Cool (and you win a Beavis & Butthead QotD award with "I never aspired to become a master .BATter", heh heh, heh heh).
I considered a macro to do the configuration but I don't know enough about the possibilities to make it robust/useful: about all I'd know to make it do is say "Here's a record, what do you want to do with it?" and since they'll all contain &VOLSER, doc that says "Edit the jobs and update the lines that contain &VOLSER if you're using SMS or want to spread stuff across multiple volumes" will basically do the same thing. What I am doing already to improve things is adding a JCLLIB to allow editing a single member (plus the single line in each job that calls out the JCLLIB) once, rather than--in even the simple, no-SMS case--having to edit multiple entries in each job. My current conclusion is that this VOLSER/SMS problem does not really lend itself to supporting SMS use via variables. And since I don't do any real sysprog work normally, I'm probably never going to gain the expertise to grok the SMS stuff in detail. So the better part of valor seems to be to admit that the JCLLIB thing (plus lots of documentation!!) is about all I can do. It'll still be better than before. More than happy to continue exploring this; just sayin' that this is where Mike's, Matthew's, and now your post have led me thus far! -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2025 4:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: SMS and SMP/E: Naive questions On Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:10:34 -0500, Phil Smith III wrote: >We install our product via SMP/E, and of course provide sample JCL to do so. >Those jobs currently specify VOLSERs everywhere via a VOLSER variable, with >the expectation that customers will further configure the jobs for their >installation, especially if using SMS. > ... When I faced such a chore (long ago; SMS and multilpe volumes didn't concern me) I composed JCL with placeholders for all configurable parameters. And an ISPF EDIT REXX configuring macro. (perhaps not my first choice, but customers...) in the same PDS (why proliferate entities), containing as comments instructions for customizing. (I never mastered File Tailoring.. I tested personally with for each member the sequence, Edit; Configure with macro; Submit; Cancel. Worked for me through RECEIVE; APPLY CHECK; APPLY; ACCEPT. I made no editing changes except to the macro. It went next to a co-developer (to keep me honest). She never used my macro, but edited each member with commands according to comments in the macro. Then to an independent (good) test group where a tester immediately complained, "when I insert your prototype DVD (yes, then) it asks me where to save the images it contains. There are no instructions for this." (hey were just company logos for the README.html.) I had tested with the same OS; must have been a different configuration. So I taught myself .BAT, only to novice level; I never aspired to become a master .BATter. And wrote a .BAT to launch my README.html when the disk was loaded. The .html contained to the extent possible, <PRE> command </PRE> to copy/paste to desktop or TSO command line. I hate typing. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
