Using PLIDUMP

This section describes dump options and syntax used to call PLIDUMP, and describes PL/I-specific information included in the dump that can help you debug your programs.

This shows an example of a PL/I routine calling PLIDUMP to produce a Program Environment dump. In this example, the main routine PLIDMP calls PLIDMPA, which then calls PLIDMPB. The call to PLIDUMP is made in routine PLIDMPB.

%PROCESS MAP GOSTMT SOURCE STG LIST OFFSET LC(101);
 PLIDMP: PROC OPTIONS(MAIN) ;

   Declare   (H,I) Fixed bin(31) Auto;
   Declare   Names Char(17) Static init('Bob Teri Bo Jason');
   H = 5;	 I = 9;
   Put skip list('PLIDMP Starting');
   Call PLIDMPA;

     PLIDMPA:  PROC;
       Declare (a,b) Fixed bin(31) Auto;
       a = 1;	 b = 3;
       Put skip list('PLIDMPA Starting');
       Call PLIDMPB;

         PLIDMPB:  PROC;
           Declare  1 Name auto,
             2 First   Char(12) Varying,
             2 Last    Char(12) Varying;
           First = 'John';
           Last = 'Thompson';
           Put skip list('PLIDMPB Starting');
           Call PLIDUMP('TBFC','PLIDUMP called from procedure PLIDMPB');
           Put Data;
         End PLIDMPB;
     End PLIDMPA;
 End PLIDMP;

This example is referenced throughout this section.

Consider the following when using PLIDUMP:

Use a unique user-identifier for each PLIDUMP invocation when calling PLIDUMP a number of times in a routine. This simplifies identifying the beginning of each dump.
A DD statement with the ddname PLIDUMP can be used to define the data set for the dump. Any data set defined by these DD statements should specify a logical record length (LRECL) of at least 300/304 to prevent dump records from wrapping. If using SYSOUT as the target in any of these DDs, specify MSGFILE(SYSOUT,FBA,300,0) or MSGFILE(SYSOUT,VBA,304,0) to prevent line wrapping.
If you want the program unit name, program unit address, and program unit offset listed correctly in the dump traceback table, compile your PL/I program with the -debug option. The -debug option can be used with the -opt or -opt3 options. To get symbols and line information in the dump, you must compile using the -debug option to generate the .stb files.
Generated .stb files should either be stored in the same location as the .exe, .dll or .so files. or in a location specified by the environment variable CODEWATCH_STBPATH. Otherwise the dump generated by PLIDUMP contains much less useful information.
On Windows platforms, an additional .pdb file must also be stored in one of the concatenated directories referenced by the CODEWATCH_STBPATH environment variable or stored in the same location as the .dll it is associated with. Otherwise a S0C4 abend may occur while trying to process the call stack when running under Enterprise Server.
You can configure PLIDUMP to output a core file in addition to or instead of the default output. You can do this using the PLIDUMP_CONFIG environment variable. The possible values for PLIDUMP_CONFIG are:

NONE

No output is produced.

CORE

PLIDUMP outputs a core file only.

BOTH

PLIDUMP outputs a core file in addition to the Program Environment dump.

If PLIDUMP_CONFIG is not set or is set with a value different from the above-listed ones, only the default Program Environment dump will be produced.

Using PLIDUMP to generate a dump of your PL/I routine helps to ensure portability across system platforms.

PLIDUMP can be configured to output a core file in addition to or instead of the default output. This is controlled using the PLIDUMP_CONFIG environment variable. Possible values for PLIDUMP_CONFIG are:

NONE: No output is produced.
CORE: PLIDUMP outputs a core file only.
BOTH: PLIDUMP outputs a core file in addition to the Program Environment dump.

If PLIDUMP_CONFIG is unset or not one of the above values, only the default Program Environment dump is produced.