What's new in IBM File Manager for z/OS® 16.1

Latest service:

For details of the APARs that have been addressed in each release, see Latest PTFs for IBM File Manager for z/OS.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.3, February 2026

This version of File Manager for z/OS® rolls up a number of miscellaneous fixes.

File Manager has been updated to align its handling of the ISPF Packed format with the global ISPF setting Global_Disable_Pack, when a new File Manager option ISPFGLBL is enabled. See ISPFGLBL:

A new ISPFGLBL option is introduced in the Customization Guide. When set to YES, File Manager for z/OS® enforces ISPF global settings; when NO (default), File Manager for z/OS® behavior remains unchanged and independent of ISPF globals.
If ISPF globally disables packed data:
- Users can still read and interpret existing packed data, but cannot save or rewrite data in packed format.
- PACK-related options and commands (PACK, PACK=ASIS) become unavailable or are ignored, and data is always saved in standard format.
Updated multiple User Guide sections to document the enforced behavior when ISPF packed format is restricted.
Enhanced panels and informational messages to clearly notify users when ISPF packed data is disabled and explain File Manager for z/OS® resulting behavior. see Editor Options panel.
Added new system messages FMNBB674 - FMNBB678 to explicitly indicate when packed format usage, related commands, or options are unavailable or overridden. See File Manager messages.
File Manager now supports creating VSAM Database data sets and alternate indexes with up to five key names. These are the only File Manager for z/OS® functions that currently support VSAM Database. See VSAM Define panel and AIX Entry Detail panel.
Support for the PASSWORD=REMEMBER option has been removed. Use PASSWORD=PASSTICKET for FM/CICS logon handling. See topic Starting FM/CICS.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.2, October 2025

This version of File Manager for z/OS® rolls up a number of miscellaneous fixes. It also includes the following new support:

You can now specify a list of members in the DD statement in the JCL as an alternative to specifying them in a $$FILEM control statement for a number of File Manager functions. For more information about the format used to specify members, and the functions that support this method, see JCL syntax for File Manager batch jobs.
Added a new processing option to generate the FMNMLST DD containing the selected members to be processed. See Advanced Member Selection panel and Advanced Member Selection panel for load libraries.
Support for regular expressions and picture strings:
- Regular expressions are now supported in all View and Edit sessions when specifying a search string for FIND, CHANGE, and EXCLUDE primary commands. For more information on specifying regular expression strings, see:
- Picture strings are supported for the search and replace values for functions that perform change processing, and search values for functions that perform contains processing.
  Regular expressions are now supported for search values of functions that perform change and contains processing.
  For more details see:
  - Using picture strings and regular expressions with external REXX functions
File Manager has been enhanced to support a user exit when running the FMNSRCHK edit or view function key. See F4 edit macro exit for complete details.
The FNot and CNot behavior in a View or Edit session is changed to match field or record areas that do not contain any occurrence of the search string. See FIND/FX primary command and CHANGE/CX primary command.
For enhanced security, define data set profiles for data sets allocated to FMNAUTH DD with UACC(NONE) and encrypt these files. For more details, see Preparing for File Manager Remote Services.
The recommended environment to access CICS resources using File Manager is via the TSO/ISPF environment. For installations using CICS via the ADFzCC server environment, FMN3PRFD should specify *PASSWORD=PASSTICKET. *PASSWORD=REMEMBER will be deprecated in a future release. For more information, see the topics Checklist for installing and customizing File Manager to access CICS resources and Modifying and submitting FMN3INST and FMN3PRFD.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.1, June 2025

This version of File Manager for z/OS® rolls up a number of miscellaneous fixes. It also includes the following new support:

New option, F5 Clear, has been added to the Enhanced Search Command panel to clear all fields on the panel. See Enhanced Search command panel for an example.
A new edit option has been added to use an auxiliary data set when viewing a large non-VSAM data set that will not fit into memory. See the new edit option in Editor Options panel and the new option VIEWAUX.
A new option, "MLIST" has been added to both the List and Search Options panel and the Report View Options panel. Select this option to produce an ISPF member list for up to 16 data set names referenced in the current view or edit session. See Using F4 from the command line and Using F4 for enhanced search report filtering commands for more information.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.0, March 2025 (refresh)

This refresh version of File Manager for z/OS® rolls up a number of miscellaneous fixes. It also includes the following new support:

File Manager provides a Microsoft Visual Studio Code extension client with an intuitive interface to access, edit, and manage data sets and files on z/OS systems. See File Manager on VS Code for more details about downloading the extension.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.0, December 2024 (refresh)

This refresh version of File Manager for z/OS® rolls up a number of miscellaneous fixes. It also includes the following new support:

A new processing option, "Start", has been added to the menu panels for the enhanced search report. Select this processing option to start applicable options in another ISPF session. See Using F4 from any edit or view session when positioned on a string or word and Using F4 for enhanced search report filtering commands for more information about the options that support the "Start" option.
FM/Db2 GEN line command support for Db2 V13 FL505.

New features and enhancements in V16.1.0, First edition, October 2024

This version of File Manager for z/OS® rolls up a number of miscellaneous fixes. It also includes the following new support:

File Manager provides updated internal COBOL and PL/I compilers with this version. Starting with this version, by default, the internal default COBOL compiler is used and additional internal compilers are provided.
To determine which File Manager COBOL compiler is to be used, a new option, ALTCOB, has been added. See ALTCOB for more information about the available COBOL compilers.
To determine which File Manager PL/I compiler is to be used, a new option, ALTPLI, has been added. See ALTPLI for more information about the available PL/I compilers.
To discover the level of the internal PL/I compiler being used, a new command is available, SHOWPLI, from both batch and the File Manager command line. See Customizing for processing PL/I include books for more information about submitting this command.
Auto detect for compiler languages now supports Assembler and is more efficient. See "Auto detect" in Selecting your compiler language.
A new option has been added to the Editor Options panel, Show nullable column indicators, so that FM/Db2 displays an indicator for columns with nullable status. See Editor Options (4 of 8) panel for more details. For example output, see Table Edit panel, Table Browse panel, and Table View panel.
New keywords for the File Manager DEFV function to produce VSAM define statements for Data, Index, and Catalog names in addition to supporting alternate Index, Path, and GDG data sets. See DEFV (Define VSAM Statements) for the syntax and details.
FM/Db2 IVP updates for supported versions of Db2 Version 12 and later. See the section Verifying the customization of FM/Db2 for the updates.
Enhancement of SQL prototyping. See Basic SELECT Prototyping panel.
Added support for simple comments in SQL statement execution. See Enter, Execute and Explain SQL Statements panel.