Using the TEMPLATE utility with LISTDEF

Together, the LISTDEF and TEMPLATE utilities enable faster development of utility job streams, and require fewer modifications when the underlying list of database objects change.

Many utilities require output data sets. In those cases, you should use the TEMPLATE control statement to specify the naming convention and, optionally, the allocation parameters for each type of output data set. Templates, like lists, can be reused if the naming convention is robust enough to prevent duplicate data set names from being allocated.

In some cases you can use traditional JCL DD statements with LISTDEF lists, but this method is usually not practical unless you are processing small lists one object at a time.