ISHELL — Invoke the ISPF shell

Format

ISHELL [initial_path] [-d]
Note: An alias of ISHELL is: 
ISH

Description

ISHELL invokes the ISPF shell, a panel interface that helps you to set up and manage z/OS UNIX System Services functions.

You can use the ISHELL command to:
  • List files in a directory
  • Create, delete, or rename directories, files, and special files
  • Browse files
  • Edit files
  • Copy files
  • Display file attributes
  • Search files for text strings
  • Compare files or directories
  • Run executable files
  • Display the attributes and contents of a symbolic link
  • Mount and unmount a z/OS® UNIX file system
  • Create a z/OS UNIX file system
  • Set up character special files
  • Set up standard directories for a root file system
  • Set up existing users and groups for access to z/OS UNIX System Services

    For more information about setting up TSO/E users, see z/OS UNIX System Services Planning.

Some of these tasks require specific authority. For example:
  • Mount authority is needed for mounting and unmounting file systems. See the section on mount authority in z/OS UNIX System Services Planningz/OS UNIX System Services Planning for an explanation about the mount authority that is needed for mounting and unmounting file systems.
  • Superuser authority is needed when setting up character special files and setting up existing users and groups for z/OS UNIX access.
  • RACF® SPECIAL attribute is needed when setting up existing users and groups for z/OS UNIX access.

The last path name used on the main panel of ISHELL is kept and displayed again on the next invocation of ISHELL. In order to switch back to the home directory, erase the path name shown and press ENTER.

Field level and panel help are available throughout the dialog. For more information about ISHELL, see z/OS V2R2.0 UNIX System Services User's Guide and the online help panels.

Parameters

initial_path
The path that you want to appear in ISHELL's main panel. For example: ishell /tmp/
-d
Prevents ISHELL from suppressing ISPF server dialog errors. Because this option will cause ISHELL to terminate on errors, use it only at the direction of IBM® Support.

Usage notes

  1. In z/OS V1R11, OEDIT and OBROWSE were changed to use the ISPF edit and browse dialog services by default. To have ISHELL use the original dialog service, export the environment variable BPXWISHISPF=NO from /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile.
  2. ISHELL starts a shell process in the background to find out the user's TZ setting from /etc/profile and $HOME/.profile. If the TZ setting is found, this value is used when displaying file time stamps. If not found, GMT is assumed. The environment variable BPXWISHTZ can be set to a time zone value to have ISHELL use a local time zone that is different from your TZ setting. BPXWISHTZ must be specified in /etc/profile or in .profile.
    Example: If the TZ setting does not specify GMT, to allow ISHELL users to return to GMT add the following line to etc/profile or .profile: 
    export BPXWISHTZ=GMT
Parent topic: TSO/E commands