Productivity features¶

Favorites¶

Right-click a member, sequential data set, USS file, IBM i member or IFS file → Add to Favorites.

A Favorites node appears at the top of that connection; click an entry to open it. Remove an entry with the ★ icon. Favorites are stored per connection and included in connection exports.

Compare with a local file¶

Right-click a remote member or file in the tree, or the tab of an open remote editor, → Compare with Local File…. Pick the local file; VS Code opens a side-by-side diff with the local file on the left and the host version on the right.

You can edit the right side and press Ctrl+S to save the changes on the host.

Export and import connections¶

The … menu of the z/OS or IBM i view has:

Export Connections…: pick the connections and save them as a JSON file. It includes host, port, user, filters, library list, object library and favorites. Passwords are never exported.
Import Connections…: read such a file. Connections that already exist (same name, host and user) are skipped, and each colleague enters their own password on first connect.

{
  "format": "ibmi-zos-explorer-connections",
  "version": 1,
  "connections": [
    { "type": "ibmi", "name": "DEV400", "host": "dev400.company.com", "port": 22, "user": "GGUPTA",
      "libraries": ["DEVLIB"], "libraryList": ["APPLIB"], "currentLibrary": "DEVLIB" }
  ]
}

Team setup

Put a connections file (with user names replaced) on a shared drive or in your team's wiki, so new team members can import it and be ready in a minute.

Snippets¶

Type a prefix such as jobcard, iebcopy, program or dcl-proc and press Tab. The full list is on the JCL templates & snippets page.