CALL command

Use the CALL command to load and execute a program that exists in executable (load module or program object) form. The program can be user-written or it can be a system module such as a compiler, sort, or utility program.

You must specify the name of the program (load module or program object) to be processed except in those situations where the CALL command assumes module "TEMPNAME". The program specified must be a member of a partitioned data set (PDS) or a partitioned data set extended (PDSE).

You can specify a list of parameters to be passed to the specified program. The system formats this data so that when the program receives control, register 1 contains the address of a fullword. The three low-order bytes of this fullword contain the address of a halfword field. This halfword field is the count of the number of bytes of information contained in the parameter list. The parameters immediately follow the halfword field.

When you pass parameters to a PL/I program, precede them with a slash (/). PL/I assumes that any value before the slash is a run time option.

When you pass parameters to a C program, precede them with a slash (/) only if you have specified the EXECOPS run time option; otherwise, the slash character will be included in the characters passed as parameters.

If the program terminates abnormally, you are notified of the condition and may enter a TEST command to examine the failing program.