Using System State Manager › How to Specify and Store Actions › Specify Variables in Action Clauses

Specify Variables in Action Clauses

CA OPS/MVS enables you to specify variables in an action clause. It does this by assigning values to the variables when SSM initiates the action in the clause.

You can specify action text variables in two ways. The first method is compatible with previous versions of SSM, and the second method follows the rules of REXX host command string processing.

To specify variables in action clauses

• The first method for compatibility with previous versions of SSM, you specify variables in a manner similar to TSO/E CLIST syntax. To do this, note the following:
  • Place an ampersand (&) as the first character of the variable name.
  • The first invalid character terminates the variable name.
  • A period (.) following the variable name indicates concatenation with subsequent text.
  • To include an ampersand character (&) as part of the text, enter two ampersands together.
  • If the variable name is not a column name in the directory or resource table, the variable name is assumed to be a CA Automate rules variable that has been processed by the CA OPS/MVS rules converter. The prefix table established by the ATM*SCOPEnn parameters are searched and the appropriate converted variable name is used to find the variable value. If the variable does not exist, a null string is substituted. Quotes have no special meaning as the command text is being scanned for variables.
• The second method for specifying action text variables follows the rules of REXX host command string processing. To use this method, note the following:
  • All text in quotation marks, either single (') or double ("), remain as entered.
  • Text outside of quotes may be treated as a variable name.
  • Strings of valid variable names are evaluated for substitution as column names or global variables.
  • Characters that are not valid variable names remain as entered.
  • Multiple blanks are reduced to a single blank.
  • An uninitialized variable is treated as the value of its own name.

When CA OPS/MVS evaluates action text, it first evaluates according to the TSO/E CLIST method, and then evaluates again using the REXX syntax method. To prevent inadvertent variable substitution, enclose all command text in quotes in the action keyword specification.

Example: Variables specified in action clauses

The following command text string is enclosed in quotes to prevent variable substitution.

TSOCMD("OPSCMD COMMAND(START &JOBNAME..&JOBNAME) NOOUTPUT
SUBSYS("GLOBAL0.MYSUB")")

In this example, if the JOBNAME column in the resource table has the value of RMF and the GLOBAL0.MYSUB variable has the value OPSX, then the following command is submitted to the server:

OPSCMD COMMAND(START RMF.RMF) NOOUTPUT SUBSYS(OPSX)

For a DB2 subsystem that uses a quotation mark (") as a command character, suppose that you have this action text:

TSOCMD("OPSCMD COMMAND(OI STOPDB2 CMDCHAR("")) JOBNAME("JOBNAME")")

This text yields the following:

OPSCMD COMMAND(OI STOPDB2 CMDCHAR(") JOBNAME(DSN2MSTR)

Shorthand global variables can also be used. These variables have the format &.varname. SSM resolves these variables by replacing the ampersand (&) with a system-specific prefix, and then treating them as global variables. The system prefix is set by the SSMGLVPREFIX parameter, which you should set independently on each system.

During the REXX substitution phase of action text processing, the & may be omitted if the variable name is not embedded in a quoted string.