Storing MVS and JES commands

System commands that are entered with the slash (/) command, along with any comments and groups, are stored on exiting SDSF, so that they can be displayed and reissued in the next SDSF session. By default, they are stored in the ISPF profile. Up to 50 commands can be stored this way.

When an ISPF table data set is allocated for that purpose, SDSF can store up to 2,000 commands, depending on an option for your installation. The default is 1,000.

The 20 most recent commands are displayed in the list on the System Command Extension pop-up. The complete list is displayed with the Details function key (PF6).

The ISPF table data set must exist before using SDSF, and have these properties:

Type: PDS or PDSE
RECFM: FB
LRECL: 80
Size: A good starting point is 100 blocks using a block size of 29720. The size that is required depends on the length of the commands, comments and group names, as well as the block size of the data set. The maximum size of each command entry is approximately 500 bytes. SDSF also adds header information.
If the data set runs out of space, a system abend occurs, and commands created during that session are lost. To avoid the abend, allocate the space generously and use secondary extents.

Note: The maximum size of a command entry may change in the future.

Once the table data set is created, it must be allocated to ddname ISFTABL prior to accessing SDSF. For example, if the data set is ibmuser.sdsf.tabl, you could use this command:

alloc fi(isftabl) da('ibmuser.sdsf.tabl') shr reus

Like the ISPF profile, the ISFTABL data set should be unique for each user. IBM does not recommend sharing the ISFTABL data set across users.

For more information about the option to control the number of commands that are stored, refer to the description of the Command.SLASH.CommandLimit custom property in Customized properties (PROPLIST).