The latest release of z/OS Debugger is now available with many new features, and fixes (18 APARs).

Day 1 Support

As always, z/OS Debugger delivers day 1 support for the latest operating systems, compilers and subsystems:

• z/OS 3.1, an AI-infused operating system for the next generation of computing
• IMS 15.4
• CICS Transaction Server for z/OS 6.2 (open beta)
• IBM Open Enterprise SDK for Go 1.21

Code Coverage

Code Coverage reports continue to evolve, better helping you analyze the quality of your programs and tests. You can now switch to the tree view for a graphical representation of the hierarchy of files, modules, and flow points:

A new parameter z,zunit has been added to support collecting code coverage when running zUnit tests. For more information, see Starting and stopping the headless code coverage collector and Specifying code coverage options in the startup key.

Debugging in Eclipse IDE

You can now configure the behaviour of the Disconnect button 

when debugging CICS applications.  Specify QUIT DEBUG or QUIT DEBUG TASK, or choose to be prompted in the z/OS Debugger Preferences page: 

For more information, see Setting debug preferences.
   

During playback, the Variables view now displays values collected during recording. Variables cannot be updated during replay. 

For more information, see Using the Playback toolbar.

IMS Transaction Isolation

Configuring IMS Transaction Isolation facility across multiple LPARS has never been easier: 

• Perform any operation from a single connection and IMS Transaction Isolation facility will notify other LPARs of the configuration changes. For more information, see Using IMS Transaction Isolation to create a private message-processing region and select transactions to debug and Scenario F: Enabling the Transaction Isolation Facility.
•  The EQAZDFLT settings are now shared across all possible configurations (batch interface, Debug Profile Service and ADFz Common Components server) and used when you start the IMS Transaction Isolation Facility in exactly the same way as they already are with the z/OS Debugger Utilities. For more information, see Scenario F: Enabling the Transaction Isolation Facility.

EQAN0DBG

For non-LE debugging: EQAN0DBG is now available as an alias of EQANMDBG. It passes the unmodified input parameter list to the application and collects all debugger parameters from EQANMDBG DD. For more information, see Starting z/OS Debugger for programs that start outside of Language Environment and Passing parameters to EQANMDBG or EQAN0DBG using only the EQANMDBG DD statement.

EQAOPTS command

LangX COBOL users can now leverage the LDDAUTOLANGX command to make it easier to load debug data.  This new EQAOPTS command can be used to control whether LDD is automatically run on LangX COBOL compile units. For more information, see LDDAUTOLANGX.

Remote Debug Service

        Remote Debug Service can now be secured with AT-TLS. For more information, see Customizing with the sample job EQARMTSU and Enabling secure communication with AT-TLS.

Debug Profile Service

To ensure improved security, Debug Profile Service now runs on IBM z/OS Liberty Embedded instead of Apache Tomcat on z/OS. Refresh the eqaprof.env with the latest sample file to include environment variable liberty_dir. For more information, see Customizing with the sample job EQAPRFSU.

Other security improvements include using  a JCECCARACFKS keyring managed by RACF, in addition to JCERACFKS, for secure communication. For more information, see Enabling secure communication with a RACF managed key ring. 

And finally, fine tune DPS security by configuring the number of requests per second to allow or deny. For more information, see Customizing with the sample job EQAPRFSU.

Documentation updates

You spoke, and we heard: 

• We have added a new page to list the requisites to use debug functions. For more information, see Requisite products.
• We also have added documentation for the environment variables in eqaprof.env for Debug Profile Service and eqarmtd.env for Remote Debug Service. For more information, see Customizing with the sample job EQAPRFSU (Debug Profile Service) and Customizing with the sample job EQARMTSU (Remote Debug Service).