Based on the time duration and the number of resources required by the job, companies assign different job classes. These can be visualized as individual schedulers used by the OS to receive the jobs. Placing the jobs in the right scheduler will aid in easy execution of the jobs. Some companies have different classes for jobs in test and production environment.

Valid values for CLASS parameter are A to Z characters and 0 to 9 numeric (of length 1). Following is the syntax:

CLASS=0 to 9 | A to Z

To specify the priority of the job within a job class. If this parameter is not specified, then the job is added to the end of the queue in the specified CLASS. Following is the syntax:

PRTY=N

Where N is a number in between 0 to 15 and higher the number, higher is the priority.

The system sends the success or failure message (Maximum Condition Code) to the user specified in this parameter. Following is the syntax:

NOTIFY=”userid | &SYSUID”

Here system sends the message to the user “userid” but if we use NOTIFY = &SYSUID, then the message is sent to the user submitting the JCL.

To specify the output destination for the system and Job messages when the job is complete. Following is the syntax:

MSGCLASS=CLASS

Valid values of CLASS can be from “A” to “Z” and “0” to “9”. MSGCLASS = Y can be set as a class to send the job log to the JMR (JOBLOG Management and Retrieval: a repository within mainframes to store the job statistics).

Specifies the type of messages to be written to the output destination specified in the MSGCLASS. Following is the syntax:

MSGLEVEL=(ST, MSG)

ST = Type of statements written to output log

• When ST = 0, Job statements only.

• When ST = 1, JCL along with symbolic parameters expanded.

• When ST = 2, Input JCL only.

MSG = Type of messages written to output log.

• When MSG = 0, Allocation and Termination messages written upon abnormal job completion.

• When MSG = 1, Allocation and Termination messages written irrespective of the nature of job completion.

Specifies a special processing for the job. Following is the syntax:

TYPRUN = SCAN | HOLD

Where SCAN and HOLD has the following description

• TYPRUN = SCAN checks the syntax errors of the JCL without executing it.

• TYPRUN = HOLD puts the job on HOLD in the job queue.To release the job, “A” can be typed against the job in the SPOOL, which will bring the job to execution.

Specifies the time span to be used by the processor to execute the job. Following is the syntax:

TIME=(mm, ss) or TIME=ss

Where mm = minutes and ss = seconds

This parameter can be useful while testing a newly coded program. In order to ensure that the program does not run for long because of looping errors, a time parameter can be coded so that the program abends when the specified CPU time is reached.

Specifies the address space required to run a job step within the job. Following is the syntax:

REGION=nK | nM

Here, region can be specified as nK or nM where n is a number, K is kilobyte and M is Megabyte.

When REGION = 0K or 0M, largest address space is provided for execution.In critical applications, coding of 0K or 0M is prohibited to avoid wasting the address space.