Syntax notation and conventions used

Each command has a syntax box to show you what options there are.

You interpret the syntax by following the arrows from left to right. The conventions are:

Symbol Action
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram>>-+-A-+-------------------------------------------------------><
   +-B-+
   '-C-'
 
A set of alternatives--one of which you must code.
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram   .-------.
   V       |
>>---+-A-+-+---------------------------------------------------><
     +-B-+
     '-C-'
 
A set of alternatives--one of which you must code. You may code more than one of them, in any sequence.
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram>>-+---+-------------------------------------------------------><
   +-A-+
   +-B-+
   '-C-'
 
A set of alternatives--one of which you may code.
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram   .-------.
   V       |
>>---+---+-+---------------------------------------------------><
     +-A-+
     +-B-+
     '-C-'
 
A set of alternatives -- any number (including none) of which you may code once, in any sequence.
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram   .-A-.
>>-+---+-------------------------------------------------------><
   '-B-'
 
Alternatives where A is the default.
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram>>-| Name |----------------------------------------------------><
 
Name:
 
|--A-+---+------------------------------------------------------|
     '-B-'
 
Use with the named section in place of its name.
Punctuation and uppercase characters Code exactly as shown.
Lowercase characters Code your own text, as appropriate (for example, name).

Minimum abbreviation of keywords

In general, the CICS transactions accept as few characters of a keyword as needed to identify it within the request. For example, in a CEMT INQUIRE TASK command, you could use TASK, TAS, or TA to uniquely identify TASK. T alone, however, could be confused with TCLASS, TERMINAL, TRACE, or TRANSACTION.

In the syntax displays on your screen (unless your terminal is uppercase only), and in most cases in this book, the minimum permitted abbreviation is given in uppercase characters, the remainder in lowercase.

Uppercase input to transactions

In general, most CICS-supplied transactions accept only uppercase input. If UCTRAN=YES has been specified in the terminal definition, all lowercase characters, even those enclosed within single quotation marks, are translated to uppercase.

If you have to specify UCTRAN=NO for your terminal, you have to ensure that the group specified for your terminal refers to a profile that will carry out uppercase translation.

CICS provides a PROFILE definition, DFHCICSP, in the DFHSTAND group in the CICS system definition (CSD) file. This profile is identical to DFHCICST except that it specifies UCTRAN(YES) instead of UCTRAN(NO).

The new profile is used by the CICS-supplied page retrieval transaction, CSPG. The new profile, together with changes in the task-attach routine and the page retrieval program, enables CICS to perform uppercase translation at the transaction level for BMS paging.

This allows users of terminals that are defined with uppercase translation switched off to use the page retrieval function without having to enter paging commands in upper case. Assigning a new profile for CSPG means that all data entered on the retrieval command (defined by the PGRET system initialization parameter) and the purge command (defined by the PGPURGE system initialization parameter) is translated to uppercase.

If a user’s terminal is defined with UCTRAN(YES), the new profile has no effect because all terminal input is translated to uppercase anyway.

Related tasks
Using CICS supplied transactions
How to start or stop a transaction
Terminal operation
Using the system console
Using TSO consoles
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