Source code manager
A tool that stores mainframe source code, tracks every version, and moves changes through test stages to production in a controlled way.
Also written SCM, Endevor, ChangeMan, ChangeMan ZMF, source control, promotion
A source code manager looks after an application's source: COBOL programs, copybooks, JCL and more. It records every version, so you can see what changed and when, and it controls how a change moves from a developer's work to production.
The movement is called promotion. A change typically goes through stages, such as development, system test, user acceptance and production. At each stage the tool can build the code the same way every time, by compiling, link-editing and binding it, and it can require approval before the change moves on.
The best-known products on the mainframe are Endevor and ChangeMan ZMF, and most large sites use one of them or something similar. More sites now also use Git, the same version control used for other platforms, together with build tools designed for z/OS.
In your first weeks in a mainframe team, learning how your site's source code manager works is as important as learning the code. It is how your change reaches production, and how the team knows exactly what is running.
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
- Change controlThe process every change goes through before reaching production: reviewed, approved, scheduled and reversible.
- CompileTurning COBOL source code into machine instructions, checking the syntax and producing a listing of any errors.
- Load moduleThe runnable form of a program, stored in a library, which JCL executes by name.
- Mainframe application developerThe person who writes and changes the business programs: COBOL, JCL, SQL and the logic that runs the organisation.
- Production supportKeeping live systems running: diagnosing failures, fixing what broke, and getting the service back.
- Link-editCombining compiled object code with the other modules it needs into a single runnable program.