In z/OS R13, DFSMS changed approximately 400 of their rather cryptic IEC error messages to include additional lines of explanation. Feedback from R13 ESP customers indicated that the additional lines of explanation were appreciated for end-users but were not wanted in the SYSLOG/OPERLOG or on consoles. A suggestion was made that the additional lines of explanation be written only to the JOBLOG and not to other places that the message might go.
z/OS OA37957 and DFSMS OA37505 provide the suggested support: the additional lines of explanation -- now referred to as "verbose message lines" -- are written only to the JOBLOG; they are not included with the message if it is written to the SYSLOG/OPERLOG or queued to a console. A new .MSGOPTION statement has been added to MPFLSTxx to allow you to enable or disable verbose message support at a system level: if the support is disabled (the default), the DFSMS error messages will not include additional lines of explanation; if the support is enabled, the DFSMS error messages will include the additional lines of explanation, but the verbose message lines will be written only to the JOBLOG. The DISPLAY MPF command response now displays the MSGOPTION enablement state. If verbose message support is enabled, the additional message lines are visible in MPF exits and are visible on the Subsystem Interface (SSI). The following control blocks have been modified to provide an indication if a verbose message line is present: WPL, WQE, CTXT and MDB. We have been in contact with the various automation venders and they are all aware of how to recognize verbose message lines. We expect that most venders will choose to ignore the verbose message lines. Any comments/criticisms/suggestions? W. Kevin Kelley -- IBM POK Lab -- z/OS Core Technical Development ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN

