MVSFORUMS.com

[pzmohanty]

hi all,

while refering the IBM Quick Reference on Mainframe, i found the following thing which baffled me:---
when referring the Quick reference for SYNCSORT , it says that the SYNCSORT utility can also be invoked by writting PGM=ICEMAN in JCL.

And while referring the DFSORT utility through Quick reference , it too says that the DFSORT can also be invoked by writting PGM=ICEMAN in JCL .

Now my doubt is that how come same ICEMAN can be used to invoke 2 different utilities i.e DFSORT & SYNCSORT.

Thanks in advance
P.R.Mohanty
_________________
Priya Ranjan Mohanty
Consultant
Kanbay Software (I) pvt. Ltd.
Hyderabad

[kolusu]

Pzmohanty,

ICEMAN, SORT are two of the program aliases that can be used to invoke the sort product.ICEMAN is the program name for DFSORT. You can invoke DFSORT with PGM=ICEMAN. DFSORT is also shipped with an alias of SORT, so you can use PGM=SORT

DFSORT's official three-character identifier is ICE, so all of the DFSORT modules start with ICE (ICEMAN, ICETOOL, ICEGENER, etc) and all of the DFSORT messages start with ICE (ICExxxs).

other sort products(Syncsort, ca-sort) use (SORT,ICEMAN) as an alias. So when you use PGM=SORT or PGM=ICEMAN, you'll get the sort product installed at your site.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Kolusu
_________________
Kolusu
www.linkedin.com/in/kolusu

[pzmohanty]

hi kolusu,

Thanks for the information , but i am still not comfortable with all these INTERCHANGABILITY of utility names..........

Now that it is clear that ICEMAN is linked to which utility( DFSORT or SYNCSORT) depends on INSTALLATION , but again i have a doubt regarding ICETOOL........

I believe ICETOOL is not an ALIAS but instead is a IBM utility which uses DFSORT in the backend to fetch us the required result...........

But i was baffled when i looked into TOOLMSG of ICETOOL JCL .........
the TOOLMSG information says the following :

[superk]

[pzmohanty]

hi superk,

what i am expecting from experienced people like you to let us (not that experienced) people have a better understanding of WHAT is WHAT.

May be as u said u don't care much about the Query , but it will be of immense help to people like us , if u can share ur views or understandings about the topic with us.

thanx
_________________
Priya Ranjan Mohanty
Consultant
Kanbay Software (I) pvt. Ltd.
Hyderabad

[Frank Yaeger]

pzmohanty,

As Kolusu says, "ICE" is the official IBM 3-character designation for DFSORT. ICETOOL is a fully documented, fully supported free utility shipped with IBM's DFSORT. When DFSORT is installed as the primary sort product at a site, PGM=ICEMAN and PGM=SORT invoke DFSORT and PGM=ICETOOL invokes DFSORT's ICETOOL.

IBM has no way to prevent another product from using ICEMAN, SORT, ICETOOL or any other program name as names for that product's programs. Syncsort has chosen to use ICEMAN and SORT as aliases for Syncsort. Syncsort has chosen to use ICETOOL as an alias for its undocumented SYNCTOOL. So when Syncsort is installed as the primary sort product at a site, PGM=ICEMAN and PGM=SORT invoke Syncsort and PGM=ICETOOL invokes Syncsort's SYNCTOOL.

BTW, PGM=SYNCSORT can also be used to invoke Syncsort. To avoid confusion, IBM has chosen not to include SYNCSORT as an alias for DFSORT, although a shop can easily add that alias and some do to make migration from Syncsort to DFSORT easier (so they don't have to change PGM=SYNCSORT to PGM=SORT in their jobs).

In shops where both products are available, one will be the primary sort and the other will be the alternate sort. In that case, the primary sort will be invoked by those names unless you use a JOBLIB or STEPLIB to cause the alternate sort to be invoked.

Note that DFSORT's ICETOOL will only invoke DFSORT since they are always in the same libraries. You either get DFSORT and DFSORT's ICETOOL or you get neither.

Note also that although DFSORT and Syncsort are similar, they are not identical. And as for SYNCTOOL, it's undocumented, unsupported code in Syncsort that only has a subset of the functions available with DFSORT's fully documented, fully supported ICETOOL.

I wish that Syncsort had NOT made ICETOOL an alias for SYNCTOOL to avoid confusion, but IBM has no control over that.
_________________
Frank Yaeger - DFSORT Development Team (IBM)
Specialties: JOINKEYS, FINDREP, WHEN=GROUP, ICETOOL, Symbols, Migration
DFSORT is on the Web at:
www.ibm.com/storage/dfsort

[jacky_ying]

a further question:how to create alias of a load module =^_^= thx

[kolusu]

jacky_ying,

You can do that by using DEFINE ALIAS command. check this link for a detailed explanation of the command

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/dgt1v403/3.5?DT=19990113080956

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Kolusu
_________________
Kolusu
www.linkedin.com/in/kolusu

[jacky_ying]

hi,kolusu

Thanks for your help. I think you might misundertand what i said. The link you gave describes how to create alias for a dataset. What I asked is how to create a alias of a member in load lib. After seraching internet I found this can be done by
binder(HEWL). Am I right?

[jacky_ying]

After testing in my shop,I am sure alias can be create like this

[kolusu]

jacky_ying,

Thanks for sharing the code

Kolusu
_________________
Kolusu
www.linkedin.com/in/kolusu