The IEBGENER utility: Generate (copy) a sequential data set

The IEBGENER utility is a copy program that has been part of the operating system since the first release of OS/360. One of its many uses is to copy a sequential data set, a member of a partitioned data set (PDS) or PDSE, or a z/OS® UNIX® System Services (z/OS UNIX) file such as a HFS file.

IEBGENER also can filter data; change a data set's logical record length (LRECL) and block size (BLKSIZE); and generate records.

The most common use is to simply copy data sets. A typical job looks like this:

//SMITH2   JOB 1,GEOFF,MSGCLASS=X
//         EXEC PGM=IEBGENER 
//SYSIN    DD DUMMY 
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=X 
//SYSUT1   DD DISP=SHR,DSN=SMITH.SEQ.DATA 
//SYSUT2   DD DISP=(NEW,CATLG),DSN=SMITH.COPY.DATA,UNIT=3390, 
//   VOL=SER=WORK02,SPACE=(TRK,3,3))

IEBGENER requires four data definition (DD) statements with the DD names shown in the example:

The SYSIN DD statement is used to read control parameters; for simple uses, no control parameters are needed and a DD DUMMY can be used.
The SYSPRINT statement is for messages from IEBGENER.
The SYSUT1 statement is for input and the SYSUT2 statement is for output. This example reads an existing data set and copies it to a new data set.