The task file of an RPG process can store a symbolic dump instead of, or in addition to, a program dump. A symbolic dump provides much of the same information as a program dump, but is shorter and simpler to read. A symbolic dump can be produced in any of the following ways:
-
The RPG process can execute a DUMP operation code. This operation produces a symbolic dump, but no program dump. By default, the symbolic dump is written to the task file. However, the RPG process can specify that the symbolic dump is to be written to another file previously declared by the process.
-
The operator can enter the AX DUMP form of the AX (Accept) system command in response to a halted RPG program. This action produces a symbolic dump, but no program dump. The symbolic dump is always written to the task file.
-
The RPG process can generate a program dump when the process terminates abnormally and dump options were specified in a DS (Discontinue) system command or the DSED or FAULT option was set in the OPTION task attribute. If an abnormal termination results in a program dump, a symbolic dump appears in the task file after the program dump. If there is no program dump, then no symbolic dump is produced either.
The DUMP (Dump Memory) system command, when applied to an RPG process, produces a program dump, but no symbolic dump.
For further information, refer to the discussion of the DUMP operation code in the Report Program Generator (RPG) Programming Reference Manual, Volume 1: Basic Implementation.
