This section describes the types of general and specialized trace available
to you for problem determination, how to control the amount of tracing that
CICS produces, and how to format and interpret tracing.
The types of tracing that can be used for CICS® systems are:
- CICS tracing, which is performed by the trace domain at predetermined
trace points in CICS code during the regular flow of control. This includes
user tracing from applications. You get this when you turn on CICS internal
tracing, auxiliary tracing, and GTF tracing. You control this type of tracing
to suit your needs, except that, when an exception condition is detected by
CICS, it always makes an exception trace entry. You cannot turn exception
tracing off.
- CICS exit programming interface (XPI) tracing, which uses the TRACE_PUT
XPI call from an exit program. You can control this within the exit program,
or by enabling and disabling exits.
- CICS XRF tracing, which records CICS XRF-related activities. This is always
running if you are operating in a CICS XRF environment.
- Program check and abend tracing, which is used by CICS to record pertinent
information when a program check or abend occurs. This is controlled by CICS
code.
- CICS VTAM® exit tracing. The exits are driven by VTAM when it reaches a particular
stage in its asynchronous processing, but the trace points are in CICS code.
You can turn CICS VTAM exit tracing on or off.
- VTAM buffer tracing. This is a part of VTAM, but it can be used to record
the flow of data between logical units in the CICS environment. You can control
this type of tracing to meet your needs.
In addition to the general trace produced by CICS, there are a number of other, more specialized
forms of trace that you can use. These are described as follows:
For information about using trace to solve FEPI problems, see FEPI trace.
You have a large amount of control over the amount of CICS tracing that
is done. There are a number of selection mechanisms available to you to control
the extent of CICS tracing carried out in the system. These are :
You can select any combination of internal tracing, auxiliary tracing and
GTF tracing to be active at the same time. Your choice has no effect on the
selectivity with which system tracing is done, but each type of tracing has
a set of characteristic properties. These properties are described in CICS internal trace, CICS auxiliary trace, and CICS GTF trace.
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