AICB: RETRIEVE WAIT issued during shutdown

What it means

EXEC CICS START can pass data to the transaction it starts, and the started task reads that data with RETRIEVE. When several STARTs for the same transaction and terminal pile up, one task can loop on RETRIEVE and read them all. Normally RETRIEVE raises ENDDATA once there is nothing left. With the WAIT option, it instead puts the task to sleep until more expired data arrives. That lets a task act as a long-running server for a terminal or connection.

Shutdown changes this. A task that is already waiting in RETRIEVE WAIT when CICS enters shutdown gets the ENDDATA condition, so it can finish cleanly. A task that issues a new RETRIEVE WAIT during shutdown, when no data is available, gets AICB instead. ENDDATA also covers a task whose wait runs past its deadlock timeout with no data arriving.

IBM also notes that RETRIEVE WAIT must be coded with at least one other option, and that it can create inter-transaction affinities that get in the way of dynamic transaction routing.

Common causes

• A server-style transaction loops on RETRIEVE WAIT. It finishes one piece of work while shutdown is under way, issues RETRIEVE WAIT again, and finds nothing to read.
• A transaction is started late, after shutdown has begun, and its first action is RETRIEVE WAIT with no data queued for it.
• The program doesn't treat ENDDATA as a signal to stop, so it goes round its loop once more and issues another RETRIEVE WAIT.

How to find the problem

1. Check the region's message log for the time shutdown began and the time of the DFHAC message for the AICB. The abend comes after the start of shutdown.
2. Search the program named in the dump for RETRIEVE commands with the WAIT option.
3. Look at how the program handles ENDDATA, and at what it does after each item of work.
4. Check whether any programs in the shutdown program list table (PLT) start transactions that use RETRIEVE WAIT.

How to fix it

• Before each RETRIEVE WAIT, have the program check whether CICS is shutting down. EXEC CICS INQUIRE SYSTEM CICSSTATUS returns values such as ACTIVE and FIRSTQUIESCE, and the program can end cleanly when the region is no longer ACTIVE.
• Treat ENDDATA as the end of the loop, and return instead of retrying.
• Use a shutdown PLT program to tell long-running server tasks to finish, for example by setting a flag they check between items.
• Consider whether the program needs RETRIEVE WAIT at all, given the affinities it creates for dynamic routing.

Last reviewed 2026-10-18 by the WND Software team. Written in our own words. For the full reference, check IBM’s CICS documentation for your release.