The sign-off process

The sign-off process dissociates a user from a terminal where the user had been previously signed on. The user can explicitly sign off using the CESF transaction or an installation-provided transaction that uses the SIGNOFF command. If the attributes of the signed-on user include a non-zero value for TIMEOUT, an implicit sign-off occurs if this interval expires after a transaction terminates at this terminal.

When the time-out period expires, if the default GNTRAN=NO is specified, CICS® performs an immediate signoff. If GNTRAN specifies a transaction-id to be scheduled and that transaction performs a signoff, the action CICS takes depends on the SIGNOFF option specified in the terminal's TYPETERM resource definition.

An exceptional case is that the goodnight transaction is not used for the user of a CRTE session. A surrogate user whose time expires is signed off, losing the security capabilities the terminal previously had. Message DFHSN1200 is sent to the CSCS log, and indicates what has happened.

For more information about the use of system initialization parameter GNTRAN, see Goodnight transaction. The possible signoff options and the associated actions are as follows:

SIGNOFF(YES)
CICS signs off the operator from CICS, but the terminal remains connected.
SIGNOFF(LOGOFF)
CICS signs off the operator from CICS and logs off the terminal from VTAM®.

In addition, if the terminal is autoinstalled, the delay period specified by the AILDELAY operand in the system initialization parameters commences, and if the delay period expires before the terminal attempts to log on again, CICS deletes the terminal entry (TCTTE) from the TCT. For information about CICS autoinstall, see Autoinstall.

SIGNOFF(NO)
CICS leaves the user signed on and the terminal remains logged on, effectively overriding the time-out period.