Inconsistent processing of JCL INCLUDE and PROC files with lowercase filenames

[ian-burnett]

Development environment used

• Z Open Editor version: 6.6.1
• Editor Platform
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
  • Eclipse Che
• Editor Platform Version:

Version: 1.133.0 (Universal)
Commit: a5b500951314efd502d07465bd138dfbd714a960
Date: 2026-08-11T22:14:08Z
Electron: 42.8.0
ElectronBuildId: 14845705
Chromium: 148.0.7778.280
Node.js: 24.18.0
V8: 14.8.178.38-electron.0
@github/copilot: 1.0.79-6
@github/copilot-sdk: 1.0.9
OS: a5b500951314efd502d07465bd138dfbd714a960

• Operating System (on which VS Code runs such as Windows 11 24H2, otherwise name and version of platform such as OpenShift v4.16): MacOS 26.6.1
• Java Version (when using VS Code or Theia, execute java -version and paste the details here):

openjdk version "25.0.3" 2026-04-21 LTS
IBM Semeru Runtime Open Edition 25.0.3.0 (build 25.0.3+9-LTS)
Eclipse OpenJ9 VM 25.0.3.0 (build 25.0.3+9-openj9-0.59.0, JRE 25 Mac OS X aarch64-64-Bit 20260421_222 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)
OpenJ9   - c53b6b93f4
OMR      - 6426f03fa
JCL      - e4aaece3226 based on jdk-25.0.3+9)

• Related to RSE API?
  • RSE API Plugin version:
  • Zowe CLI version:
  • Node.js version:
• Logs attached (see the documentation for how to get them): yes/no

Problem Description

I have the following file structure in a project, with all files having lowercase filenames:

jcl-demo
  +- jcl/
  |   +- #r760.jcl
  |   +- myjob.jcl
  +- proclib/
  |   +- allstats.jcl
  +- zapp.yaml

Contents of zapp.yaml:

name: jcl-demo
version: 1.0.0

propertyGroups:
  - name: jcl-includes
    language: jcl
    libraries:
      - name: jcllib
        type: local
        locations:
          - "jcl"
  - name: jcl-proclibs
    language: jcl
    libraries:
      - name: proclib
        type: local
        locations:
          - "proclib"

Contents of myjob.jcl (which is where I see the problem):

//MYJOB    JOB 1,MSGCLASS=A,REGION=0M,CLASS=A,MEMLIMIT=2G
//*
// INCLUDE MEMBER=#r760
// INCLUDE MEMBER=#R760
//*
// EXEC PROC=allstats
// EXEC PROC=ALLSTATS
//

Contents of remaining files are not relevant here.

Observed behavior

Where zopeneditor.enforceCaseSensitiveIncludeFileNames = false:

• INCLUDE with lowercase is correctly linked (Cmd+click will open the file)
• INCLUDE with uppercase is marked as error ("Unable to find INCLUDE group #R760.")
• PROC with lowercase is not linked, but has no error
• PROC with uppercase is correctly linked (Cmd+click will open the file)

Where zopeneditor.enforceCaseSensitiveIncludeFileNames = true:

• INCLUDE with lowercase is correctly linked (Cmd+click will open the file)
• INCLUDE with uppercase is marked as error ("Unable to find INCLUDE group #R760.")
• PROC with lowercase is correctly linked (Cmd+click will open the file)
• PROC with uppercase is not linked, but has no error

Expected behavior

Where zopeneditor.enforceCaseSensitiveIncludeFileNames = false:

• INCLUDE with lowercase shows error due to lowercase characters in JCL
• INCLUDE with uppercase is linked (Cmd+click will open the file)
• PROC with lowercase shows error due to lowercase characters in JCL
• PROC with uppercase is linked (Cmd+click will open the file)

Where zopeneditor.enforceCaseSensitiveIncludeFileNames = true:

• INCLUDE with lowercase shows error due to lowercase characters in JCL
• INCLUDE with uppercase is marked as unable to find INCLUDE file #R760
• PROC with lowercase shows error due to lowercase characters in JCL
• PROC with uppercase is marked as unable to find PROCLIB file ALLSTATS

[FALLAI-Denis]

Hi,

An ordinary user's perspective.

In standard IBM z/OS, procedure names must be in uppercase.
The ISPF editor flags an error if the names are entered in lowercase.

Managing JCL locally is one thing—since Zowe APIs allow JCL submission from the local workspace—but managing PROCs locally is a different matter: at runtime, the procedure must exist on the remote system, and therefore must have an uppercase name.
Just as they are limited to 8 characters, and the first character must be a letter or one of the three "national" characters that differ from one CCSID to another.

I think the JCL Language Server should report an error for procedure and include names that do not comply with the IBM z/OS standard:

• uppercase names, characters [A..Z], [0..9], and "national" characters (which depend on the remote z/OS system's CCSID)
• first character must be a letter or a "national" character
• 8-character limit
• ...

I am wondering about the usefulness of the zopeneditor.enforceCaseSensitiveIncludeFileNames parameter for handling procedure names in JCL.
It makes sense for COBOL, which is case-insensitive; however, JCL is case-sensitive, so referencing a procedure name in lowercase would—I believe—trigger a JCLERROR at runtime.
I do not know how the HLASM and PL/1 languages ​​handle this matter.

Best regards,

[ian-burnett]

Hi,

You're correct that having lowercase in JCL would error at runtime, so doesn't make sense to mark as valid in the editor.

I'll update the description to reflect this.

[FALLAI-Denis]

Hi,

That said, being able to manage procedures and includes locally can be advantageous—for instance, to avoid having to install them on the z/OS system.

Could potentially be handled in a separate issue: it is worth considering whether an inclusion / expansion mechanism should be provided when submitting JCL, which would allow for the local management of procedures and includes.
Expansion mechanisms already exist in ZOE.

See also:

• Local variable substitution on JCL submits #617

The syntax would need to differ from, or be adapted relative to, the standard IBM z/OS syntax, for example, by immediately preceding the reference to an INCLUDE or a PROC with a normalized comment that has no effect on execution on the z/OS system.

For example, for a local INCLUDE, (see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.2.0?topic=d-syntax-10):

//*%ZAPP
//[name]  INCLUDE  MEMBER=member[comments]

In this case, if found locally, the INCLUDE is expanded and replaced by the contents of the local file at submit time from ZOE.

For example, for a "cataloged" procedure, (see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.2.0?topic=d-syntax-17):

//*%ZAPP
//[stepname]  PROC procname[,parameters  [comments]]

In this case, if found locally, the PROC is included at head of JCL as an in-stream procedure within the JCL (PROC / PEND) at submit time from ZOE.

[sdaimwood]

Looks like this area could use some clean up and consistency. Thank you for reporting and for the discussion here. We'll take a look internally and see how we can improve the behavior.