Using ISPF to edit a z/OS UNIX file

ISPF Edit provides a full-screen editor you can use to create and edit z/OS UNIX files. You can access ISPF Edit in several ways:
  • Using the oedit shell command
  • Using the TSO/E OEDIT command at the TSO/E READY prompt or from the shell command line
  • From the ISPF menu (if a menu option is installed)
  • From the ISPF shell (accessed using the TSO/E ISHELL command)

If you know you will be using OEDIT or OBROWSE during a shell session, make your initial invocation of the shell from ISPF. If you enter the OMVS command from ISPF, you can subsequently access OEDIT and OBROWSE more quickly than if you had entered the OMVS command from TSO/E.

Using ISPF Edit, you can edit only regular files (not special files). You need read and write permission for the file and search permission for any intermediate directories.

When you are working in MVS™ (TSO/E or ISPF), your home directory is the default working directory.

When you create a new file, you must have the appropriate permissions to add a new file to the parent directory. When a file is created using ISPF Edit, its default permissions are:
  • owner = rwx
  • group = ---
  • other = ---
The octal number is 700.

ISPF Edit allows only one edit session at a time per file. It reads the entire file when the edit session begins. At the end of the session, it replaces the original file with the edited file.

During an ISPF Edit session, you can use these types of commands:

Type of commands Usage notes
Scrolling commands You can use commands to scroll the data up, down, left, or right.

 
Line commands You perform line editing by entering a line command directly on the line number of the affected line. For example, to delete a line, you enter D on the line number; to repeat a line, you enter R on the line number. You can enter line commands for several lines at the same time.

 
Primary commands To perform general editing tasks, you enter primary commands at the command line on the panel. For example, you can use the FIND command to scan data for a specific character string. If you entered: 
FIND printf(
on the command line, your cursor moves to the next occurrence of printf(. Likewise, you can enter the CHANGE command to make global changes within a file.
For example, to change all instances of CRTL to C-RTL, issue: 
CHANGE CRTL C-RTL ALL
External data commands While you are editing one file, you can use external data commands to work with another file, a sequential data set, or a member of a partitioned data set or PDSE—moving data to or from the file you are editing. ISPF Edit provides five external data commands: COPY, MOVE, REPLACE, CREATE, and EDIT.
To end an edit session:
  • Saving all changes, enter the END command or press <F3>.
  • Without saving any changes, enter the CANCEL command.

When you end the edit session, you go back to where you were when you began it: on the entry panel, on an ISPF command line, at the TSO/E READY prompt, or at the shell prompt.

All you ever wanted to know about ISPF Edit

The discussion in this topic is an introduction to ISPF Edit. For detailed information about ISPF Edit, use the online help facility or refer to z/OS ISPF Edit and Edit Macros.