On 6/25/20 4:40 PM, Doug Wegscheid wrote:
On Thu, Jun 25, 2020 at 02:08 PM, Jay Moseley wrote:
It sounds like you prefer the Dynamic Proclib approach, so that is
probably what you should use and integrate the load modules,
procedures and library PDSes into your system using the method you
prefer. I have tried Brian Westerman's Dynamic Proclib and didn't
particularly care for it, although it is included on another page at
my site and I heartily recommend it to anyone for whom that approach
appeals to them and works for them. I have also backfitted a Usermod
to allow SYSC.LINKLIB to be concatenated into the Link List, and it
works great for me on my system.
Jay, what didn't you like about the dynamic proclib? (I'm not trying to spark an argument; your experience enables you to see something there that I don't, so I want to understand what I am not seeing)...
Doug,
I don't remember anything specific, but it just wasn't something I thought I would use. I set up the SMP install for it because it was pointed out to me that it could be done and there was interest in it. I put it into a form where it installed from source rather than object and installed it. I created a test proclib and played with it for a while. But I just couldn't see how it added much for my own use. I already have the capability of using a JOBPARM proclib statement: /*JOBPARM PROCLIB=PROCnn in the rare case I would need to do something like this. I bricked my MVS system several times last month and one of the times I was rebuilding I just decided to leave it off.
As for killing an MVS, I do that occasionally. I have some periodic 'daily' backups of a few datasets that I might be interested in. But every change that I make to my system that I intend to keep I also make an entry in one of the 'setup' jobstream datasets I keep in a 3380-E volume. So most of the time when I restore I start from a copy of a newly generated MVS system and submit 2-3 jobstreams to get my system back the way it was. Each of the jobstreams I submit are just IEBGENER jobs that copy more jobstreams into the internal reader. At most it takes 30 minutes. It is good practice for ensuring my customization jobstreams work.
Also, is the usermod you backfitted available? I'm interested in looking at it and seeing what I can learn.
It is on a page that contains some usermods that have come up since I revised the MVS installation instructions. This entire page was created at the suggestion of someone else, as has much that is on my site. Someone asks for it and I try to figure out how to do it, then explain what I did and, if I can, why.
This particular usermod was reworked from one found on CBT that originated in 1981. I found several later versions, but this one was closest to our version. Current z/OS, and maybe even late OS/390, versions don't need this as they don't require the Link List libraries to be catalogued in the master catalog.
At the present time if I were updating the SYSCPK page I would
probably simply remove the integration instructions/program and
leave it to each individual to integrate it as they see fit.
I would respectfully ask that you not remove those. Yes, probably the majority of the consumers of SYSCPK are MVS professionals, and they know how to do what needs doing. But...
Well, I was equating it with the VSAMIO installation instructions. When I got into revising them it became a mess. Since the complete VSAMIO source libraries are on SYSCPK and the modules are in SYSC.LINKLIB ready to link into user COBOL and Pl/1 programs, I decided to just scrap the installation.
I guess I will revisit SYSCPK when I have time and see what can be revised. As I said, this has not been looked at since 2015 when it was created, other than to add new version information. I had Phil prodding me back then to even do it and it was the last thing I did before life hit me between the eyes with a couple of large setbacks. I didn't get back on an even keel until 2017 and near the end of that year I got a baby to raise ... just before I went onto Medicare. I wouldn't trade him for anything, but he takes a big chunk of my time now.
Some of us are neophytes; we know how to administer systems, just that MVS is not one of them (I was hell on wheels with RSX-11M, VMS, BSD, and Linux, but not so much MVS), and your instructions were the only thing that enabled me to get the SYSCPK going. There was *no* way I was going to know how to connect the catalogs or get JES2 to pay attention to SYSC.PROCLIB without those instructions... and now I have a template to work from when I am doing similar stuff, and most importantly, I UNDERSTAND HOW THE PIECES FIT TOGETHER, HOW THEY BREAK, HOW TO FIX THEM.
Yes, I also stubbed my toe because the JES2 setup on my system was different than your instructions were written for, but now I understand how JES2 is started, where it gets it's parameters from, how to add proclibs to it, what COMMNDxx is for, and how to use ZZSA... and in the process of reading the manuals to learn some of that, I learned a lot more!
You providing explicit instructions WITH EXPLANATIONS has helped me a great deal.
That is the primary intent of my site. It originally started as sort of a 'scratchpad' for my own private use when Volker, Wolfgang, Jim Morrison, Bertus Bekker, Jay Maynard, and at least a dozen other people were trying to get an MVS system to build under Hercules. In fact, it originally was mostly MVT stuff. I never intended to have a 'product' like the Turnkey systems, but to have a place to guide people who were interested into building their own system and learning things. I wouldn't ever claim I know everything, just a little bit about everything and a desire to get things to work. Jim once wrote me that I seemed to have a knack for 'packaging' and I guess I let it go to my head.
Jay
