LINK or STAR command return information

Q:

Does the LINK or STAR command return information from the CICS program back to the batch program?

A:

The STAR command merely starts a transaction. There is no feedback - we issue the START and continue on to the next command (if there is one).

The LINK command links to a program, waits for the program execution and will accept limited feedback from the linked-to program. If the linked-to program runs a long time, you may not want to tie up your batch job for the duration of the execution.

For debugging purposes, you may use CEDX to trace either the STARTed task or the LINKed-to program.