Abnormal termination codes and error messages

CICS® sends messages to the following logs and transient data destinations:
  • console.nnnnnn
  • CSMT
  • stderr and stdout
  • CCIN
  • CPLI and CPLD
  • symrecs.nnnnnn
  • CRTI

The contents of each log are described in Table 1.

Use TXSeries® for Multiplatforms Messages and Codes to look up for any CICS messages. Ensure that you also have some documentation for application messages and codes for programs that have been written at your installation.

Messages are displayed in the national language that is requested in the locale. If no language is specified, messages are displayed in the national language of the CICS region.

When a CICS region is restarted, console.nnnnnn and CSMT are re-created. Any information that was previously stored in these files is lost. Make a copy of console.nnnnnn and CSMT before you restart a region after an error.

Table 1. Contents of the message logs and transient data destinations
Message file Use
stdout and stderr The standard output data stream and standard error data stream. Programs and utilities that run outside the CICS runtime environment use these to display CICS messages to their users. The stderr stream normally goes to the terminal display, unless you use operating-system commands to redirect the output elsewhere. No messages that are associated with the CICS region go to the stderr stream.
console.nnnnnn The file of messages that is associated with region-wide conditions. These messages include:
  • Startup messages
  • Phase two shutdown messages
  • Transaction-related messages
  • Error messages about the region

The console.nnnnnn is in /var/cics_regions/regionName/data. Every time that a new CICS region starts, the number of the console.nnnnnn file is incremented by one. The size of this file is controlled through the MaxConsoleSize attribute of the Region Definitions. Setting MaxConsoleSize to zero means that the console.nnnnnn file grows until it reaches the limits of your system. Setting it to a specific size means that the first file is closed and a new file is opened with the next available number. Two messages are issued that tell you when the file is closed and the name of the new file. The cicstail command automatically continues to tail the new file.
CSMT A transient data queue that contains messages about transactions. Messages are written to this destination only by application servers, within the bracket of a logical unit of work (LUW). User programs can also write to the transient data queue, either directly, or through a TDQueue that points indirectly to CSMT. You can configure CSMT as a local physically-recoverable or unrecoverable interpretation transient data queue (with trigger level), or as a local extrapartition queue. The default is an extrapartition queue. CSMT.out will be truncated at region startup by default.

Messages written to CSMT include the date, time, region name, and principal facility, when there is one. CSMT is in /var/cics_regions/region/data.
CCIN A transient data queue that contains messages about autoinstallation and de-installation of terminals that are related to IBM® CICS Transaction Gateway.
CRTI A transient data queue that contains messages about the partner task and the originating task of the current task.
sarpcd.log sarpcd.log file stores the logs for garbage collector functionality of sarpcd daemon process. sarpcd.log file is created at the first start of an sarpcd process. The file will be updated with every sarpcd restart. Trace output for CICS Inter Process Communication component is also logged in this file. If this log file is deleted, it will be created when sarpcd daemon starts.
cicsipc.log: cicsipc.log file stores the logs for cicsipc component, based on the routing file definition present in <CICS_INSTALL>/etc/cicsipc_routing . This routing file is configurable to set the fatal, errors and warnings of rpc flowing from CICS processes to sarpcd process. sarpcd related fatal, errors and warnings are routed to cicsipc.log file.