If a VTAM® application program task abends while processing for other than VTAM (for example, while doing disk I/O or because the application program itself issued ABEND) and the task does not recover from the abend by a retry, then VTAM is notified. VTAM then does the task level or application program level (for an ACB task) cleanup processing described in the preceding sections.

If an address space in which a VTAM application program resides is terminated, VTAM is notified of whether the reason for termination was related to VTAM processing. VTAM then cleans up that address space for VTAM processing related to that application program. If the failing address space is an associated address space, the ACB address space and other associated address spaces are not disrupted (see Multiple address spaces).