What's new for Language Environment® for z/OS Version 1 Release 9

For z/OS Version 1 Release 9, Language Environment has the following changes:

• AMODE 64 enhancements

  Language Environment provides the following support for AMODE64 applications:

  • __far_jump() and __le_traceback()

  For AMODE 64 applications, there are two new C functions:

  • __far_jump(), to perform non-local GOTO
  • __le_traceback(), to assist in tracing the chain backward

  For more information on __far_jump(), see z/OS Language Environment Vendor Interfaces.

  For more information on __le_traceback(), see z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

  • CELQPIPI Service Routine Vector Support

    Language Environment provides LOAD and DELETE service routine vector support for CELQPIPI in AMODE 64 applications. Only the LOAD and DELETE user-replaceable services are supported.

    For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide for 64-bit Virtual Addressing Mode.

• XPLINK for IMS

  Language Environment supports XPLINK applications running under the IMS environment with and without Library Routine Retention (LRR) support.

  For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide, z/OS Language Environment Run-Time Application Migration Guide and z/OS Language Environment Run-Time Messages.

• Performance

  Performance is enhanced with the following:

  • IEEE binary floating-point (BEP) math functions replaced

  Selected math functions have been rewritten for performance and accuracy.

  For a detailed list, see z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference and z/OS XL C/C++ Compiler and Run-Time Migration Guide for the Application Programmer.

  • XPLINK
    • XPLINK versions of functions

    Performance is improved by removing stack transitions for XPLINK applications performing multiplication and division of long long integers.

    • Heap pools performance improvements

    Language Environment enhances the usability of heap pools by:

    • Creating cells that are aligned on 256-byte boundaries for better cache usage
    • Removing stack transitions for AMODE 31 XPLINK applications using heap pools.
    • Creating cells on 16-byte boundaries for AMODE 64 applications using heap pools.

    For more information on updates to the HEAPPOOLS and HEAPPOOLS64 run-time options, see z/OS Language Environment Customization and z/OS Language Environment Programming Reference.

    For tips on using the ALIGN suboption, see z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide and z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide for 64-bit Virtual Addressing Mode.

    For more information on heappools statistics, see z/OS Language Environment Debugging Guide.

  • Reliability, availability, and serviceability

    Language Environment is enhanced to provide the following:

    • CEEDUMP improvements

      Several enhancements are made to the CEEDUMP and IPCS Verbexit LEDATA reports. A new run-time option, CEEDUMP, controls cEEDUMP processing.

      For more information on changes to CEEDUMP or IPCS Verbexit LEDATA, see z/OS Language Environment Customization, z/OS Language Environment Programming Reference, and z/OS Language Environment Debugging Guide.

    • Language Environment Preinitialization (PreInit) services

      Language Environment provides diagnostic information for PreInit environments with IPCS support to format the information in the PreInit table and a mechanism to trace PreInit calls. This improves diagnostics for the PreInit service.

      For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide and z/OS Language Environment Debugging Guide.

    • Improvements to Dynamic Link Library (DLL) diagnostics

      Language Environment improves DLL error diagnostics so that you can more easily debug DLL application problems.

      For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Debugging Guide, z/OS XL C/C++ Programming Guide, and z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

  • Miscellaneous utilities
    • CEEBLDTX utiity

      Language Environment modifies the CEEBLDTX utility to run in the z/OS UNIX shell environment in addition to the TSO/E interface.

    For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide, z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide for 64-bit Virtual Addressing Mode and z/OS UNIX System Services Command Reference.

    • edcmtext utility

      Language Environment provides the edcmtext utility (similar to bpxmtext), which allows faster error resolution when an errno2 is encountered in Language Environment. This produces a description and action for the errno2 value. The bpmtext utility calls edcmtext when the errno2 value is in the range reserved for the C run-time library or edcmtext can be invoked directly with the errno2 value as input.

      For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Debugging Guide, z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference and z/OS UNIX System Services Command Reference.

  • Decimal floating-point (DFP) support

    Language Environment provides initial support with a subset of decimal floating-point support based on the ISO Technical Report draft.

    For more information, see z/OS XL C/C+ Run-Time Library Reference, z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide, z/OS Language Environment Vendor Interfaces, z/OS XL C/C++ User's Guide, and z/OS XL C/C++ Programming Guide.

  • Globalization
    • Locale support for Turkey

      New locales are added in compliance with the Globalization White Paper. ASCII versions for a set of existing environments and locales are available. Locales for Turkey are available for the Turkish lira.

      For more information, see z/OS XL C/C++ Programming Guide.

    • iconv

      Language Environment modifies the iconv() family of functions to use Unicode Conversion Services.

      For more information, see z/OS XL C/C++ Programming Guide and z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

    • Providing National Language Support (NLS) for all output

      Language Environment enhances National Language support by:

      • Removing lower-case English characters from CEEDUMP and from storage and options reports when the NATLANG run-time option is set to EUN or JPN.
      • Creating a new callable service, CEE3MC2, that returns the alphabetic international currency symbol for a country, in addition to the default (graphical) currency symbol currently returned by CEE3MCS.

    For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Programming Reference and z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

  • CICS CLER enhancements

    Enhancements are made in the CICS CLER transaction for displaying and modifying Language Environment run‐time options.

    For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Debugging Guide and z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide.

  • Callable services CEE3DLY and CEEDLYM

    Two new AMODE 31 callable services, CEE3DLY and CEEDLYM, suspend processing of the active enclave in a Language Environment-conforming application for a specified number of seconds and milliseconds respectively. CEE3DLY has a seconds parameter to specify the number of seconds that the active enclave should be suspended. CEEDLYM has a milliseconds parameter to specify the number of milliseconds that the active enclave should be suspended.

    For more information, see z/OS Language Environment Programming Guide and z/OS Language Environment Programming Reference.

  • Single UNIX Specification Version 3 (SUSV3)

    Language Environment provides additional support in the C/C++ run-time library for SUSv3, including new APIs and behaviors for the pthread functions.

    For more information , see z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

  • C API multicast source filtering support

    Language Environment provides application programming interfaces (APIs) and socket options for multicast source filtering.

    For more information, see z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference. The Multicast Source Filter API is documented in RFC 3678 - Socket Interface Extensions for Multicast Source Filters and is available at: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3678.html.

  • UNIX System Services Support
    • Terminating additional thread types

      Provides an updated method of terminating threads and their associated tasks. You can use a new environment variable, _BPXK_FORCE_CANCEL, to enable the pthread_cancel() service to terminate threads that it would not otherwise be allowed to cancel.

      For more information, see z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

    • Using standard message queues to deliver asynchronous completion notifications (ICP)

      Provides another method of delivery for I/O completion notifications. Standard message queues are used to send the notifications.

      For more information, see z/OS C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

    • Supporting memory map of files in key 2 storage areas

      Previously, memory maps could not be used from a key 2 environment. Support has been added for memory map of files in key 2 storage areas for PSW Key 2 callers

      For more information, see z/OS C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

    • Enabling callers running from server request blocks in AMODE 64 to use UNIX System Services

      Previously, callers running from a service request block (SRB) in AMODE 64 could not use UNIX System Services because the services were not supported. Support has been added to enable callers running from SRBs in AMODE 64 to use UNIX System Services.

      For more information, see z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference.

    • Propagating the setuid indicator to child address spaces

      Previously, the setuid identity was not propagated across a fork() or exec(). A new environment variable, _BPXK_SUID_FORK can be set to indicate whether the setuid indicator is to be propagated from the parent to the child process.

      For more information, see z/OS XL C/C++ Run-Time Library Reference