Brief summary of the XMIT command

The XMIT (short for TRANSMIT) command comes with all MVS systems that have TSO/E which is basically all MVS systems since the mid-1980s (including z/OS). I can't explain it better than the IBM HELP (licensed materials of IBM) command:

The TSO/E Interactive Data Transmission Facility TRANSMIT command allows you to send data sets or messages to persons on other MVS systems via Network Job Entry or directly to persons on your own system. You may transmit sequential and partitioned data sets that have the fixed, variable and undefined record formats.

Here is an example of an XMIT command:

XMIT node.user DA(file.name) OUTDATASET(out.xmi)

This command is used to place a portable copy of a MVS file into a LRECL=80 dataset which is created with the name of the OUTDATASET operand. For more information either use the HELP XMIT command in TSO or consult the TSO/E Command Reference manual.

For the purposes of this page, we are only concerned with the XMIT command that uses the OUTDATASET(name) operand. This creates a portable version of a MVS dataset. Although the manual states that the OUTFILE and OUTDATASET operands are "primarily intended for system programmer use", these datasets are very handy for all users of TSO.

The XMIT command has a cousin command called RECEIVE which is used to retrieve files transmitted to your userid either through the JES SPOOL or contained in an XMIT file. Here is an example of a RECEIVE command:

RECEIVE INDATASET(x.xmi)

This command attempts to obtain the contents of an XMIT file and displays messages contained in it or prompts the user to place embedded files on the user's system.