DL/I and CA IDMS/DB › Program Communication Blocks › Data Sensitivity and the PROCOPT Options

Data Sensitivity and the PROCOPT Options

What is Data Sensitivity

In DL/I, an application's data sensitivity refers to those segments that are available to the application via the PCBs it uses. In terms of data sensitivity, the basic purpose of a PCB is to effectively mask out segments from an application.

PROCOPT Processing Options

The PROCOPT processing options provide a number of access controls in addition to the basic access control based on including or excluding a segment. PROCOPT options let you further qualify access to specified segments. For example, PROCOPT=G permits the program to GET (that is, read) a segment. Some PROCOPT options can also be specified for the entire DBD, thereby restricting access on the database level itself.

The PROCOPT options include:

• G ── Get (retrieve) access
• R ── Replace (update) access
• I ── Insert access (to store new segments)
• D ── Delete access
• P ── Path calls
• O ── Get calls only (no hold)
• A ── Any or all of the access options above
• L ── Load access (for database loading)
• xS ── Ascending sequence only for the option indicated by x (G, R, etc.)
• K ── Key access only

Multiple options can be specified in the same PROCOPT parameter.

The K Option

The K option allows a PCB to restrict an application to only the key portion of a segment, while masking out the data portion. The K option is important because it removes access to a segment but still retains the hierarchical access path to the segment's dependents. By default, when a PCB masks out a segment, it also masks out the segment's dependent segments. The K option provides a way around this restriction.