The control statement request list describes the control statements and the PARM options to be sent to the EFS program by DFSORT. The control statement request list consists of control statement operation definers and PARM option names. The maximum length allowed for an operation definer or PARM option name is eight bytes. If the operation definer or PARM option name is longer, DFSORT will use only the first eight bytes. Length field values must not include their own length.

OUTFIL statements cannot be requested by an EFS program.

Non-DFSORT operation definers and PARM options must be in EBCDIC format, and the first character must be non-numeric. The format of the control statement request list is:

The asterisk (*) indicates that the length is determined by the corresponding length field (maximum of 8 bytes).