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

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