Quick start guide for compiling and assembling programs for use with the ADFz family of products

These topics describe the minimal steps that are required to prepare your programs for use with the Application Delivery Foundation for z/OS® family of products. They provide instructions for a single compilation method for organizations that are using some combination of z/OS® Debugger, Fault Analyzer, and Application Performance Analyzer (APA).

For more detailed information on working with particular products, refer to the following topics:
  • Part 2. Preparing your program for debugging of the IBM® z/OS® Debugger User's Guide
  • Part 2. Fault Analyzer Installation and Administration of the Fault Analyzer for z/OS® User's Guide
  • Appendix B. of the Application Performance Analyzer for z/OS® User's Guide

z/OS® Debugger, Fault Analyzer, and APA are designed to use load modules and other files that are produced by IBM® compilers. You must compile your programs with certain compiler options so that they produce load modules and files that these products can use.

In these topics the term 'source information files' refers to the types of files that are used by z/OS® Debugger, Fault Analyzer, and APA. The different kinds of source information files that are discussed include:
  • SYSDEBUG files
  • LANGX files
  • Compiler listings
  • DWARF files
  • Expanded source files
Different compilers generate different kinds of source information files. If you use more than one compiler, you might have more than one type of source information library.
When you compile your programs with the compiler options described in these topics, you can use the load modules and source information files that are created by the compilers as follows:
  • Prepare the module for debugging using z/OS® Debugger. z/OS® Debugger lets you work with program statements and variables.

    When a program is compiled with the right options, the module that is produced by the compiler can be debugged and a source information file, which contains program statements, can be produced. When you use z/OS® Debugger to debug a program, the source information file is used to display the program source statements in the source window.

    Depending on the source language and compiler that are used, the load module, the source information file, or the DWARF file contains information about statements and variables, such as offsets and lengths, and contains information that allows the debugger to locate statements and variables in storage. If you do not compile with the correct compiler options, debugging is limited to something called 'disassembly' mode, where machine code is displayed, but no source statements or variables.

  • Use Fault Analyzer to automatically pinpoint the source statement that caused an abend, and show the values of variables in your programs at the time of an abend.
  • Use APA to show precisely which program statements are using the most CPU time and wait time. Use this information to tune your applications.