Configuring the Parameter Library (Parmlib) › Parmlib Syntax

Parmlib Syntax

Each of the sample parmlib members contains comments documenting the structure of that member, how to customize that member, the attributes contained in the member, and the attributes' valid values.

In general, parmlib members consist of the following:

Blank lines

These are used for legibility and are completely ignored.

;Comments

Comments always begin with a semicolon. Comments can start in any column. These statements are used for documentation, and readability, but are ignored by the system.

<SectionNames>

Section names are always enclosed with greater than and less than signs ('<' and '>'). Sections are used to identify a common set of related parmlib attributes. The order of sections within a parmlib member is not important. Sections cannot be imbedded or nested. Each new <SectionName> marks the end of the prior section.

Attribute=Values

The left side of the equal sign denotes the name of a particular attribute while the right side denotes its assigned value or values.

Observe the following:

• Entries are not case-sensitive.
• There is no line continuation character.
• Attribute=value pairs must be coded together on a single line between columns 1 and 72.
• Descriptive attribute names are used to associate and assign data values to the parmlib parameters.
• Values containing blanks or other special characters must be enclosed within single (') or double (“) quote marks. For example, in member OSGROUP, to define the value. Production Files to the Description attribute, you will code ‘Production Files'.
• Attributes must be coded in their assigned section.
• Multiple parmlib data sets may be concatenated. The first member in the concatenated data sets that contains the section name being searched for will be the one used to load the corresponding attribute values.