Command tables

A system command table (ISPCMDS) is distributed with ISPF in the table input library. An application can provide an application command table by including a table named xxxxCMDS in its table input library, where xxxx is a 1- to 4-character application ID. In addition, you can specify up to three User command tables and up to three Site command tables. The application IDs for the User and Site command tables are specified in the ISPF Configuration table. You can also specify if the Site command tables are to be searched before or after the system command table.

You can define an application command table either by using the Dialog Tag Language (DTL) and ISPF conversion utility, or by using ISPF option 3.9.

When a user enters a command, the dialog manager searches the application command table, if any, and then the system command table. If it finds the command, action is taken immediately. If it does not find the command in the application or system tables, the command is passed to the dialog, unaltered, in the command field. The dialog then takes appropriate action.

Note: You can use the TSO ISPCMDTB command to convert existing command tables to DTL. To use ISPCMDTB, ensure the command table is in your table concatenation (ISPTLIB), then type TSO ISPCMDTB applid (where applid is the application id of the command table). This will begin an edit session containing the DTL version of the command table. Use the editor CREATE or REPLACE command to save the table to your DTL source data set.