There are three sets of commands that you can use to administer WebSphere MQ: control commands, MQSC commands, and PCF commands. These command sets are available on all platforms covered by this book.
Control commands allow you to perform administrative tasks on queue managers themselves.
They are described in Chapter 3, "Managing queue managers using control commands".
Use MQSC commands to manage queue manager objects, including the queue manager itself, channels, queues, and process definitions.
You issue MQSC commands to a queue manager using the runmqsc command. You can do this interactively, issuing commands from a keyboard, or you can redirect the standard input device (stdin) to run a sequence of commands from an ASCII text file. In both cases, the format of the commands is the same.
You can run the runmqsc command in three modes, depending on the flags set on the command:
Object attributes specified in MQSC commands are shown in this book in uppercase (for example, RQMNAME), although they are not case sensitive. MQSC command attribute names are limited to eight characters.
MQSC commands are available on other platforms, including OS/400(R), and z/OS. MQSC commands are summarized in Appendix E, Comparing command sets.
The WebSphere MQ Script (MQSC) Command Reference contains a description of each MQSC command and its syntax.
See "Performing local administration tasks using MQSC commands" for more information about using MQSC commands in local administration.
WebSphere MQ programmable command format (PCF) commands allow administration tasks to be programmed into an administration program. In this way you can create queues and process definitions, and change queue managers, from a program.
PCF commands cover the same range of functions provided by the MQSC commands. See "PCF commands" for more information.
You can use the WebSphere MQ Administration Interface (MQAI) to obtain easier programming access to PCF messages. This is described in greater detail in "Using the MQAI to simplify the use of PCFs".