Held output
Job output kept on the spool for you to look at instead of being printed, or a job kept waiting until it is released.
Also written HOLD, held job, held class, release a job, $A
Held means "kept and waiting". On the mainframe it is used for two things: output and jobs.
Held output is output that JES2 keeps on the spool instead of sending to a printer. Most sites set up SYSOUT classes for this, so that job output is held for you to read in SDSF. When you have finished with it, you purge it, or release it to print if a paper copy is needed. Output that is not held may be printed or deleted automatically, which is why a job's output sometimes "disappears".
A held job is a job in the input queue that is not allowed to start. It may have been submitted with TYPRUN=HOLD, held by an operator, or held by the scheduler while it waits for something. In SDSF it shows as held. Releasing it, with the A action in SDSF or the $A operator command, lets it run.
If you cannot find your output, check which class your job used. If a job is not starting, check whether it is held.
Where can I learn this hands-on?
Right here, at ZedBank. You take a junior job at a simulated bank and learn each part of the work by doing it, with Zed beside you. There's nothing to install.
Start at ZedBankRelated
- SpoolThe system-managed holding area where job output waits to be read, printed or purged.
- SDSFThe tool for looking at what jobs are running, what has finished, and what output they produced.
- SYSOUTOutput sent to the spool rather than to a dataset, where you can read it after the job finishes.
- JES2The job entry subsystem: the part of z/OS that queues jobs, decides when they run, and collects their output.
- TYPRUNA JOB statement parameter that changes how a job is handled, most often to check its JCL without running it, or to hold it.
- PURGERemoves a finished job and its output from the system.