General coding notes

Coding of parameters in the DFSPARM DD statement follows the same rules used for the JCL EXEC statement PARM options and the program control statements specified in SYSIN or SORTCNTL. The following exceptions apply:

Labels are not allowed.
PARM options and program control statements cannot be mixed on the same line, but can be specified in any order on different lines.
PARM options must be specified without the PARM= keyword and without quote marks.
Commas (or semicolons) are accepted, but not required, to continue PARM options to another line.
Leading blanks are not required for PARM options, but at least one leading blank is required for program control statements.

FREE=CLOSE can be used for applicable DFSPARM data sets (for example, with temporary and permanent sequential data sets, but not with DD * data sets).

When DFSORT is called from another program, FREE=CLOSE causes the DFSPARM data set to be released when DFSORT returns to the caller. This allows another DFSPARM data set to be used for a subsequent call.

For example, if a COBOL program contains three SORT verbs, the following would cause the control statements in DP1 to be used for the first SORT verb, the control statements in DP2 to be used for the second SORT verb, and the: control statements in DP3 to be used for the third SORT verb

//DFSPARM DD DSN=DP1,DISP=SHR,FREE=CLOSE
//DFSPARM DD DSN=DP2,DISP=SHR,FREE=CLOSE
//DFSPARM DD DSN=DP3,DISP=SHR,FREE=CLOSE

Without FREE=CLOSE, DP1 would be used for all three SORT verbs.