What Is DAL?

Detail Action Language, or DAL, is a BMC ThruPut Manager Action Language that is identical to Job Action Language (JAL) in syntax, but provides you with Descriptors and Action Statements that let you exercise control at a "detailed" level-the data set/ DD statement level. This contrasts with JAL, which provides control only at the job level.

Because it operates at a more detailed level, DAL gives you the opportunity to perform a more specific analysis:

  • DAL works in conjunction with JAL and is invoked during the Job Analysis process every time a DD statement is encountered.
  • JAL, on the other hand, is executed only once per job, after all JCL statements have been processed by the Job Analyzer.

DAL allows you examine each DD statement in a job. You can verify statement parameters, issue messages, and if necessary, fail the job. If desired, you can also set User Logic Variables to communicate the results of your examinations to JAL or subsequent invocations of DAL.

In DAL, the Profile provides you with read-only variables called the DD Descriptors. These describe the DD statement that is being analyzed during the current invocation of DAL. Like Job Descriptors, you can use them to define Properties that can be used in DAL in the same way Properties are used in JAL.

Types of DAL are listed in:


 

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