Job Control Language

ALSO CALLED: JCL
DEFINITION: JCL (job control language) is a language for describing jobs (units of work) to the MVS, OS/390, and VSE operating systems, which run on IBM's S/390 large server (mainframe) computers. These operating systems allocate their time and space resources among the total number of jobs that have been started in the computer. Jobs in turn break down into job steps. All the statements required to run a particular  … 
Definition continues below.

JOB CONTROL LANGUAGE DEFINITION (continued): …  program constitute a job step. Jobs are background (sometimes called batch) units of work that run without requiring user interaction (for example, print jobs). In addition, the operating system manages interactive (foreground) user requests that initiate units of work. In general, foreground work is given priority over background work.One IBM manual compares a set of JCL statements to a menu order in a restaurant. The whole order is comparable to the job. Back in the kitchen, the chefs divide the order up and work on individual dishes (job steps). As the job steps complete, the meal is … 
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