JCL

Job Control Language

Please! Verify all details or suggestions with the appropriate vendor and / or vendor's manuals.

What is JCL?
Job Control Language. The language used to describe the steps of a batch job (files to be used, programs to be run, etc). A generic term, hijacked by IBM to refer to the batch control languages for its System/360 operating systems. Then, as now, z/OS and VSE/ESA JCL is a clumsy and cumbersome system that is hard to learn, full of inconsistencies, and avoided by anyone with an iota of common sense and access to an alternative. The only excuse for it comes from one of the original OS/360 developers: they ran out of time to build a JCL interpreter, so just used the Assembler macro processor, and built a language (JCL) around it.

Sample JCL

All the JCL is displayed in text format for readability, All suggestions are welcome.

Alias Define

Alias List

Backup HFS

CICS - List all CSD Groups

Compress Data Set

DASD - ANALYZE

DASD - Init w/SMS

GDG Alter Limit

GDG Define

GDG List

HSM Dump Full

Inspect

Rename Data set

SCDS Define

Search For

SHOWMVS from the CBT tape

User Catalog Define

User Catalog Delete

Job control language (JCL) basics course by IBM

30 minute courses on z/OS

The easiest way to learn JCL is to use some that's already been written, which is why we started the reusable JCL collection. If you need to complete tasks that are not yet represented in the reusable collection, you can borrow someone else's JCL and modify it to suit your task. Before you start modifying or coding your own JCL, use this course to learn about general syntax rules and the three major JCL statements.
This course takes no more than 30 minutes to complete. No previous knowledge of JCL is required to understand the content.
Website

Basic JCL concepts
Reusable JCL collection

Job control language (JCL) is a set of statements that you code to tell the z/OS^® operating system about the work you want it to perform. Although this set of statements is quite large, most jobs can be run using a very small subset. Learn about essential and most frequently used JCL statements and parameters, as well as coding techniques.
JCL statements tell z/OS where to find the appropriate input, how to process that input (that is, what program or programs to run), and what to do with the resulting output.
All jobs use three main types of JCL statements:
IBM Website