ISPF PACK support

This customization task does not require assistance, special resources, or special customization tasks.

When using the ISPF EDIT command PACK ON | OFF, ISPF uses a proprietary format to pack the data, and it does not provide a way to detect packed data without opening the member or data set first. This results in garbled data showing in the Developer for z/OS® editor when a packed member or data set is opened. Developer for z/OS provides a REXX exec, FELPACK, that can be called by the client, for example in a Menu Manager action, to unpack or pack a member or data set.

FELPACK is located in FEL.SFELPROC, if you installed Developer for z/OS in the default location.

The Developer for z/OS client uses the TSO Command Service to execute the exec. This implies that if the FELPACK exec is placed in the SYSPROC or SYSEXEC concatenation for the TSO Command Service, the user does not need to know the exact location of the exec. The user only needs to know the name. When using the Legacy ISPF Gateway, the SYSPROC or SYSEXEC concatenation is defined in ISPF.conf. Customization of this file is documented in the IBM®® Explorer for z/OS® Host Configuration Guide.

Menu Manager in the client can also query environment variable FEL_DSN_SFELPROC to dynamically learn the name of the SFELPROC data set, and thus call the FELPACK REXX exec directly.