Masking names of OTMA destination descriptors

When specifying a destination name in an OTMA destination descriptor, you can generalize destination names by using an asterisk as a wildcard character or as a mask of the final characters in the destination name field.

For example, if you specify OTICON* as the destination name, the descriptor applies to any output that specifies a destination name that begins with OTICON, such as OTICON01 and OTICON02.

The OTMA destination descriptors can be listed in any order in the DFSYDTx PROCLIB member; however, when IMS searches for a descriptor to route output, IMS searches the descriptors in order from the most specific destination name to the most general. That is, IMS always reads specific destination names before destination names that include an asterisk.

If a descriptor specifies a masked destination name, such as OTICON*, but does not specify a tpipe name, the output must specify the actual tpipe name in full. By default, if no tpipe name is specified on the descriptor, the destination name is used as the tpipe name. If the destination name is masked, then IMS must read the destination name specified by the output to determine the specific tpipe to use.

If you specify a tpipe name on a descriptor that uses a masked destination name, all output sent to destinations that match the masked destination name is routed to the same tpipe.