Rules for coding CICS system initialization parameters in the SYSIN data set

When you code CICS system initialization parameters in the SYSIN data set, observe the following rules.

• You must use a comma to separate parameters that are on the same line.
• You can optionally use a comma at the end of a SYSIN record.
• You can use an asterisk in column 1 to code comments, or to remove an initialization parameter temporarily from a specific execution of CICS.
• You can also add comments after the parameters on a SYSIN line, but they must be preceded by at least one blank character.
• Everything that appears in positions 1 through 80 is treated by CICS as input data.
• You can continue, on another line in SYSIN, parameters that have multiple operands if you make the split immediately after a comma. CICS concatenates the operands, omitting the intervening blanks.
• Generally, you cannot split an individual operand between lines. However, for the GMTEXT parameter, you can enter the operand over more than one line, up to the maximum of 246 characters. The format of this parameter is as follows:

  GMTEXT='User''s text'

  You can use apostrophes to punctuate message text, provided that you code two successive apostrophes to represent a single apostrophe (as shown in the example). The apostrophes that delimit the text are mandatory.

• Be careful when you code parameters that use apostrophes, parentheses, or commas as delimiters, because if you do not include the correct delimiters, unpredictable results can occur.