Current channel: START and RETURN commands

Besides EXEC CICS LINK and XCTL, two other commands can be used to invoke a program and pass it a channel:
EXEC CICS START TRANSID(tranid) CHANNEL(channel-name)
The program that implements the started transaction (or the first program, if there are more than one) is passed the channel, which becomes its current channel.
EXEC CICS RETURN TRANSID(tranid) CHANNEL(channel-name)
The CHANNEL option is valid only:
  • On pseudoconversational RETURNs—that is, on RETURN commands that specify, on the TRANSID option, the next transaction to be run at the user terminal.
  • If issued by a program at the highest logical level—that is, a program that returns control to CICS.

The program that implements the next transaction is passed the channel, which becomes its current channel.