Field engineering program

The field engineering program (DFHFEP) is a CICS® system service function primarily designed for an IBM® field engineer to use when installing new terminals. When CICS is running, this program (invoked by the CSFE transaction) transmits a set of characters to the requesting terminal. In addition, the program can be used to echo a message; that is, it repeats exactly what is keyed at the terminal. This program also supports some general debugging functions.

Design overview

When used for testing terminals, DFHFEP first prepares for device-dependent conditions. It then issues a storage control FREEMAIN, followed by a GETMAIN for storage for the ENTER message, which it writes using terminal control WRITE, READ, and WAIT macros. Finally, if print was requested, the character set is printed; if end was requested, the completion message is issued; otherwise the input is echoed.

DFHFEP performs all the requests made by the CSFE transaction. In addition to the terminal test function, CSFE can request the activation or deactivation of:
  • System spooling interface trace
  • Terminal builder trace
  • Storage freeze
  • Storage violation trap
  • Global trap/trace exit.

See CSFE - terminal and system test for details of the command syntax and functions provided.

Modules

DFHFEP

Exits

No global user exit points are provided for this function.

Trace

No trace points are provided for this function.