Preparing to use the CICS build toolkit

How to install, upgrade, and uninstall the CICS® build toolkit, including the Java™ requirements and Eclipse workspace considerations for running the CICS build toolkit.

Installing the CICS build toolkit

  1. Download the most recent version of the cicsbt-#######.zip file from the IBM CICS Transaction Server build toolkit downloads website.
  2. Transfer the cicsbt-#######.zip file in binary to the system on which you run the CICS build toolkit.
  3. Extract the cicsbt-#######.zip file to create the cicsbt directory. Issue the command unzip cicsbt-#######.zip or, if unzip is unavailable, issue the command jar -xf cicsbt-#######.zip.
  4. Ensure that all users requiring access to CICS build toolkit have read permissions for all directories and subdirectories in the cicsbt path, and execute permission for the shell scripts cicsbt, cicsbt.bat, or cicsbt_zos. For example on z/OS: 
    chmod -R 755 cicsbt_install_dir

Upgrading the CICS build toolkit

To upgrade the CICS build toolkit to a newer version, delete the cicsbt directory and follow the installation instructions that are contained in the readme file for the new version.

Uninstalling the CICS build toolkit

To uninstall the CICS build toolkit, delete the cicsbt directory.

Running the CICS build toolkit

The CICS build toolkit requires a Java 8 compatible Software Development Kit (SDK), either 32-bit (31-bit on z/OS®) or 64-bit.

You must set the following environment variables: JAVA_HOME to refer to the SDK directory, and either HOME on z/OS and Unix, or USERPROFILE on Windows to refer to the users home directory.

For an overview of the available command line options, on Windows run cicsbt.bat, on Linux run cicsbt, and on z/OS run cicsbt_zos.

Managing Eclipse workspaces

When you run the CICS build toolkit, it creates a temporary Eclipse workspace in your user home directory, in which it builds the specified CICS bundles or applications. Do not delete the workspace that is created by the CICS build toolkit while it is in use. This action causes the build process to fail and corrupts your built artifacts.

If you want to run multiple instances of the CICS build toolkit simultaneously from one user account, you can use the --workspace option to specify a workspace directory.

Note: Ensure that you delete the workspace directory after use, and that you use a different source directory for each workspace. This is important because the CICS build toolkit writes to the source directory during the build process.