VSAM - Verify Command

Verify command is used to check and fix VSAM files which have not been closed properly after an error. The command adds correct End-Of-Data records to the file.

Syntax:

VERIFY {FILE(ddname[/password]) |
  DATASET(vsam-file-name[/password])}

Explanation:

The dataset to be verified may be specified by either FILE, which designates a DD name for which a DD statement must be provided to identify the dataset, or DATASET, which designates the name which is used to identify the dataset in the catalog.

There is no CATALOG option for the VERIFY command, so if there is no alias defined for the catalog in which the dataset can be located, it will be necessary to use either a JOBCAT or STEPCAT DD statement for the proper catalog.

When to use verify command?

If a job terminates abnormally and a VSAM dataset is not closed, the catalog entry for the dataset is flagged to indicate that the dataset may be corrupt.

Before the dataset can be opened again, the VERIFY command must be used to correctly identify the end of the dataset and reset the catalog entry.

Example:

Following example shows how to check and fix errors in VSAM dataset.

//JOBNAME1 JOB 'IBMMAINFRAMER',CLASS=C,PRTY=10,MSGCLASS=C,
//          MSGLEVEL=(1,1),NOTIFY=&SYSUID
//*
//STEP001  EXEC PGM=IDCAMS
//SYSPRINT DD  SYSOUT=*
//SYSIN DD  *
   VERIFY DATASET(racfid.VSAM.KSDSFILE.TEST)
/*

If you execute the above JCL. Job should complete successfully with MAXCC = 0 and it will fix the errors in VSAM dataset.

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