How do I determine the DCB for the SYSEARL data set created by Earl and Earl Service?

Products

• Earl

Issue/Introduction

 The DCB for Earl SYSEARL can vary depending on the OPTION PRINTER=nnn. How can I determine the DCB?

 

 

Environment

EARL

Resolution

The DCB for SYSEARL can be a bit tricky.

If no DCB is specified, the LRECL is dependent upon the OPTION PRINTER=nnn size.
The PRINTER=nnn is limited to 216.

If no DBC is specified, the RECFM will default to FA.
When FA, the LRECL is PRINTER nnn+1 to accommodate the carriage control character.
You can allocate SYSEARL with LRECL greater than the PRINTER=nnn size (maximum of 216) but the actual formatted print line will be the size of the PRINTER=nnn value.

The resulting RECFM will be FA or FBA.
While FA is the default, FBA will result when you provide full DCB of RECFM, LRECL, and BLKSIZE. RECFM FB, VB, or VBA will be overridden by Earl.

There is a special APAR LS67896 which will allow you to specify BLKSIZE=0. Since this is a "custom" APAR, it is not sourced into Earl Service or Earl products and you would have to SMP/E RESTORE and re-apply LS677896 for each new service pack of Earl Service in Common Components and Services or Earl.

A series of tests were run to illustrate the results using various DCB.

In the following chart, the Test Name can be interpreted as:

LnnnDEF    test with OPTION PRINTER=nnn and
           allowing SYSEARL DCB to default.
Lnnnxxx    test with OPTION PRINTER=nnn and
           SYSEARL allocated with
           DCB=(RECFM=xxx,LRECL=nnn,BLKSIZE=0)
   
ZnnnDEF    test with APAR LS67896 and
           OPTION PRINTER=nnn and
           allowing SYSEARL DCB to default.
Znnnxxx    same tests as Lnnnxxx with APAR LS67896 applied.
           Note, the only difference was when FBA not specified.
 
  
Test Name             DSORG   RECFM  LRECL  BLKSIZE
---------------------------------------------------
L090DEF                 PS    FA        91       91
L090FA                  PS    FA        90       90
L090FB                  PS    FBA       90    27990
L090FBA                 PS    FBA       90    27990
L090VA                  PS    FBA       90    27990
L090VB                  PS    FBA       90    27990
L090VBA                 PS    FBA       90    27990
L216FA                  PS    FA       216      216
L216FB                  PS    FBA      216    27864
L216FBA                 PS    FBA      216    27864
L216VA                  PS    FBA      216    27864
L216VB                  PS    FBA      216    27864
L216VBA                 PS    FBA      216    27864
  
Z090DEF                 PS    FBA       91    27937
Z090FA                  PS    FBA       90    27990
Z090FB                  PS    FBA       90    27990
Z090FBA                 PS    FBA       90    27990
Z090VA                  PS    FBA       90    27990
Z090VB                  PS    FBA       90    27990
Z090VBA                 PS    FBA       90    27990
Z216FA                  PS    FBA      216    27864
Z216FB                  PS    FBA      216    27864
Z216FBA                 PS    FBA      216    27864
Z216VA                  PS    FBA      216    27864
Z216VB                  PS    FBA      216    27864
Z216VBA                 PS    FBA      216    27864