What are the keywords associated with DCB? How can you specify DCB information? What is the OS precedence for obtaining that DCB information, ie. where does the system look for it first?

The keywords associated with the DCB parameter are LRECL, RECFM, BLKSIZE and DSORG. The DCB information can be supplied in the DD statement. The sysem looks for DCB information in the program code first.

Interview Candidate
Oct 13th, 2004
2
3206

JCL

Answer

Showing Answers 1 - 2 of 2 Answers

Hervey

Oct 30th, 2006

The OS method for obtaining DCB information--there was none. It was up to whoever was creatingf the JCL to code these parms correctly. If the pgm included some of these; then jcl & program had to agree; otherwise, an S013 abend was received.

dhs01
Profile Answers by dhs01

Sep 3rd, 2010

There is what is called a merge. The precedence is what is in the program, then what is in the JCL, lastly is what is in the DSCB associated with the file. You may get an open error if the program specifies it and it is not what the file actually is. (Conflicting parms do not cause the abend, only if the overriding one is not correct.)