Controlling code page conversion

For an overview of character sets and code pages, refer to National Language Support Reference Manual, Volume 2, SE09-8002.

A code page for a character set determines the graphic character that is produced for each hexadecimal code. The code page is determined by the programs and national languages being used.

The z/OS UNIX Application Services can process data in the following code pages:

Any of the EBCDIC Latin 1 Country-Extended Code Pages
Japanese (Latin) Extended Code Page 01027, which defines single-byte encodings for character set 01172 (Japanese Extended EBCDIC/PC Common)
Japanese Combined Code Page 00939, which is the combination of code page 01027 and code page 00300. Code page 00300 (Japan [Kanji]–Host, DBCS) defines DBCS encodings for character set 00370 (IBM® Japanese Graphic Character Set, Kanji)

Data intended for processing by the z/OS shell might require conversion to one of the preceding code pages. This data might be encoded in:

Latin 1 code page 00500, which is used for Systems Application Architecture® (SAA).
An ASCII code page, for example, for a file from a workstation. A source program on a tape archive (TAR) tape might be stored in the ASCII code set.
Code page 00293, which the z/OS XL C/C++ compiler can optionally use.
Code page 00290, Japanese (Katakana) single-byte.
Code page 00930, the Japanese combined code page (code page 0290 plus DBCS code page 300).

For code page 00037, only two characters are different from code page 01047:

Right square bracket (])
Left square bracket ([)

Rule: If you have characters from the preceding list in your data, you must convert from one code page to another when, for example, you are doing one of the following:

Transferring files between a workstation and the file system.
Copying data between an MVS™ data set and a UNIX file.
Placing data in SYSOUT data sets.
Passing JCL path name data to programs, unless the name contains only characters in the portable filename character set.
Passing JCL parameters and path names to a shell invoked from a batch program, unless the parameters and names contain only characters in the portable filename character set.
Using the lp command to print. You need to convert the data before sending it to the printer.
Using the pax command.