Table of Contents

Submitting Jobs

via the Socket Reader

Socket Reader Basics

The “sockdev” option allows you to submit cards directly to a Hercules card reader from outside of Hercules. The card reader must be defined with the “sockdev” keyword and either a TCP/IP port number or the name of a Unix Domain Socket. Then whenever you want to submit a card deck to that particular card reader, you use an external program to connect to the socket and transmit the cards to the reader. Socket readers were implemented by Fish, based upon code originally contributed by Malcolm Beattie.

Socket readers are defined in the Hercules configuration like this:

Descriptive 

  devnum devtype sockspec SOCKDEV [option [option ... ]]

Parameters devnum, devtype and the keyword SOCKDEV are the same as described in chapter 6.5 (“Card Reader Devices”).

The socket specification sockspec can take any of the following formats:

ipaddr:port The reader listens on the specific IP address and port number. ipaddr must be The IP address of an interface on the local system.

For example, “127.0.0.1:1234” is used to accept only jobs submitted locally via the loopback interface.

hostname:port Similar to the previous example, where hostname must resolve to an IP address belonging to the local system.

Example: 

  “localhost:1234”.

port The reader listens on the specified port number and accepts jobs submitted from any IP address defined on the local system.

Example: 

  “1234”.

path/name The reader listens on the specified Unix Domain Socket.

Example: 

  “/tmp/hercrdr.00C”

Examples: 

  000A 2501 127.0.0.1:2501 SOCKDEV ASCII TRUNC EOF
  000C 3505 localhost:1234 SOCKDEV ASCII TRUNC EOF
  0012 3505 3505 SOCKDEV ASCII TRUNC EOF
  0014 2501 /tmp/hercrdr.014 SOCKDEV ASCII TRUNC EOF

Submitting Jobs from Windowws

The “HercRdr” program is distributed as part of Fish’s GUI package and allows you to send jobs to a socket reader via TCP/IP. Simply enter “HercRdr” from the command line (i.e. from a “Command Prompt” window if you are using Windows NT / 2K / XP) to submit your file(s).

The following screen print shows the help information from the HercRdr program that is displayed whenever the program is called without parameters:

HercRdr Help Screen

General User
D:\HERCULES>hercrdr Submits card file(s) to a Hercules card reader bound to a given socket:port. Format: HERCRDR [-nnn] [host:port] file [file...] Where: -nnn timeout value in seconds (1-999; default is 3) host:port sock_spec of target reader (if not specified, value of HERCRDR environ var is used, if set) file file(s) to be submitted Examples: HERCRDR localhost:1234 fileone.txt filetwo.txt set HERCRDR=localhost:1234 HERCRDR file3.txt file4.txt HERCRDR override:5678 filefive.txt HERCRDR 192.168.0.1:5678 666.txt 777.txt 888.txt 999.txt Returns: -1 unclassified error 0 file(s) successfully submitted 1 no route to host (bad sock_spec or connection refused) 2 timeout value exceeded while trying to connect 3 transmission error (e.g. connection prematurely closed) 4 file not found (or other file error)

How to submit jobs directly from SPF/PC

If you are lucky enough to have a copy of the excellent editor SPF/PC Version4 or SPF/Pro (produced by CTC but unfortunately no longer available), then you can submit jobs directly from your edit session. The SUB command can be implemented by means of a REXX macro such as the following one, provided by Volker Bandke:

SUBmit REXX for SPF/PC
/* +----------------------------- REXX -----------------------------+ */
/*                                                                    */
/* Name: D:\APPS\SPFPRO\REXX\USER\SUB.SPF                             */
/*                                                                    */
/* Type: SPF edit macro                                               */
/*                                                                    */
/* Desc: submit JCL to MVS 3.8                                        */
/*                                                                    */
/* Creation date: 24 Aug 1999, creation time: 18:49:40                */
/*                                                                    */
/* Author: (c) Volker Bandke                                          */
/*                                                                    */
/* +----------------------------------------------------------------+ */
'isredit macro (p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9)'
"ISREDIT (member) = MEMBER"
"ISPEXEC CONTROL ERRORS CANCEL"
parse upper var member file '.' ext
do
'ISREDIT REPLACE' $$$$$$$$.SPF '.ZF .ZL'
ADDRESS "CMD" "HERCRDR 192.168.1.102:3505 $$$$$$$$.SPF"
zedsmsg = 'File submitted'
zedlmsg = 'The member '||member||' has been submitted to MVS'
'ispexec setmsg msg(isrz000)'
ADDRESS "CMD" "DELETE $$$$$$$$.SPF"
end
EXIT 0

Submitting Jobs from Unix

Submitting jobs from Unix can be done in two different ways, described in detail in the next sections:

Using a Perl Script

Malcolm Beattie has provided a simple Perl script which can submit jobs using either TCP/IP or Unix Domain Sockets. The script is invoked using one of the following command formats: 

  hercsub 192.168.1.102:3505 dummy.jcl
  hercsub /tmp/hercrdr.00C dummy.jcl

Here is the Hercsub script: 

============== hercsub ================
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Socket;
use IO::Socket::UNIX;
use IO::Socket::INET;
if (@ARGV < 1) {
    print STDERR "Usage: hercsub socket_spec [job]\n";
    exit 2;
}
my $spec = shift @ARGV;
my $sock;
if ($spec =~ m{^/}) {
    $sock = IO::Socket::UNIX->new(Peer => $spec);
} else {
    $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => $spec);
}
die "Failed to connect to socket $spec: $!\n" unless defined($sock);
while (<>) {
    print $sock $_;
}
========== end of hercsub =============

Using the NETCAT Program

The netcat (nc) program can also be used to submit files to a Hercules reader via TCP/IP. Install netcat (which is useful for many other things as well) and use the following syntax: 

  nc –w1 localhost 1234 < dummy.jcl

For more information on the netcat program, type man nc from the Unix shell.