DATACK

Specifies whether you want the printer to block print-positioning and incorrect-character errors. A print-positioning error is an attempt to print outside the valid printable area. An incorrect-character error is an attempt to use a code point that is not assigned to a character.

Specify the DATACK parameter in an OUTPUT statement, as follows:

DATACK=BLOCK | UNBLOCK | BLKCHAR | BLKPOS

The values are:

BLOCK

Specifies that the printer is not to report data-check errors. The printer does not return error messages to PSF, even if data is lost. No data check error messages are created. BLOCK is the default.

UNBLOCK

Specifies that the printer is to report all data-check errors. If a print-positioning error occurs, the exception is highlighted on the printed page to help you find the place at which the printer attempted to print outside the valid printable area.

BLKCHAR

Specifies that the printer is not to report incorrect-character errors. The printer reports print-positioning errors as usual, with exception highlighting to show the locations of the errors.

BLKPOS

Specifies that the printer is not to report print-positioning errors. The printer reports incorrect-character errors as usual.

//OUTPUT1 OUTPUT DATACK=UNBLOCK
//DD1 DD SYSOUT=A,OUTPUT=(*.OUTPUT1)

When you specify a DATACK parameter, remember this:

• Not all printers perform exception highlighting, and the types of highlighting differ among printers. To see if your printer supports exception highlighting, see the documentation provided with the printer.
• If you receive a message stating that a print-positioning error occurred, you can submit the print job again and specify BLOCK or BLKPOS for the DATACK parameter to see how much of the job prints without the error. Output produced in this manner is sometimes acceptable.
• If you notice that data is missing from your output, and you specified DATACK BLOCK or BLKPOS, you can submit the print job again, specifying UNBLOCK or BLKCHAR to receive PSF messages about any print-positioning errors that PSF finds. This method does not apply to incorrect-character errors.
• If you do not specify the DATACK parameter, PSF uses the default from the PSF startup procedure. If you are using the Page-Printer Defaults form, the default is shown on the form. If no default is specified, PSF uses the default value, DATACK=BLOCK.

Also, see PIMSG, which determines whether PSF prints the error messages that are generated by a data check.