LINK

Function

To execute a program in the CICS® region.

Syntax

Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram
LINK

>>-LINK -PROGRAM--(--program_name--)--+---------------+--------->
                                      '-,CICS(applid)-'   

>--+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-->
   '-,COMMAREA(data)-+----------------+-+--------------------+-+-----------------------+-'   
                     '-,LENGTH(value)-' '-,DATALENGTH(value)-' '-,HEXPADCHAR(hex_byte)-'     

>--+-----------------------------+-----------------------------><
   '-,NOTACTIVE(-+-CONTINUE--+-)-'   
                 '-TERMINATE-'       

Description

You can use the LINK command to link to and execute a program in the target CICS region.

Note that the batch request utility does not link directly to the requested program. As with all other commands, the LINK command is passed to a CICS BAC request server, which in turn links to the requested program. Therefore, the linked-to program runs as part of the same EXCI mirror transaction that is running the CICS BAC request server.

The PROGRAM parameter is the only required parameter: all the others are optional.

The data returned from the DPL program is written to the CBKPRINT data set, up to a maximum of 256 bytes.

Parameters

CICS(applid)
Specifies the applid of the CICS region to which the CICS BAC batch request utility is to send the distributed program link command. If you omit this option, the command is routed to the default CICS region specified by the most recent DEFAULT command.
COMMAREA(commarea_data)
Specifies the data to be passed as the communications area to the DPL program in CICS. The data can be up to a maximum of 256 bytes, with no restrictions on the contents, except you cannot have an unmatched parenthesis within the outer parentheses that enclose the commarea data. For example, COMMAREA(abc(def) is not valid, but COMMAREA(abc(123)def) is valid.

If you specify a commarea, you can also specify LENGTH, DATALENGTH, and HEXPADCHAR (see below).

DATALENGTH(value)
Specifies the length of the data to be passed in the commarea. If you omit this option, the length defaults to the length of the actual data specified on the COMMAREA parameter. Note that:
  • The maximum value you can specify is 256 bytes.
  • If you specify a value that is greater than the length of the COMMAREA data field, the commarea data is padded by the character specified on the HEXPADCHAR option, or by nulls, up the length specified.
  • If you specify a value that is less than the actual data length on the COMMAREA parameter, the CICS BAC batch request utility returns an error.

You can specify DATALENGTH only if you also specify a COMMAREA with data.

HEXPADCHAR(hex_byte)
Specifies the hexadecimal character that you want to use to pad the data up to the specified data length, or the maximum number of characters if data length is not specified. For example, if you want to pad with spaces, specify HEXPADCHAR(40). If you omit this option the pad character defaults to a null value.

You can specify HEXPADCHAR only if you also specify a COMMAREA with data.

LENGTH(hex_byte)
Specifies the length of the data to be returned from the CICS application program to the CICS BAC request server. If you omit this option, the length defaults to the length of the actual data specified on the COMMAREA parameter. The maximum value you can specify for return data is 32500.

You can specify LENGTH only if you also specify a COMMAREA with data.

If you specify a length less than 256 bytes, it also controls the number of bytes written to the CBKPRINT print data set. If you specify a length greater than 256, only the first 256 bytes are written to the data set

NOTACTIVE({CONTINUE | TERMINATE})
Specifies the action you want the CICS BAC batch request utility to take if the target CICS region is not available, or if CICS BAC is not started in the region, as follows:
CONTINUE
Specify CONTINUE if you want the CICS BAC batch request utility to ignore the command and continue processing with the next command in the input data set.
TERMINATE
Specify TERMINATE if you want the CICS BAC batch request utility to terminate because of the not active condition.
PROGRAM(progname)
Specifies the 1-8 character name of the CICS program to be linked to.

Reference Reference

Feedback


Timestamp icon Last updated: Monday, 2 December 2013


http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cicsts/v5r1/topic/com.ibm.cics.bac.doc/cbka1/cbka1c04.html