Commands reference

This section contains general information which applies to all the CICS or XCICS API commands.

CICS API command format

The general format of a CICS command is EXEC CICS followed by the name of the required command, and possibly by one or more options, as follows:

EXEC CICS <COMMAND> <OPTION>(<ARG>)

where:

command

describes the operation required (for example, READ).

option

describes any of the many optional facilities available with each function. Some options are followed by an argument in parentheses. You can write options (including those that require arguments) in any order.

arg

is a value such as “data-value” or “name”. A “data-value” can be a constant, this means that an argument that sends data to CICS is generally a “data-value”. An argument that receives data from CICS must be a “data-area”. Some arguments described as “data-area” can both send and receive data. In these cases, you must ensure that the “data-area” is not in protected storage.