Alternatives for making File Manager available

You can make File Manager available to your users in one of four ways:
  • By concatenating FMN.SFMNMOD1 to your LINKLIST.
  • By adding FMN.SFMNMOD1 to the STEPLIB DD statement in your TSO logon procedure.
  • By activating the FMN.SFMNMOD1 data set using the TSO command, TSOLIB.
  • By adding FMN.SFMNMOD1 to the ISPLLIB DD concatenation.
Important: If you implement LIBDEFs to allocate the File Manager load libraries for a TSO user, and that user also has access to File Manager load libraries without having to issue LIBDEFs, the File Manager load libraries must be the same (identical version and maintenance levels).

Example

The File Manager libraries are allocated in a user's TSO logon procedure. The ISPF main menu is customized to allow FM/Db2 as an option. Selecting this option runs an exec based on FMNINIT to allocate File Manager libraries using LIBDEFs.

The File Manager libraries allocated in the TSO logon procedure are different to the File Manager libraries allocated in the exec using LIBDEFs.

In this situation problems will arise if the user has FM/Db2 running on one ISPF logical session, and File Manager Base component or FM/IMS running on a second ISPF logical session.

Explanation

Most File Manager modules are reentrant. In an ISPF split screen environment each File Manager module will be loaded only once by the first ISPF session that requires it. If the user starts another ISPF session and runs File Manager, any modules needed by File Manager will only be loaded if the module in not already loaded. This can result in unpredictable results - in terms of the module loaded - depending on whether File Manager Base component or File Manager IMS™ is started before a File Manager Db2® session, or vice versa.

To make File Manager readily available from ISPF, configure your ISPF environment as described in Customizing the operating environment for File Manager.