The MAREN user program

The MAREN user program enables the MAREN user to reserve tapes and manage the tapes which are entered in the MAREN catalog under his/her user ID.

These tapes can be reserved either explicitly or implicitly using the MAREN free tape allocation facility (MARENUCP). The user remains the owner of the reserved tape until the defined expiration date has been reached and the MAREN administrator performs a release run for reserved tapes. Following a release run, all tapes whose expiration date has elapsed are no longer available to the user. When an exported tape is returned, this is recorded by the MAREN administrator by means of the MARENADM statement IMPORT-VOLUME.

The diagram shows the entire procedure from the reservation of a tape to its release:

Procedure from reservation to release of a tape

The MAREN user program enables the user to execute the following major functions for his/her tapes:

• Outputting information on entries in the MAREN catalog (catalog entries for short) (PRINT- and SHOW-VOLUME-ATTRIBUTES statements):
  
  • in S variables;
  • to SYSOUT;
  • in files (optionally also in CSV format);
  • by email;
  • as a list for printing.
• Reserving free tapes (RESERVE-FREE-VOLUME statement);
• Modifying catalog entries for the user’s own tapes (EDIT- and MODIFY-VOLUME-ATTRIBUTES statements);
  
  • Adjusting a tape’s expiration date;
  • Making a tape accessible for other users;
  • Protecting a tape with a password;
  • Defining a location for a tape.
• Providing tapes for processing (MOUNT-VOLUME statement);
• Exporting tapes from the MAREN catalog (EXPORT-VOLUME statement).
  
  • Exporting or sending a user’s own tape;
  • Returning a foreign tape to the user.

Functions for managing tape sets (MODIFY-TAPE-SET-ATTRIBUTES statement), multifile catalog entries (DELETE-VOLUME-ENTRY statement), and for comparing with the file catalog (CHECK-TSOSCAT statement) complete the functionality of the MAREN user program.

The MAREN user program can run either in interactive mode or as a batch task to execute its functions.

It also offers a program interface, see section “MAREN as a subroutine”.