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Controlling Sysout Allocations

Here is how various combinations of the FREE and SPIN options behave:
FREE=CLOSEFREE=END (default)
SPIN=UNALLOC Sysout available at file close time
DDNAME freed at file close
Sysout available at step end
DDNAME freed at step end
SPIN=NO Sysout available at job end
DDNAME freed at file close
Sysout available at job end
DDNAME freed at step end
SPIN not specified same as SPIN=UNALLOC same as SPIN=NO
The SYSOUT file will be closed by the system at step end if the file is not explicitly closed by the program.

When you are running TSO in batch, you can specify the SPIN value on the ALLOCATE command. You can control when a dataset (or SYSOUT) is freed using the FREE command. Otherwise, the allocation is freed at the end of the step.

OUTPUT Disposition

The OUTDISP parameter of the JCL OUTPUT statement can be used to specify how the output will be handled. Two values can be specified - one if the job completes normally and one if the job abends. For example, OUTDISP=(PURGE,HOLD) says to make the SYSOUT held if the job abends, otherwise purge the SYSOUT.

SYSOUT Segments

The JCL SEGMENT parameter specifies a page count. The SYSOUT file must have carriage control characters specified in the RECFM (A or M). The page count for the purpose of segmenting the output is based on the number of page eject control characters in the SYSOUT dataset. The output becomes available for printing regardless of FREE,SPIN or OUTDISP.

Refer to the JCL Reference Manual for details.

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