Considerations for writing initial Procedures

• By default, QMF reruns the initial procedure whenever the user issues the END command in an interactive session of QMF started by DSQQMFE. The DSQEC_RERUN_IPROC global variable specifies if the initial procedure is rerun. The default value of this variable is 1 to rerun the procedure; 0 prevents the initial procedure from being rerun.

  In callable interface programs, the initial procedure is never rerun, so this global variable does not affect your callable interface programs.

• If you are writing initial procedures for use in an interactive QMF session, you should avoid writing your initial procedure so that the current panel at the end of the procedure is the Home panel. If the Home panel is the current panel at the end of the initial procedure, QMF does not interactively display a panel at the end of the procedure. If no severe errors occurred and DSQEC_RERUN_IPROC is set to 1, QMF reruns the initial procedure without interacting with the user. This results in an uninterruptible loop that can appear as though QMF is not starting.

  To avoid creating an uninterruptible loop, do one of the following:

  • Make sure that the current panel at the end of the procedure is not the Home panel.
  • Make sure that the procedure contains either a QMF EXIT or an INTERACT command.
  • Set DSQEC_RERUN_IPROC to zero (0).
• When you specify values for substitution variables in initial procedures, the number of ampersands (&) you must use before the name of the variable can vary depending on your environment. For example, you can specify DSQSRUN as follows:

  DSQSRUN=INITPROC(&VAR1 = value)

  The number of ampersands you need to specify with VAR1 depends on if QMF is running under CICS, CMS, TSO, or native OS/390 batch, if ISPF is present, and if the program starting QMF is written in REXX.