System console

IMS communicates with the z/OS® system console using z/OS write-to-operator (WTO) and write-to-operator-with-reply (WTOR) messages.

Enter messages from the console in WTO or WTOR format. z/OS passes only the data portion of the reply to IMS. Each reply constitutes one segment of an input message. Each segment can contain either uppercase or lowercase characters. Multi-segment messages must end with a period to identify end-of-message. A period can appear either at the end of the last segment (before the end quote), or as a segment itself. Because of WTO and WTOR restrictions, IMS translates any embedded carriage return (CR) characters in output messages to blanks and ignores them.

The following data formats are acceptable. IMS WTO and WTOR reply formats vary depending on the z/OS system and the level of JES being used.

Table 1. IMS WTO and WTOR Formats
Input Location Data Format
Command Line R nn,'/ERESTART CHKPT 0 '
Second Line R nn,'BUILDQ FORMAT RS.'
Transaction Line R nn,'FIRST SEGMENT'
Second Line R nn,'LAST SEGMENT.'
Message Switch R nn,'DESTNAME TEXT'
Second Line R nn,'TEXT 2ND LINE.'

IMS does not print output messages enqueued for the system console on the terminal until you enter a message. This ensures that you are present when output messages are printed. If you do not need to enter an input message, enter a blank or period as a single-character message to cause enqueued output to be printed without input-message processing.

Table 2. IMS WTOR Example
Example Explanation 
27 DFS996I *IMS READY
⋮		 IMS is ready for an output segment.
R 27,'.' Reply to cause enqueued output to be printed. 
DFS000I WTOR OPERATOR ARE YOU
        THERE?
 Message 1 from output queue. 
DFS000I PLEASE START TRANS
        XYZ...OK?
 Message 2 from output queue.
28 DFS996I *IMS READY⋮ IMS is ready for next input segment.