ISPF.conf, the Legacy ISPF Gateway configuration file

Legacy ISPF Gateway uses the definitions in ISPF.conf to create a valid environment to execute batch TSO and ISPF commands. z/OS® Explorer uses this environment to run the TSO Commands service.

Note: As of z/OS 2.2, Legacy ISPF Gateway, previously named TSO/ISPF Client Gateway, is deprecated and will no longer be enhanced. The functionality is now provided by the Interactive ISPF Gateway. For more information, see (Optional) Interactive ISPF Gateway.

ISPF.conf is located in /etc/zexpl/, unless you specified a different location when you customized and submitted job FEK.SFEKSAMP(FEKSETUP). For more details, see Customization setup. You can edit the file with the TSO OEDIT command.

Definitions must start in column 1. Comment lines start with an asterisk (*) when using a US code page. Data lines can have only a directive and its assigned value. Comments are not allowed on the same line. Line continuations are not supported. When concatenating data set names, add them on the same line and separate the names with a comma (,).

In addition to providing the correct names for the ISPF data sets, also add the TSO Commands service data set name, FEK.SFEKPROC, to the SYSPROC or SYSEXEC statement, as shown in the following example.

Figure 1. ISPF.conf: ISPF configuration file
* REQUIRED:
sysproc=ISP.SISPCLIB,FEK.SFEKPROC
ispmlib=ISP.SISPMENU
isptlib=ISP.SISPTENU
ispplib=ISP.SISPPENU
ispslib=ISP.SISPSLIB
ispllib=ISP.SISPLOAD

* OPTIONAL:
*allocjob = ISP.SISPSAMP(ISPZISP2)
*ISPF_timeout = 900
Note:
  • You can add your own DD-like statements and data set concatenations to customize the TSO environment, thus mimicking a TSO logon procedure. For more details, see "Customizing the TSO environment" in the Host Configuration Reference Guide (SC27-8438).
  • You cannot define a STEPLIB directive. Use the STEPLIB directive in rse.env instead.
  • The Legacy ISPF Gateway might not function properly if you use a third-party product that intercepts ISPF commands, such as ISPSTART. To see how it can be disabled for z/OS Explorer, check the documentation for that product . If the product requires the allocation of a specific DD statement to DUMMY, you can simulate this behavior in ISPF.conf by allocating that DD statement to nullfile.
    For example: 
    ISPTRACE=nullfile
  • When using the allocjob directive, be careful not to undo the DD definitions done earlier in ISPF.conf.
  • System abend 522 for module ISPZTSO is to be expected if the JWT parameter in the SMFPRMxx parmlib member is set lower than the ISPF_timeout value in ISPF.conf. This does not impact z/OS Explorer operations because the Legacy ISPF Gateway is restarted automatically when needed.
  • Changes are active for all new invocations. No server restart is needed.