Overriding installation defaults

IBM ships DFSORT with pre-set defaults. During installation, your system programmer can change these defaults. For example, one IBM-supplied default is to list DFSORT control statements in the DFSORT message data set. However, at your site, the default might be to not list DFSORT control statements.

Furthermore, your system programmer can establish separate defaults for jobs with DFSORT executed directly and for jobs with DFSORT called from a program. So, when you execute DFSORT directly, the default might be to list DFSORT control statements, and when you call DFSORT from a program, the default might be to not list DFSORT control statements.

In many cases, if a particular installation default is not appropriate for your job, you can temporarily override it in one of several ways:

as a PARM parameter in a DFSPARM data set
as an OPTION, ALTSEQ or DEBUG parameter in a DFSPARM data set
as a PARM parameter on the JCL EXEC statement
as an OPTION, ALTSEQ or DEBUG parameter in a SYSIN or SORTCNTL data set
as an OPTION, ALTSEQ or DEBUG parameter in a parameter list passed from a calling program

OPTION, ALTSEQ and DEBUG parameters in a DFSPARM data set are a good way to override installation defaults regardless of whether you execute DFSORT directly or call it from a program.

In this chapter, you will learn how to override some of the many available defaults, concentrating on PARM parameters in the JCL EXEC statement, and the OPTION control statement in a DFSPARM data set.

You can list all of the installation defaults selected at your site using an ICETOOL DEFAULTS job like the following:

//S1 EXEC PGM=ICETOOL
//TOOLMSG DD SYSOUT=A
//DFSMSG DD SYSOUT=A
//DFLTS DD SYSOUT=A
//TOOLIN DD *
   DEFAULTS LIST(DFLTS)
/*

You'll learn more about ICETOOL in Using the ICETOOL utility.

For detailed information on all of the parameters you can override and the various ways in which you can override them, refer to z/OS DFSORT Application Programming Guide z/OS DFSORT Application Programming Guide. In particular, see Appendix C, "Specification/Override of DFSORT Options".