Inquiry commands

You can use the system programming commands to inquire about the definition and status of most resources that are defined to CICS, and about many elements of the CICS system as well.

You cannot inquire on the following CICS resources:

  • LSRPOOL
  • MAPSET
  • PARTITIONSET
  • TYPETERM

For most resource types, the options in the INQUIRE command correspond to specific elements in the definition of that resource. Such options usually have the same or similar names in the INQUIRE command and in the resource definition. Where they do not, the option text for the command notes the corresponding definition attribute. Often, for more information about the meaning of an option value, see the definition of the resource in RDO resources.

In addition to CICS resources, you can inquire on elements of the CICS system such as the CICS dispatcher. Most system elements that you can inquire about correspond to system initialization parameters. For more information about them, see The system initialization parameter descriptions and summary.

Certain considerations apply to all the inquiry commands, which are principally the INQUIRE commands, but also include COLLECT STATISTICS, EXTRACT STATISTICS, and EXTRACT EXIT.
  • Exception conditions: CICS returns no information when an exception condition occurs; data-areas named in receiver options are unchanged.
  • Exclusive control: A task that inquires about a resource, system setting, or system component does not get exclusive control of the object of the inquiry. Another task or system event might change the information returned at any time. The resource currently being inquired on must not be deleted because the current resource is used to position to the next resource on a subsequent GETNEXT command. The resource can be deleted only after the subsequent GETNEXT command, because it is no longer required for positioning within this browse request.
  • Browsing: Resources that support browsing can be retrieved sequentially, as explained in Browsing resource definitions.
  • Inapplicable options: If you specify a receiver option that does not apply to the resource about which you are inquiring, CICS generally returns the appropriate null value, as defined in Null values. (In a few cases, an exception is raised; these cases are noted in the command descriptions.)

    For example, if you include BLOCKFORMAT in an INQUIRE TDQUEUE command that specifies an intrapartition transient data queue, CICS returns the value NOTAPPLIC to the CVDA you provide, because BLOCKFORMAT is valid only for extrapartition queues.