Enhanced Console Facility › Overview › Commands Processed by the OSF

Commands Processed by the OSF

When the ECF sees a command that begins with an exclamation mark (!), it routes the command to one of its OPSOSF (Server) address spaces for processing.

An exclamation mark is the default OSF character string. It can be changed to any other 1- to 3-character string (other than the current ECF command character string) with the OPSPRM OPS/REXX function or the OPSPARM command. For additional information, see the OSFCHAR parameter in the Parameter Reference.

What follows that character must be one of the following:

• The name of a TSO command (that is, LISTC) followed by its operands, if any.
• A percent sign (%) followed by the name of a command procedure that has been written in the TSO CLIST language and has been put in one of the libraries in the //SYSPROC concatenation specified in the JCL of the OPSOSF procedure. Such procedures can contain any combination of TSO commands and CLIST logic, but they will almost always contain calls to the
  CA OPS/MVS OPSCMD command to issue system commands and retrieve the responses they generate.

  A CLIST that has not been stored in //SYSPROC can still be run by calling it directly through the TSO EXEC command.

• OI followed by the name of a command procedure that has been written in OPS/REXX and has been placed in one of the libraries in the //SYSEXEC concatenation specified in the JCL of the OPSOSF procedure. Again, while in theory any OPS/REXX program can be called, the assumption is that these programs perform some operational task by their routing commands to ADDRESS OPER.

  OI is an alias of OPSIMEX. OPSIMEX could be used in place of OI, but it is considerably less convenient to type.

• OX followed by the name of a data set containing a command procedure written in OPS/REXX. OX is an alias of OPSEXEC, and must be used if the OPS/REXX command procedure needed is not in the //SYSEXEC concatenation.

Each command entered with a prefix of ! must stand alone. These commands cannot request more input from the operator, and they cannot see commands entered after they were entered through this facility.

Note: Commands cannot issue a TSO GETLINE or TGET request. A command procedure could issue an OPSWTO command with the REPLY operand to prompt the operator through a standard z/OS WTOR, but such command procedures are best run through the OPSECF facility of the ECF.

For more information about the CA OPS/MVS Server Facility, see the Administration Guide.