BPXWDYN: a text interface to dynamic allocation and dynamic output

BPXWDYN is a text interface to a subset of the SVC 99 (dynamic allocation) and SVC 109 (dynamic output) services. BPXWDYN supports data set allocation, unallocation, concatenation, the retrieval of certain allocation information, and the addition and deletion of output descriptors. BPXWDYN is designed to be called from REXX, but it can be called from several other programming languages, including Assembler, C, and PL/I.

This interface makes dynamic allocation and dynamic output services easily accessible to programs running outside of a TSO environment; however, it also functions in a TSO environment.

The syntax for allocation is quite similar to that of TSO for the TSO ALLOCATE and FREE commands. It should be possible to provide parameters to BPXWDYN that would be acceptable as a TSO ALLOCATE or FREE command. However, there are keys that are supported by TSO ALLOCATE that are not currently supported by BPXWDYN. There are also some keys that can be used with BPXWDYN which are not compatible with TSO.

The syntax for accessing dynamic output facilities is similar to that of the TSO OUTDES command, but the name of the output descriptor is identified differently. You associate an output descriptor with a SYSOUT allocation by using the OUTDES key on the SYSOUT allocation request, or by creating a default output descriptor.