Browsing resource definitions

The INQUIRE commands that apply to resources normally retrieve information about a single resource that you name when you issue the command. However, there is another form that enables you to browse through some or all of the definitions of a given type.

The documentation for each INQUIRE command states whether or not the browse options are supported for that resource type.

You can inquire on or browse private resources for applications deployed on platforms. For supported resource types, a CICS® resource is private if the resource is defined in a CICS bundle that is packaged and installed as part of an application, either as part of the application bundle, or as part of the application binding bundle. CICS resources of other resource types that are defined as part of applications, and CICS resources that are defined by any other methods, are publicly available for all tasks. These resources are known as public resources.

The following CICS resources are supported as private resources for applications:
  • LIBRARY resources, which represent one or more data sets, known as dynamic program LIBRARY concatenations, from which program load modules can be loaded.
  • PACKAGESET resources, which represent DB2® collections and are used to qualify which table in a DB2 database an unqualified EXEC SQL request refers to.
  • POLICY resources, which represent one or more rules that manage the behavior of user tasks in CICS regions.
  • PROGRAM resources, which represent an application program. A program that is auto-installed by a task for an application that is deployed on a platform is also private to that version of the application.

When you issue the EXEC CICS INQUIRE command, by default, CICS searches for the resources that are available to the program where the command is issued. If the command is issued from a public program, you see the public resources of that type. If the command is issued from a program that is running with an application context, you see the private resources for the current application context, and the public resources of that type. You can also choose to browse the private resources for a specific application.

There are three steps to browsing resource definitions:

  1. Starting a browse of the resource definitions.
  2. Retrieving the next resource.
  3. Ending the browse of the resource definitions.