Restrictions when debugging under CICS

The following restrictions apply when debugging programs with the z/OS® Debugger in a CICS® environment.
  • You can use CRTE terminals only in single terminal mode and screen control mode. You cannot use them in separate terminal mode.
  • The __ctest() function with CICS does nothing.
  • The CDT# transaction is a z/OS Debugger service transaction used during separate terminal mode debugging and is not intended for activation by direct terminal input. If CDT# is started via terminal entry, it will return to the caller (no function is performed).
  • Applications that issue EXEC CICS POST cannot be debugged in separate terminal mode or screen control mode.
  • References to DD names are not supported. All files, including the log file, USE files, and preferences file, must be referred to by their full data set names.
  • The commands TSO, SET INTERCEPT, and SYSTEM cannot be used.
  • CICS does not support an attention interrupt from the keyboard.
  • The CICS region must have read authorization to the preferences and commands files.
  • If the EQAOPTS LOGDSN command does not specify a naming pattern, z/OS Debugger does not automatically start the log file. You need to run the SET LOG ON fileid command.

    If the EQAOPTS LOGDSN command specifies a naming pattern, z/OS Debugger automatically starts the log file by running the SET LOG ON fileid command.

    If you are not logged into CICS or are logged in under the default user ID, z/OS Debugger does not run the EQAOPTS LOGDSN command; therefore, z/OS Debugger does not automatically start a log file.

    The CICS region must have update authorization to the log file.

  • Ensure that you allocate a log file big enough to hold all the log output from a debug session, because the log file is truncated after it becomes full. (A warning message is not issued before the log is truncated.)
  • z/OS Debugger disables Omegamon RLIM processing for any CICS task which is being debugged.
  • You can start z/OS Debugger when a non-Language Environment® assembler or non-Language Environment COBOL program under CICS starts by defining a debug profile by using DTCN. But z/OS Debugger will only start on a CICS Link Level boundary, such as when the first program of the task starts or for the first program to run at a new Link Level. For profiles defined in DTCN which list a non-Language Environment assembler or non-Language Environment COBOL program name that is dynamically called using EXEC CICS LOAD/CALL, z/OS Debugger will not start. Non-Language Environment assembler or non-Language Environment COBOL programs that are called in this way are identified by z/OS Debugger in an already-running debugging session and can be stopped by using a command like AT APPEARANCE or AT ENTRY. However, they cannot be used to trigger a z/OS Debugger session initially.