Non-CICS considerations

For COBOL programs, the DISPLAY statement sends output to MSGFILE(SYSOUT), the default ddname for the Language Environment message file. You can use the COBOL OUTDD compiler option to change the destination of DISPLAY output. The MVS™ data set to which the runtime messages are written depends on the combination of ddnames specified in the OUTDD compiler option and the MSGFILE runtime option.

If the ddname in OUTDD matches the ddname specified in the MSGFILE runtime option, the output is synchronized with the runtime messages and placed in the MVS data set designated by the MSGFILE runtime option.

If the ddname in OUTDD does not match the ddname specified in the MSGFILE runtime option, the output from the DISPLAY statement is directed to the OUTDD ddname destination.

If the file designated by MSGFILE has not been defined (associated with an I/O device) when the output is delivered, Language Environment dynamically allocates the file with ddname and attributes as shown in Table 1.

If the file designated by OUTDD has not been defined when the output is delivered, Language Environment dynamically allocates the file with ddname and attributes as shown in Table 1.

For more information about directing COBOL output, see the appropriate version of the COBOL programming guide in the COBOL library at Enterprise COBOL for z/OS library.