Working notes from real z/OS engagements — Endevor-to-Git migrations, DBB builds, IDz performance, code pages, and mainframe CI/CD. The same knowledge we bring to yours.
Part 1 covered the concepts and the minimal command set. Part 2 added the day-to-day USS commands confirmed in IBM’s Command Reference — find, grep, sed, awk, tar, and the rest. That part also flagged a real gap: base z/OS UNIX System Services doesn’t ship curl, less, or a full Bash, because those aren’t part of the standard shell command set. This installment closes that … Read more
Part 1 covered the concepts — how a PDS maps to a directory, how Endevor’s package-and-promote model maps to Git’s commit-and-merge model, and the handful of commands you need to get moving: ls, cd, vi, git, chmod. This installment adds the commands you’ll reach for once you’re doing real work day to day: searching across files, checking space, watching processes, and … Read more
If you’ve spent your career in ISPF, you already have the instincts that matter for DevOps — you just need to remap them. You know how to manage change through a controlled process, you know why naming conventions matter, and you know that a job either runs clean or it doesn’t. Unix and Git-based DevOps … Read more
If you’ve spent your career in ISPF, the idea of editing a file at a bare shell prompt probably sounds like a step backward. No split screens, no PF keys taped to your muscle memory, no line commands. Just a blinking cursor. Here’s the good news: vim isn’t a downgrade, it’s a different keyboard for … Read more
What are these README.md files in your new Git repository? A mainframer’s introduction to Markdown, and why it replaced scattered Word documents.
A field guide to sane z/OS Unix System Services file systems: mount points, directory conventions, and the mistakes that make USS painful a decade later.
Migrating from a legacy mainframe SCM to Git and DBB? Revisit your COBOL compile parameters — a two-stage compile process can win back real build time.
If your z/OS code looks like gibberish in Git, you migrated with the wrong code page or forgot .gitattributes. How EBCDIC-to-UTF-8 conversion actually works.
Three fixes that drastically improve IBM Developer for z/OS performance on resource-constrained machines — from someone who’s spent too long waiting on hangs.
Moving from Endevor to Git with IBM DBB is the right time to reevaluate your z/OS dataset locations and naming conventions. Here is what to consider.