Git: Straight outta ISPF
So you want to use GIT to manage your SYS1.PARMLIB, or your USERID.COBOL.SRCE but you are (just like me) getting really tired of ftp-ing the files to a Linux-box, adding them to a git repo and commit/pushing them over and over (and over) again?
Imagine how awesome it would be to just update your git repository “straight outta ISPF”
We’ve tackled this with some ISPF-Rexx, a little panel and the ported git for z/OS available via awesome peeps at Rocket Software.
TL;DR -> https://streamable.com/qa2th
After making changes to a member all you need to do is type “ZGADD” in front of it and the REXX will work it’s magic, copying the member over to USS, and adding it to a git repo. If no git repo is present at the requested directory it will even create one and populate it with a minimal “.gitattributes” to ease the ASCII-EBCDIC issues :)
The pop-up window will then ask you where in USS your git-repo is (or where you want to create it) and let’s you enter a short commit message.
After pressing enter you will a directory with the same name as the PDS :) It’s should be no suprise that the member in question (DFNSTRT) is there too...
In keeping the promise of a full git interface from ISPF let’s take a look at git log (yeah I know, still need to do some work on ‘less’)
There are still some ‘sharp edges’ that need to be sorted before this stuff can be released into the wild. It’s already sitting in a neat little private repo on GitHub (updated directly from ISPF of course).
Stay tuned.....it won’t be long until the repo goes public :)
In case you’re wondering, the members shown in the screenshots are purely for example purposes, there’s just no way we’d have a rootkit running for z/OS. Or would we......
