Starting the CEMT transaction

You can construct a CEMT request in stages, or you can enter a complete request in one go. The CEMT transaction checks the syntax of requests and diagnoses errors. If your request is syntactically correct, it is processed immediately. If your request cannot be processed because of severe syntax errors, the full syntax of your request is displayed.

About this task

If you put a question mark (?) in front of your request, the syntax of your request is displayed but it is not processed.

If you put a minus sign (-) immediately following CEMT, and are using the main terminal transaction from the system console, CEMT always displays its results in abbreviated format. This is independent of the number of objects returned on the inquiry. Without the use of a minus sign, CEMT commands issued from the system console display the results in expanded format only if a single object is returned.

After you have initiated the CEMT transaction, you need not reenter CEMT on subsequent requests, because the identifier is implied at the beginning of any further request. However, if you are using the system console, you must always start each main terminal request with CEMT.

Procedure

Enter CEMT on the command line of the screen and press the Enter key.
You get the following response:
Figure 1. CEMT transaction: initial screen
```
  STATUS:  ENTER ONE OF THE FOLLOWING

 Discard
 Inquire
 Perform
 Set




 
```
This display prompts you to enter one of the keywords shown.
1. If you type D and press ENTER, the list of resources types that you can discard are displayed.
2. If you type I and press ENTER, the list of resources types that you can inquire about are displayed.
3. If you type P and press ENTER, the list of resources types that you can perform an action on are displayed.
4. If you type S and press ENTER, the list of resources types that you can change the status of are displayed.
5. If you press ENTER without selecting one of the CEMT keywords, INQUIRE SYSTEM is assumed and you get a display of the system parameters. Full details are given in CEMT INQUIRE SYSTEM.

General tips for using CEMT

ALL option

Many of the request formats contain the ALL option. For INQUIRE, this is the default. For example, if you inquire about terminals, you receive information about all terminals unless you specify a terminal identifier, a terminal class identifier, or a system identifier.

ALL is not the default on a SET command, however. If you specify the ALL option on a SET command, any changes you request are made to all resources of the specified type that you are authorized to access.

If there are no resources of the type specified on the SET command, a response of NOT FOUND is given.

CLASS option

When operating on terminals, transactions, and programs, the CLASS option can be used to identify the suffix of a TLT, XLT, or PLT.

This limits the scope of the INQUIRE or SET commands to those resources defined in the specified table. Any resources whose definitions have not been installed are displayed as NOT FOUND. For more information, see Terminal list table (TLT), Transaction list table (XLT), and Program list table (PLT).

? key

If you precede the command with ?, the syntax for that command appears on the screen.

For example, ?INQUIRE TERMINAL gives the list of options that you can specify with the inquiry command with the default highlighted. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Sample of screen showing the syntax of an INQUIRE command

 ?INQ TERM
  STATUS:  COMMAND SYNTAX CHECK
   CEMT  Inquire TErminal()
    < CLass() | ALl >
    < TRansaction() >
    < PRiority() >
    < PAgeable | AUtopageable >
    < Inservice | Outservice >
    < ATi | NOAti >
    < TTi | NOTti >
    < NEtname() >
    < ACquired | RELeased >
    < CReate | NOCreate >
    < REMotesystem() >

Hexadecimal values

Some values such as TSQUEUE and NETUOWID may contain nondisplayable characters, which are shown as periods. You can use PF2 on the expanded panel to see the hexadecimal values of these characters. To switch back to character format, press PF2 again.

Variables

PF5 gives a display of variables, similar to that for the CECI command. Here are some examples of its use.

From a FILE display, you might want to inquire of a specific DSNAME, which is typically 26 characters and can be up to 44 characters in length. Go to the expanded panel, position the cursor on the DSNAME line, and press PF5. You now have a variable &DSN with the required value. Type I DSN(&DSN) on the command line, and press ENTER.

You might want to find all the TSQUEUE names that begin with a nondisplayable character; for example, X'FF'. Press PF5 for the variables display. Enter X and 2 to make a variable &X of length 2. Press PF2 to switch to hexadecimal, and overtype '4040' with 'FF5C' ('5C' is hexadecimal for the asterisk (*) symbol). Type I TS(&X) on the command line and press ENTER.

For more information on the variables display, see Defining variables.