OA31343

[Paul Gilmartin]

(Cross-posting to MVS-OE and TSO-REXX.)

My APAR.

OA31343

ERROR DESCRIPTION:
The BPXWREXX GetVar and SetVar routines do not check the return
code from their respective calls to IRXEXCOM. If an invalid
filename is passed into a syscall via ADDRESS SYSCALL in REXX,
USS will ignore the failing return code and attempt to issue
the syscall with the bad parm(s).

["filename" should more properly be "variable name" -- gil]

For example:

f.tail='Interface is Symbolic.' x='TAIL'
"creat (f.x*x) 666" /* Invalid variable name, but */
/* error is not externalized to user*/
say 'f.x*x=' f.x*x /* Error is externalized by IRX0041I*/

IRX0041I Error running ./myrexx.txt, line yy:
Bad arithmetic conversion

IBM telephoned me for input on this. I've updated the PMR with:

o FIN is particularly appropriate since any fix to this should involve
behavior changes which should be simultaneously documented
in the RM.

o It would be very useful if when an invalid (name) was reported by
IRXEXCOM no SYSCALL was issued, and RC had the format
programmers are familiar with from BPXWDYN, namely
- ( 20 + index-of-invalid-parameter ).

IBM's first thought was to supply a default argument value
when IRXEXCOM returns bad status. I believe they agree with
me now that this is not the best approach. But have other
users any opinions on how this is best handled?

Thanks,
gil

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