Using Subcommands

Some TSO/E commands such as EDIT, OUTPUT, and TEST have subcommands. Subcommands are similar to commands in that they can have positional and keyword operands.

When you issue a command that has subcommands, the system responds by displaying a special mode message. You can then enter a subcommand to specify the particular operation that you want performed. When you want to stop entering subcommands, enter the END subcommand.

Example

When you issue an EDIT command, instead of READY, the EDIT mode message appears, which indicates that you can enter subcommands of EDIT.

   READY
  edit test.data emode
   EDIT
  list
   00010 THIS LINE IS A TEST.
   00020 THIS LINE IS ALSO A TEST.
   END OF DATA
   EDIT
  save
   EDIT
  end
   READY

In the above example:

READY and EDIT are mode messages.
EDIT is also a command. EMODE is an operand of the EDIT command specifying that EDIT should start in EDIT mode, not INPUT mode.
List, save, and end are EDIT subcommands.

For more information about the EDIT command, see Using Line Mode Edit. For more information about subcommands, see z/OS TSO/E Command Reference.