DFSORT abend processing

This appendix explains how DFSORT processes an abend. It is intended to help you get the dump you need to diagnose the error causing the abend.

All abend dumps produced by DFSORT are system abend dumps that can be processed by standard dump analysis programs. A dump will be generated if you have included a SYSUDUMP, SYSABEND, or SYSMDUMP DD statement in your application. The actual output of the system dump depends on the system parameters specified in the IEADMP00, IEAABD00 or IEADMR00 members of SYS1.PARMLIB by your installation.

At the beginning of each run, DFSORT establishes an ESTAE recovery routine to trap system or user abends for Blockset and Peer/Vale applications. You can delete the routine by specifying installation option ESTAE=NO, or by specifying NOESTAE on the DEBUG control statement. We recommend that you always run with ESTAE in effect so that in the event of an abend the following benefits are available:

In general, you get dumps closer to the time of the abend.
You get additional information useful in diagnosing the problem causing the abend.
If you have activated SMF, an ICETEXIT routine, or an EFS program, DFSORT attempts to continue processing. That is, an SMF record is created, the termination exit is called, or Major Calls 4 and 5 are made to the EFS program before the application terminates processing. Of course, if one of these functions caused the abend, that function will not complete successfully.

At the end of its recovery routine, DFSORT always returns control to the system to allow termination to continue. The system will then invoke the next higher level ESTAE recovery routine.