Using the NETRC data set

The NETRC data set provides you with an alternative to specifying the user_id and password values as REXEC parameters. REXEC uses the following search order to find the NETRC data set to use:

NETRC DD statement
userid.NETRC.DATA
tso_prefix.NETRC
userid.NETRC

For information about using the NETRC data set in a batch file, see Submitting REXEC and RSH requests in batch.

If the password is specified on the -p parameter on the REXEC command, no NETRC data sets are used. The keywords machine, login, and password must be specified in lowercase. The user ID and password might be case sensitive and if supplied in the incorrect case, failures might occur when connecting to a REXEC server. Contact the administrator of the server's system if you are uncertain which case should be used.

The hostname value that is specified after the machine keyword can include scope information, as described in the support for scope information in the z/OS Communications Server: IPv6 Network and Application Design Guide.

Guideline: If either hostname%scope or IPv6_address%scope is specified as the foreign_host command parameter, there must be an entry in the NETRC data set that contains a string identical to the value that follows the machine keyword so that the correct user ID and password values are selected.

The following is the format of the NETRC data set:

machine hostname login user_id password password

Note: You can omit your password in the NETRC data set. If you do, the REXEC command prompts you for your current password.

The following is an example of a NETRC data set:

machine mvs1 login user28 password abcdef

The following is a sample of the response that displays after using using the REXEC command and the NETRC data set.

 READY  rexec mvs1 lista     
 MVS TCP/IP REXEC CS V1R2
 SYS1.HELP
 GIM.SGIMCLS0
 DSN230.DSNCLIST
 USER.CLIST
 BUILD.CLIST 
 SYS1.HRFCLST 
 USER28.RSHD5.JOB00161.D0000103.?