This article is for those seasoned z/OS users who spend their days connected and working, using a 3270 interface. It is also for those new to the platform who also work using a 3270 interface. That isn't to put down those connected and working using a ssh connection.

Many times a shell command may be the most efficient technique to getting the job accomplished but getting a ssh session may not be worth the effort, and starting an OMVS session may be intimidating, especially if you just need to do a simple shell command.

That is why I'm announcing today a new TSO command and a new ISPF dialog that will make it easy to issue shell commands while in native TSO or while using ISPF.

OMVSTRY

This is a TSO command, with no requirements for ISPF, that provides a command prompt to enter any shell command. The output of the command is then echo'd to the terminal for the user to see.

While not as robust as starting OMVS or connecting via ssh, it can be very handy.

OMVSCMDS

This is an ISPF dialog that was inspired by ISPF option 6 for TSO commands. The user can enter any shell command and those commands will be retained in a push-down stack list of commands that can be easily recalled and reused.

The command output can be presented using either ISPF Browse or ISPF View - user selectable.

Commands can contain pipes | and the && chain option as well.

The command history is a push-down stack with duplicates being prevented to avoid clutter. There are options to remove unwanted commands, to reuse a command, or to immediately execute a command from the list.

Here is an example of viewing the output of a command:

Where to Get These

Both are available on my github site at https://github.com/lbdyck where you can find them and many other useful tools.

Or use these direct links:

https://github.com/lbdyck/omvstry

https://github.com/lbdyck/omvscmds