Dump

CICS® dump allows you to specify areas of main storage to be dumped, by means of the DUMP TRANSACTION command, onto a sequential data set, which can be either on disk or tape.

The PERFORM DUMP command allows you to request a system dump.

You can format the contents of the dump data set and you can print them offline using the CICS dump utility program ( DFHDU720 ) for transaction dumps or the interactive problem control system (IPCS) for system dumps. Instructions on using these programs are given in the Dump utilities (DFHDUnnn and DFHPDnnn) .

Only one dump control command is processed at a time. If you issue additional dump control commands, while another task is taking a transaction dump, activity within the tasks associated with those commands is suspended until the dump is completed. Remaining dump commands are processed in the order in which they are made. Using the DUMP TRANSACTION command causes some fields (for example, EIBFN and EIBRCODE) in the EIB and the TCA to be overwritten.

Options on the DUMP TRANSACTION command allow you to dump the following areas of main storage in various combinations:
  • Task-related storage areas: selected main storage areas related to the requesting task. You would normally use a dump of these areas to test and debug your application program. (CICS automatically provides this service if the related task is terminated abnormally.)
  • CICS control tables: lists of the CICS system initialization parameters and the FILE, PROGRAM, TRANSACTION and TERMINAL resource definitions in the CICS system. A dump of these tables is typically the first dump taken in a test in which the base of the test must be established; subsequent dumps are usually of the task-related storage type.
  • It is sometimes appropriate during execution of a task to have a dump of both task-related storage areas and CICS control tables. Specifying one CICS control tables dump and a number of task-related storage dumps is generally more efficient than specifying a comparable number of complete dumps. However, you should not use this facility excessively because CICS control tables are primarily static areas.
  • In addition, the DUMP TRANSACTION command used with the three options, SEGMENTLIST, LENGTHLIST, and NUMSEGMENTS, allows you to dump a series of task-related storage areas simultaneously.

Program storage is not dumped for programs defined with the attribute RELOAD(YES).

You also get a list of the CICS nucleus modules and active programs, indexed by address, at the end of the printed dump.