Creating and naming output descriptors

When you issue the OUTADD macro, the system creates an output descriptor. An output descriptor represents your SYSOUT processing options. (See Output descriptors and text units for an explanation of output descriptors.) When you issue OUTADD, you either specify a name for the descriptor, or allow the system to assign one. The name must be unique in the present job step.

The name allows you to reference one or more output descriptors when you invoke dynamic allocation. (See OUTPUT statement reference - Key = '8002'.) These descriptors can be created either by the OUTADD macro or by the OUTPUT JCL statement, as long as they exist when dynamic allocation is invoked. If you allocate a SYSOUT data set with a DD JCL statement, you must define the descriptor with an OUTPUT JCL statement. If you allocate a SYSOUT data set dynamically, you can define the descriptor with the OUTPUT JCL statement or use dynamic output.