Diagnosing abends

You might need to diagnose abends using diagnostic facilities in TSO, OS/390, CMS, or CICS facilities available in your environment. (In CICS, abend information is recorded in the DFHDMPx data set. This data set should be allocated in the CICS startup JCL.) Most QMF programs contain a stamp that you can use to help identify them in diagnostic output. Figure 263 shows an example.

Figure 263. Example of a stamp that identifies a QMF program

Using OS/390 diagnostic facilities

To diagnose an abend, you might need to use procedures in the appropriate Tools and Service Aids , or you might be able to use the QMF abend handler.

When QMF starts, it establishes an abend handler. If QMF fails, the abend handler gets control, records the error, and cleans up the environment. After completion, the abend handler returns to the operating system, and allows it to continue with the abnormal termination process.

If an abend occurs while processing the user edit code or while executing the governor, additional areas appear in the dump to assist with problem diagnosis.

For the user edit code, DXEECS, the input area, and the result area are added to the output.

For the governor, DXEXCBA and DXEGOV are added to the output.

Using CICS diagnostic facilities

To diagnose an abend in QMF, you might need to use procedures in the CICS Problem Determination Guide. Because another program might have caused QMF to abend, these procedures can help you find much of the information you need in a CICS dump of the transaction. A transaction dump shows detailed activity of the programs that were running in the CICS region at the time of the abend.

The program that caused the abend might be QMF or it might be another program. You can use the CICS Execution Diagnostic Facility (CEDF) to help you diagnose a QMF abend if the QMF diagnostic facilities explained in this chapter do not contain enough information about the cause of the error.

Identifying QMF in CICS diagnostic output

If you use CICS diagnostic facilities to help you diagnose an abend in QMF, the following information might help you identify QMF programs in CICS output.

• QMF program names begin with the prefix DSQ.
• QMF is an assembler-language program and issues standard assembler calls, not CICS LINK statements.
• QMF issues standard EXEC CICS statements for all system services when running in CICS.
• QMF uses an internal call interface to the GDDM product.
• QMF issues standard EXEC SQL statements to the database.
• QMF does not issue any EXEC CICS ABEND commands.

Defining the display for a CICS abend message

In some cases, such as if QMF abends or when the operator cancels the transaction, CICS sends a message to the user's terminal indicating the abnormal ending. Because QMF is a full-screen application that uses GDDM to provide display services, you need to define to CICS how you want the abend message displayed.

Using the CICS Resource Definition Online (RDO) facility, set diagnostic display attributes of the CICS error message in the CICS TYPETERM definition. A TYPETERM is a partial terminal definition that makes it easy for you to define many terminal displays with one definition. Figure 264 shows an example of diagnostic display attributes you might use.

The definition shown in Figure 264 displays the message at the bottom of the screen, beneath the QMF message line. The message appears in red, underlined, and with a higher intensity than the rest of the screen display. This definition is useful if you defined the QMF transaction to time out when the user does not enter input for a certain amount of time. In this type of transaction time-out, the QMF display remains on the screen, so the message is readable only at the bottom of the screen.

DIAGNOSTIC DISPLAY
   ERR Last line    : Yes              No | Yes
   ERRIntensify   : Yes                No | Yes
   ERRColor       : Red                NO | Blue | Red | Pink | Green
                                       | Turquoise | Yellow | Neutral
   ERRHilight     : Underline          No | Blink | Reverse | Underline