Transaction abend codes

Transaction abend codes are four-character error codes, defined by CICS® or by the user, that are used at abnormal termination of transactions. A transaction abend code indicates the cause of an error that may have occurred in CICS code or in a user program. When abnormal conditions occur, CICS can send a message to the CSMT transient data destination that contains the transaction ID, the program name, and the abend code.

Here is an example:

			DFHAC2236:
			date time applid
			Transaction
			tranid
			abend
			primary abcode
			in program
			program name
			term
			termid
			backout successful
			{ batchid = }
			batchid
			.
			message
		

Alternatively, the application can intercept abends by including an active EXEC CICS HANDLE ABEND command. The actual abend code can be determined by issuing the EXEC CICS ASSIGN command with the ABCODE option.

The transaction identification code tranid usually consists of the 4 characters defined to CICS. However, when a transaction is initiated by using a light pen, an operator identification (OPID) card reader, or 3270 PA or PF keys (specified in the TASKREQ= operand), CICS creates an internal transaction identification in the form of a 1-byte 3270 attention identification (AID) code followed by 3 bytes of X'FF'.

The code that may actually appear in the message in place of the internally-created transaction identification will be * xx *, where xx is the character translation of the 3270 AID code. To prevent ambiguity, the user should avoid using these codes as transaction identifiers.

The keys, the light pen (LPA), and OPID, and their corresponding printed AID codes are given in the following list:

An abend code indicates the cause of an error that may have been originated by CICS or by a user program. For most of the abend codes described, a CICS transaction dump is provided at abnormal termination.

All CICS transaction abend codes abcode are 4-character alphanumeric codes of the form Axxx.