Chapter 8. Entering Commands From An Exec; Types Of Commands - IBM TSO/E REXX User Manual

Chapter 8. Entering Commands from an Exec

Types of Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Issuing TSO/E Commands from an Exec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Issuing Other Types of Commands from an Exec . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
This chapter describes how to issue TSO/E commands and other types of
commands from a REXX exec.

Types of Commands

A REXX exec can issue many types of commands. The two main categories of
commands are:
v TSO/E REXX commands - Commands provided with the TSO/E implementation
v Host commands - The commands recognized by the host environment in which
When an exec issues a command, the REXX special variable RC is set to the
return code. An exec can use the return code to determine a course of action within
the exec. Every time a command is issued, RC is set. Thus RC contains the return
code from the most recently issued command.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 1988, 2001
Using Quotations Marks in Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Passing Data Set Names as Arguments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Using Variables in Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Causing Interactive Commands to Prompt the User . . . . . . . . . . 100
Invoking Another Exec as a Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Invoking Another Exec with the EXEC Command . . . . . . . . . . 101
Invoking Another Exec Implicitly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
What is a Host Command Environment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
APPC/MVS Host Command Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Examples Using APPC/MVS Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Changing the Host Command Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Determining the Active Host Command Environment
Checking if a Host Command Environment is Available
Examples Using the ADDRESS Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
of the language. These commands do REXX-related tasks in an exec, such as:
- Control I/O processing of information to and from data sets (EXECIO)
- Perform data stack services (MAKEBUF, DROPBUF, QBUF, QELEM,
NEWSTACK, DELSTACK, QSTACK)
- Change characteristics that control the execution of an exec (EXECUTIL and
the immediate commands)
- Check for the existence of a host command environment (SUBCOM).
More information about these TSO/E REXX commands appears throughout the
book where the related task is discussed
an exec runs. A REXX exec can issue various types of host commands as
discussed in the remainder of this chapter.
. . . . . . . . 107
. . . . . . . 107
97