Introduction


IEBGENER is a utility program in IBM Mainframe systems, particularly under z/OS. It is primarily used for copying and converting data sets, including sequential files, partitioned datasets, and generation data groups.

IEBGENER can convert and copy sequential file data to PDS members and PDS member data to sequential files. The copy operation can be performed on all types of records having various lengths (including record length > 32760 bytes).

IEBGENER uses either a sequential data set or PDS or PDSE member as input and a new or existing sequential data set or a PDS or PDSE member as output.

Usage -


Below is the list of tasks that IEBGENER can perform -

  • Copying Data Sets - It can copy one data set to another. It's often used for backing up data, creating duplicates, or moving data from one location to another.
  • Creating and Modifying Data Sets - It can create new data sets with specific attributes or modify existing ones, such as changing record formats or lengths.
  • Dataset Conversion - Converts between different data set formats, like from fixed to variable length.
  • Print Formatting - It can be used to format data for printing.
  • Dataset Concatenation - Combines multiple datasets into a single dataset.
Note! If the DFSORT product is installed in the Mainframe environment. In that case, ICEGENER can be an alternative to IEBGENER when creating an unedited copy of a data set or PDS or PDSE member.

Return Codes -


IEBGENER returns a code to indicate the program execution results. The return codes and their meanings are -

CodesMeaning
00 (X'00')Successful completion.
04 (X'04')Successful completion with a warning message.
08 (X'08')Either processing abnormally ended after requesting to process user header labels only, or a DBCS error was encountered.
12 (X'0C')An unrecoverable error exists, or a DBCS error was encountered.
Job execution gets stopped when an error occurs.
16 (X'10')A user specified return code.
The utility execution ends.

Covered Topics -


IEBGENER performs below tasks and discussed in further topics -