Control language overview

The control language topic collection contains information about all control language (CL) commands that are part of the IBM® i operating system. It also includes many CL commands for licensed programs that run on the IBM i operating system.

Before using CL commands, you should be familiar with the CL programming concepts discussed in the Control language topic collection.

Who should use commands

CL commands are typically used by programmers, data processing managers, and system administrators. Through IBM i command menus, powerful command prompter tools, and online command help, nontechnical users can also use CL commands. To use CL commands, you should have a general understanding of the IBM i operating system. If you want to combine several CL commands together to create a CL program, some background in programming is helpful.

How this information is organized

In the CL command finder, you can search for commands by product, by command name, by descriptive name, or by part of the name. You also can search for new commands and changed commands. You can also view an alphabetical list of all of the commands.