JCL Interview questions 1-10

• Q1: What JCL Stands for?
  • Answer : JCL stands for Job Control Langauge
  Q2: What is JCL ?
  • Answer : JCL is Job Control Language and is used for Batch processing. The startup procedures of OS and standard products like CICS etc are written in JCL. It is interface between operating system(MVS) & application program. when 2 related programs are combined together on control statements is called job control language
  Q3: What u mean by include statement in JCL ?
  • Answer : An include statement identifies a member of a pds or pdse that contains. This set of JCL statements is called an include group. The system replaces the include statement with the statements in the include group.
  Q4: What is a COND parameter in JCL?
  • Answer : COND means condition parameter. It is compared with system return code of previous step.
    //step1 exec pgm=abcd
    //step2 exec pgm=xyz, cond=(4,lt)
    step2 will be executed when system return code of step1 is less than 4.
  Q5: How do you designate a comment in JCL?
  • Answer : The comment statement is //* followed by the comments.
  Q6: Describe the JOB statement, its meaning, syntax and significant keywords?
  • Answer : The JOB statement is the first in a JCL stream. Its format is // jobname, keyword JOB, accounting information in brackets and keywords, MSGCLASS, MSGLEVEL, NOTIFIY, CLASS, etc.
  Q7: Describe the EXEC statement, its meaning, syntax and keywords?
  • Answer : The EXEC statement identifies the program to be executed via a PGM= program name keyword. Its format is //jobname EXEC PGM= program name. The PARM= keyword can be used to pass external values to the executing program.
  Q8: Describe the DD statement, its meaning, syntax and keywords?
  • Answer : The DD statement links the external dataset name (DSN) to the DDNAME coded within the executing program. It links the file names within the program code to the file names know to the MVS operating system. The syntax is //ddname DD DSN=dataset name. Other keywords after DSN are DISP, DCB, SPACE, etc
  Q9: What happens if both JOBLIB and STEPLIB is specified?
  • Answer : JOBLIB is ignored.
  Q10: What is DISP= (NEW,PASS,DELETE)?
  • Answer : This is a new file and create it, if the step terminates normally, pass it to the subsequent steps and if step abends, delete it. This dataset will not exist beyond the JCL.