IEFBR14 uses the DISP parameter to process the data sets coded under EXEC statement by returning the control to z/OS. DISP parameter is mandatory with each dataset coded in the DD statement. ISPF 3.2 (Dataset Utility Panel) can also used to process the datasets in foreground mode. However, IEFBR14 utility is used for the same purpose as part of the scheduled batch run.

Syntax -

...
//STEP1    EXEC PGM=IEFBR14
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSOUT   DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSDUMP  DD SYSOUT=*
//DD1      DD DSN=datset.name, DISP=(OLD,UNCATLG,..),
//         VOLUME=SER=volume-name,UNIT=sys-name
...

• SYSPRINT - Optional. Utility use it for their output.
• SYSOUT - Optional. It specifies a system-defined DD name for file status codes, system abend codes information, and the display statement output.
• SYSDUMP - Oprional. The system uses it for dumping when an abend occurs.
• DD01, DD02, ... - This DD statement specifies dataset attributes for creation.

Considerations -

• Datasets created by using IEFBR14 don't get initialized. Read attempts on those datasets will produce unpredictable results.
• IBM doesn't recommend IEFBR14 for allocating multi-volume data sets.

Return Codes -

IEFBR14 returns only below condition codes -

• 0 - Specifies the job completed successfully.
• JCL ERROR - Specifies the JCL has syntactical errors and needs to correct them. This happens when the utility is used to check syntax errors.

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