The options list is the parameter list that contains the options that are usually specified in the PARM parameter of the EXEC statement. This list is always required, even if you are not passing any PARM options to a utility program.

The general syntax of the PARM options parameter list (OPTLIST) is:

The options list should begin on a halfword boundary. The two high-order bytes of this list must contain a binary count of the number of bytes in the remainder of the options list. The options list is free-form, with fields separated by commas. No blanks or binary zeros should appear in the list outside of the first two bytes (the length indicator).

For example, you can start IEBCOPY and pass it some PARM parameters by coding the following (in assembler):

          LINK  EP=IEBCOPY,PARAM=(OPTLIST),VL=1
          .
          .
          .
OPTLIST   DC  AL2(L'OPTPARM)       
OPTPARM   DC  C'SIZE=1000K,WORK=1M'
 

Note that in the above example, you do not code the parentheses or single quotation marks that you would normally code in the PARM parameter. The PARM parameters for the IEBCOPY example above would normally be coded PARM=(SIZE=1000K,WORK=1M) or PARM='SIZE=1000K,WORK=1M', but you should not pass the enclosing parentheses or single quotations to IEBCOPY when you start the program from an application program.

When you are not passing any PARM parameter values to a utility program, code a halfword of binary zeros for the options list. For instance, to start the IEBGENER program from an application program using no PARM values and the default ddnames, code (in assembler):

          LINK  EP=IEBGENER,PARAM=(OPTLIST),VL=1
          .
          .
          .
OPTLIST   DC  H'0'