USS Commands

As USS is a variation of Unix, many of the commands found on the Linux Commands page can be used. In addition to these, the following commands are specific to USS.

USS command	Description
exit	Exits the current shell or USS if you only have one shell.
obrowse [<filename>]	Loads that file into an ISPF editor for browsing or displays a panel to enter a filename.
oedit [<filename>]	Loads that file into an ISPF editor for editing or displays a panel to enter a filename.

TSO commands

There are also USS related TSO commands. These be entered from any TSO command prompt (prefixed with 'TSO'), ISPF option 6, or '<PF6>' in USS.

Editing HFS files

Type 'ISHELL' (or 'ISH') to get into the HFS editor. You use the normal TSO keys and line commands to navigate around the HFS directories and files, the only difference is that the line command 'L' is used to list contents of a directory.

Using the menus on the initial screen or by entering a file or directory that doesn't exist, you can create new files and directory as well as other functions like copy.

If you know the name of the file you want to browse / edit you can use the 'OBROWSE' or 'OEDIT' commands.

Transferring files

To transfer files onto USS you can directly FTP them or, transfer them to an MVS dataset first and then copy them to HFS.

When you transfer files to an MVS dataset, you must check that dataset is defined as variable length and that your transfer scheme exactly matches the record length and block size of your dataset. This will avoid your files becoming corrupt.

The TSO 'OPUT' and 'OGET' commands transfer files to and from USS.

To transfer an HFS file to an MVS dataset (or PDS member) use:

tso "oget '<HFS name>' '<MVS name>' mode"

To transfer an HFS file to an MVS dataset (or PDS member) use:

tso "oput '<MVS name>' '<HFS name>' mode"

If the mode is blank, 'text' is assumed, for binary files, specify 'binary'.

Remember that any MVS dataset names not in quotes will have your TSO userid is prefixed to it.