output—which these new features make possible. Consider the example

When run, only the output from the OUT2 DD statement will be printed. Note that the SYSOUT=* (in the SYSPRINT and OUT1 DD statements) indicates these outputs will use the same class (i.e., J) as specified on the MSGCLASS on the JOB statement.

An important consideration:   be aware that the system messages may contain important information needed to resolve problems if they occur. If you suppress system messages and your job fails, it will be unlikely that you will be able to determine the cause of the problem. To obtain the cause of the failure, you will need to rerun the job with system messages.

Cataloged Procedures Changed to Use SYSOUT=*

Now that the MSGCLASS parameter on the JOB statement makes the use of SYSOUT=* more useful in JCL, all NIH Computer Center cataloged procedures have been changed to reflect this. All references to SYSOUT=A in NIH cataloged procedures have been changed to SYSOUT=* to take full advantage of this feature. The Computer Center suggests that you consider making the same changes to cataloged procedures used in your applications.

Additional MSGCLASS facilities are being planned and will be announced in future issues of Interface.

Interface 210 (June 15, 1999)