You can write either local or remote checks in Metal C. Metal C programming uses features provided by the XL C compiler as a high level language (HLL) alternative to writing the program in assembly language. Using Metal C, you can:

• Generate code that is independent of the Language Environment®.
• Generate code that follows MVS™ linkage conventions, making it easy to integrate with the existing code base, such as the IBM® Health Checker for z/OS® framework.
• Provide support for accessing the data stored in data spaces.
• Provide support for embedding assembly statements, including assembler service calls, into the compiler-generated code, using the __asm keyword.

See z/OS Metal C Programming Guide and Reference.

Besides the existing Metal C header files in the runtime library in z/OS UNIX file system directory /usr/include/metal/, IBM Health Checker for z/OS provides generic C header files (hzsh*.h) containing:

• Mappings of IBM Health Checker for z/OS structures and control blocks
• Commonly used Health Checker related constants

These header files are contained in SYS1.SIEAHDRV.H. See Writing local check routines or Writing remote check routines for more information about the header files and using Metal C to write checks.

You can find IBM Health Checker for z/OS related Metal C samples in z/OS UNIX file system directory /usr/lpp/bcp/samples or on the Web at:

http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/hchecker/