Abend recovery processing for unexpected abends

DFSORT normally has an ESTAE recovery routine established to trap system or user exit routine abends for Blockset and Peer/Vale applications. If an abend occurs, the system will pass control to this routine. The DFSORT ESTAE recovery routine functions are as follows:

Abend dump
The recovery routine will first have the system issue an abend dump to capture the environment at the time the error occurred.
Termination functions
DFSORT tries to accomplish the following tasks when they are specified, whether the program terminates normally or abnormally.
- Calls 4 and 5 to an EFS program
- Create the SMF record
- Call the ICETEXIT routine
The DFSORT recovery routine runs any of the previous functions specified if they have not already been run at the time of the abend.
Abend information message
For unexpected system or user exit routine abends, the DFSORT recovery routine issues message ICE185A giving information about when the abend occurred. The description of this message is in z/OS DFSORT Messages, Codes and Diagnosis Guide.
Snap dumps
The DFSORT recovery routine provides a snap dump of the system diagnostic work area (SDWA). The snap dumps are written to a dynamically allocated data set whether or not a SYSUDUMP (or SYSABEND or SYSMDUMP) DD statement is included in the application.
Copy system diagnostic work area
If an invoking program passes the address of an SDWA area in the 24-bit or extended parameter list, DFSORT will copy the first 104 or 112 bytes of the system diagnostic work area into the user SDWA area. See Invoking DFSORT from a program for more information.
Continuation of an application after successful SORTOUT output
If an unexpected abend occurs after the sort, merge, or copy application writes the SORTOUT data set successfully, DFSORT issues message ICE186A and completes its normal cleanup and termination functions. The SORTOUT data set written by DFSORT is closed. The run is successful except for the function causing the abend. Message ICE186A says that the SORTOUT data set is usable even though the run has abended. You can then decide to use the SORTOUT data set or rerun the application.
DFSORT returns control to the system at the end of its abend recovery processing so that recovery routines can be invoked.
The DFSORT abend recovery routine functions described previously may not be performed after an abend if NOESTAE is in effect. The DFSORT ESTAE recovery routine is always established at the beginning of a run. It is deleted early in DFSORT processing if NOESTAE is in effect.