The GETMAIN and FREEMAIN functions of TEST are essentially the same as the system macros. That is, they enable you to acquire additional storage dynamically, and to free it. You must specify the amount of storage and the subpool (default is 0) from which you wish to acquire the storage. On GETMAIN, you can optionally EQUATE the new storage to a symbol so you do not have to remember the absolute address of it.

GETMAIN and FREEMAIN are useful for maintaining a "scratch pad" with copies of data areas that you need while testing, and especially for "scaffolding" when setting up test cases. You can build your own parameters in the acquired area to send to a routine, and see how the program alters these parameters.