CSFE - terminal and system test
Use CSFE to diagnose terminal problems and software problems. This transaction is mainly intended to be used by system programmers and IBM field engineers.
Function overview
- Test your terminal.
- Activate the system spooling interface trace.
- Activate the terminal builder trace.
- Activate any of the following debugging functions:
- Storage freeze
- The storage violation trap
- The global trap/trace program exit routine
- The CONFDATA setting
- Query the selected debug option.
DFHFE3301 Transaction complete
For information about the use of this transaction, see Using dumps in problem determination.
Terminal testing with CSFE
You can use CSFE to test your terminal, but only if it is one of the terminals supported by CICS®.
- IBM® 2780 Data Transmission terminals
- IBM 3600 Finance Communication System terminals
- IBM 3614 Consumer Transaction Facility terminals
- IBM 3735 Programmable Buffered terminals
- Output-only printers (for example, printers of the IBM 3270 Information Display System)
You start the transaction by entering CSFE on the command line of the screen, and press the ENTER key. You get the following display:
DFHFE3304 Enter PRINT for character set, END to terminate. All other data will be echoed.
Enter either END or PRINT as you need.
- END
- When you type END on the command line of the screen, the test ends.
- When you enter PRINT, all characters printable or capable of display at the terminal are sent to your terminal.
Any other input is returned to your terminal (that is, it is echoed), unless it is of the form of one of the other CSFE requests.
System spooling interface trace activation
You can use CSFE to request additional trace and diagnostic facilities for the system spooling interface.
- OFF
- Switches off the system spooling interface trace and the diagnostic facility.
- ON
- Specifies that additional trace entries of system type are provided for the system spooling interface.
- SPOOLFE
- Is the system spooling interface trace and diagnostic facility.
Terminal builder trace activation
You can use the CSFE transaction to activate and deactivate the terminal builder trace.
- ,AUTOINSTALL
- Switches tracing on for autoinstalled terminals.
- ,OFF
- Switches tracing off for individual and autoinstalled terminals.
- =termid
- Switches tracing on for the terminal or connection identified by termid.
Storage freeze
With the storage freeze feature, certain classes of CICS storage that are normally freed during the processing of a transaction can, optionally, be kept intact and freed only at the end of the transaction. Then, in the event of an abend, the dump contains a record of the storage that would otherwise have been lost, including the storage used by CICS service modules. This freezing of storage can help you in the subsequent diagnosis of problems that might have occurred during processing. The classes of storage that can be frozen in this way are those in the teleprocessing and task subpools, and in terminal-related storage (TIOAs). You can use CSFE DEBUG to freeze storage that is normally freed during the processing of a transaction. The frozen storage is not freed until the end of the transaction.
You must code the options in the order shown in the syntax display.
- STGFRZ= {OFF|ON}
- Specifies that you want the storage freeze function to be set on or off. If you omit this option, storage freeze is set to OFF by default. To improve efficiency, storage freeze should be switched off when not required.
- TASKREQ= yyy
- This is an alternative method of identifying the transaction. yyy is the function key definition on a 3270 display device which identifies the transaction for which storage freeze is to apply; for example, TASKREQ=PA1.
- TRANID= xxxx
- Identifies the transaction for which storage freeze is to apply.
Storage violation trap
Use CSFE DEBUG to activate and deactivate the storage violation trap, which is in the trace program (DFHTRP), the exec interface program (DFHEIP), and the resource manager interface program (DFHERM).
This trap lets you verify the user storage associated with the currently active task. The storage violation trap is entered before the trace program returns to its caller after making a trace entry.
When a storage violation is detected by the trap, an exception trace entry is made, a CICS system dump is produced (if dumping has not been disabled), and the storage violation trap is switched off. To keep the trap active you will need to specify the SIT parameter CHKSTSK=CURRENT. You can specify the CHKSTSK parameter in PARM, SYSIN, or CONSOLE only.
Issuing a CSFE command does not retain the trap across CICS restarts.
- ,CHKSTSK= {CURRENT|NONE}
-
- CURRENT
- Specifies that validity checks are to be performed on the user storage (not the CICS storage) for the current task whenever the trace program is
entered, and keeps the trap active. Validity checks are to be performed for the currently active
task, as follows:
- Validity checking of the storage chain for the task
- Validity checking of the addresses and storage accounting areas for all storage areas on the transaction storage chain.
- NONE
- Deactivates the user storage checking function.
- ,CHKSTRM= {CURRENT|NONE}
- The terminal subpools, above and below the line, are to be checked for the CURRENT task or for NONE (no tasks).
Global trap/trace program exit and global kernel exit
You can use CSFE DEBUG with the TRAP or GTRAP operand to activate and deactivate the global trap/trace program exit routine or the global kernel exit routine respectively. These exits are intended to be used only under the guidance of IBM Support.
- TRAP={ON|OFF}
- The global trap/trace program exit routine is to be activated or deactivated.
- GTRAP={ON|OFF}
- The global kernel exit routine is to be activated or deactivated. On each domain call and return and each subroutine call and return, the kernel invokes the global kernel exit routine if it is activated.
CONFDATA setting update
You can use CSFE DEBUG to change the value of the CONFDATA system initialization parameter in a running system. Optionally, you can also use it to change the CONFDATA option of a transaction.
- CONFDATA= {HIDE|SHOW}
- Sets the value of the CONFDATA system initialization parameter, instructing CICS whether to to redact user sensitive data from CICS trace entries. For details, see CONFDATA system initialization parameter.
- TRANID= xxxx
- In addition to setting the CONFDATA system initialization parameter, if you
specify a transaction ID with CSFE DEBUG, CONFDATA, you will set the
CONFDATA option on the installed transaction with the specified transaction ID as follows:
- If CONFDATA=SHOW is specified, CONFDATA(NO) is set on the transaction.
- If CONFDATA=HIDE is specified, CONFDATA(YES) is set on the transaction.
For details of the CONFDATA transaction resource option, see TRANSACTION resources.
CSFE does not catalog these changes.