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Issue Commands

You issue z/OS Agent commands in a z/OS Agent client session. This procedure shows you how to access that session.

Follow these steps:

  1. Issue TSO command ESPAGENT SUB(subsysID).

    A z/OS Agent client session starts.

  2. Issue any z/OS Agent commands that you require.
  3. Once you are finished issuing commands, type END.

    z/OS Agent client session ends.

Entering Statements

The content of this section also applies to commands and initialization parameters when contained in a data set.

Continuation

Type either a hyphen or a plus sign as the last non-blank character on a line to continue a line of input. The hyphen attaches the next line including any leading blank position. The plus sign strips leading blanks from a continuation line. Blanks preceding the hyphen or the plus sign are retained. Statements cannot extend beyond column 72. The continuation character can be placed in columns 72 or before.

Note: A hyphen can also be used as a wildcard character. If the wildcard hyphen is the last character on the line, it will be interpreted as a continuation character and not as a wildcard.

For the hyphen to be interpreted as a wildcard, it must be followed by a semicolon or something else on the line such as a comment: (/* */).

Comments

Enclose comments between /* and */. Comments can be written anywhere in a z/OS Agent procedure.

Data Sets

We recommend that you enclose all data set names in single quotation marks. Although this is not required, it will preserve your intentions across all environments. For example, in a TSO environment a user's TSO ID will be added as a prefix if the TSO PREFIXING option is active and single quote marks have not been used. Use LIB- or PAN- prefixes to identify Librarian and Panvalet data sets.

Delimiters

Use single quotation marks when you want to denote character strings and literal data in expressions, in assignment statements, and in built-in functions. You must include single quotation marks around a string that contains blanks.

Indentation

You can use indentation to improve readability.

Wildcards in z/OS Agent

Many statements, commands, or initialization parameters permit the use of the following wildcard characters (also called masking):

Example: Wildcards in z/OS Agent

To display all calendars, use the following command:

LISTCAL -

To display all calendars with names containing XY in character positions three and four, use the following command:

LISTCAL **XY-

To display all calendars with two-character names, use the following command:

LISTCAL **

Wildcards in CA WA Restart Option ESP Edition

In certain operands of commands and statements used for CA WA Restart Option ESP Edition, you can use the wildcard characters in this topic to represent other characters.

Asterisk (*)

Type an asterisk anywhere in an operand to represent any single character, for example:

PM*UTIL matches the following:

Hyphen (-)

Type one or more hyphens anywhere in an operand to represent zero or more characters, for example:

PMI- matches the following:

PMI-1 matches the following:

-MI-1 matches the following:

PMI.-.RPT matches the following:

If you type a hyphen last on a line, add a space and another character, such as a semicolon or a comment (/* */) so the hyphen is not read as a line continuation character, for example:

PMIUTIL- ;

Mixed wildcard characters

You can use the asterisk and hyphen wildcard characters in combination, for example:

*MI- matches the following:

**MI- matches the following:

Examples

This section contains command syntax examples.