Managing Procedure Libraries

Procedure libraries are partitioned data sets used to hold pre-defined sets of JCL statements called procedures. You can specify those procedures by name in EXEC JCL statements. A procedure library can be one partitioned data set or several partitioned data sets concatenated together. A partitioned data set can be a member of more than one procedure library.

The user identifies a partitioned data set as a member of a procedure library using a ddname of IATPLBxx on either:

a DD JCL statement in the JES3 start procedure (see Initializing JES3)
the DYNALLOC initialization statement

The last two characters of the ddname are called the procedure library id (procid).

The user must define a standard, or default, procedure library with the ddname IATPLBST. The IBM-supplied start procedure defines the standard procedure library as including the partitioned data set SYS1.PROCLIB. SYS1.PROCLIB contains IBM-supplied procedures, to which the user can add procedures. The user can also change the standard procedure library to a procedure library of the user's choosing.

When a job requires a procedure in a procedure library, the PROC parameter of the //*MAIN JES3 control statement can be used to specify the procid identifying the procedure library. If the PROC parameter is not specified, JES3 uses the default procid appropriate to the job type, as specified on the STANDARDS initialization statement (the INTPROC, STCPROC, or TSOPROC parameter). The default for batch jobs is the standard procedure library, IATPLBST. If the job does not use any procedures (even if the PROC parameter is specified), JES3 does not assign a default procedure library to the job.

If you have C/I FSS address spaces on local processors, they need access to all procedure libraries. To ensure that all CI DSPs use identical procedure libraries, place the procedure libraries on DASD devices shared among all processors eligible for C/I FSS address spaces. The DASD devices must also be jointly-managed by JES3 and MVS™ (that is, defined to MVS as permanently resident or reserved).

The procedure libraries must be cataloged in the MVS catalogs for all processors sharing access if you are using C/I FSSs. You must also catalog procedure libraries if you plan to use the JES3 procedure library update facility. See Updating Procedure Libraries for information about how to update procedure libraries.

Note: Converter/Interpreter functional subsystems (C/I FSS) and the PROCLIB update function will obtain unit and volume information for the procedure libraries from the catalog. For these functions, JES3 ignores unit and volume information that you specify in the JES3 start-up procedure or on a DYNALLOC initialization statement.