Using Extended Job Fields › Prompting Best Practices

Prompting Best Practices

Use prompting when creating or modifying a job from the DCL command line that has at least one data field greater than 255 characters. Depending on the fields used, you can initiate either full prompting or brief prompting. You can initiate either full or brief prompting to modify more than one field at the same time.

• Full prompting is initiated using the /PROMPT qualifier for the CREATE, MODIFY, and COPY commands.
• Brief prompting is initiated when no parameters or qualifiers are entered for the CREATE, COPY, or MODIFY commands on the command line.

Note: For more information about how each command handles prompting, see the commands in the CA Job Management for OpenVMS Command Reference Guide.

When you use prompting, note the following conditions:

• You cannot enter more than 255 characters per line.
• You can enter the continuation character (a single dash "-") before reaching the 255 character limit. The dash can be character 255.

Depending on the field you used, you can initiate either full or brief prompting to modify more than one field at the same time.

• Use the following commands to specify a VMS_COMMAND field greater than 255 characters, and to initiate brief prompting:
  • CREATE without specifying the VMS command as the parameter
  • COPY without specifying the /VMS_COMMAND qualifier
  • MODIFY without specifying any qualifier that modifies the job fields
• Use the following commands to specify an output file field greater than 255 characters. The commands initiate brief prompting that includes the /OUTPUT qualifier.
  • CREATE or COPY without specifying the /OUTPUT qualifier
  • MODIFY without specifying any qualifier that modifies the job fields
• Use the following commands to specify a prefunction or postfunction field greater than 255 characters, and to initiate full prompting. The prefunction and postfunction qualifiers are not included with brief prompting.
  • CREATE/PROMPT
  • COPY/PROMPT
  • MODIFY/PROMPT