Understanding selection commands

Selection commands limit the scope of the comparing process and make it more manageable or meaningful. By using selection commands, you identify only the DSPY records you want to compare and allow the Log Compare Utility to ignore the rest.

In addition, you can use selection commands like DEV, LU, or TERM to identify DSPY records for particular devices for which you want to compare simulation runs. For example, although your MASTER and TEST log data sets may each contain DSPY records for DEV1 through DEV100, you may want to compare the DSPY records for only DEV49. In this case, you can code the DEV command as follows:

DEV DEV49

You may also want to compare the DSPY records for MASTER DEV50 to TEST DEV51. In this case, you can code the DEV command as follows:

DEV DEV50,DEV51

The Log Compare Utility compares only the MASTER and TEST DSPY records requested. If you code several DEV, LU, or TERM selection commands, the Log Compare Utility compares the MASTER DSPY records for each device to its associated TEST DSPY records.

When you code the VTAMAPPL, TCPIP and NTWRK selection commands, the Log Compare Utility compares a range of network resources. For example, a VTAMAPPL may have several logical units with it, so that when you code:

VTAMAPPL VAPPL1

the Log Compare Utility compares all logical units associated with VAPPL1. With this coding, the Log Compare Utility extracts only those DSPY records that have VAPPL1, and then compares those records.

If you want to compare the DSPY records for MASTER VAPPL1 to TEST VAPPL2, you can code the VTAMAPPL command as follows:

VTAMAPPL VAPPL1,VAPPL2

This causes the Log Compare Utility to extract only those DSPY records from the MASTER log data set having VTAMAPPL VAPPL1, and to extract only those DSPY records from the TEST log data set having VTAMAPPL VAPPL2. The Log Compare Utility will then compare those records.

If no VTAMAPPL is specified, the Log Compare Utility extracts those DSPY records matching the logical units specified regardless of the VTAMAPPL.

The MSGTXT selection command provides another way to limit the records that the Log Compare Utility compares. When you specify the MSGTXT command, the Log Compare Utility considers only the DSPY records that were logged while WSim was processing the named message generation deck. Here again, more than one device can be represented in the resulting DSPY records, so the utility compares the MASTER DSPY records that fit the MSGTXT criteria against the TEST DSPY records that fit the MSGTXT criteria for the individual devices being compared.

The EXCLUDE and SELECT commands limit what is compared either by excluding certain records from consideration or by specifically selecting them for consideration. When you define a string of data on the EXCLUDE command, the Log Compare Utility bypasses any DSPY records with a matching string of data. For example, when an application under test has several levels of menus that you do not want to compare, you can define a data string of "menu" on EXCLUDE. Then the Log Compare Utility would exclude any DSPY records containing "menu" from the comparing process. When you are interested only in comparing a single panel, you can code a single SELECT command to define the panel. Then the Log Compare Utility compares only that panel during the comparing process.

The Log Compare Utility also excludes DSPY records produced as a result of the CLEAR command simulating use of the Clear key at a terminal.

The START command defines the panel that is the starting point for the comparing process. For example, the application under test can have several panels of logon and password information that occur before the first panel you are interested in comparing. When you identify that panel by defining a unique data string on the START command, the Log Compare Utility searches for that panel in both the MASTER and TEST log data sets. When the utility locates that panel, it begins the comparing process.

The SYNCPOINT command enables you to define the DSPY record that the utility uses to synchronize the comparison of two log data sets. The ERRCOUNT command enables you to abort or synchronize the comparison after a specific number of mismatches. With the ABORT operand on the ERRCOUNT command, you can specify the number of differences that can be detected for a device before the utility ends the comparing process. When you code the SYNCPOINT operand on the ERRCOUNT command, you specify the number of differences that can be detected for a device before the utility attempts to synchronize the log data sets.

Note: The compare process for devices is completely separate. If you have two devices in your MASTER and TEST log data sets that are not being compared to each other, the Log Compare Utility can abort processing for one device without aborting processing for the other device.

For additional information about synchronization, refer to Synchronizing two log data sets. Refer to Specifying synchronization with selection commands for more information about using the SYNCPOINT and ERRCOUNT commands.