Description: The term ‘Abend’ comes from the combination of the German words ‘Abnormal’ and ‘End’ and refers to an abnormal termination of a computer program. In the context of computer systems, an abend occurs when a program unexpectedly stops due to an error, which can be caused by various reasons such as programming errors, hardware issues, or resource management conflicts. This phenomenon is critical in environments where stability and service continuity are essential. An abend can result in data loss, service interruptions, and the need for manual intervention to restart the program or system. Modern operating systems are designed to handle abends efficiently, providing diagnostic and recovery tools that allow administrators to identify the cause of the problem and take corrective actions. Managing abends is a fundamental part of maintaining critical systems, as it helps ensure the reliability and availability of applications that depend on these data processing environments.
History: The term ‘abend’ became popular in the 1970s with the rise of computer systems, particularly in the context of IBM operating systems. As companies began to rely more on centralized computing for their operations, the need to identify and manage program errors became crucial. Early operating systems implemented mechanisms to log and diagnose abends, allowing system administrators to address issues more effectively.
Uses: Abends are primarily used in the context of system management to identify and resolve issues in critical applications. System administrators use abend logs to analyze the cause of errors and improve system stability. Additionally, software development processes in various environments incorporate testing to minimize the occurrence of abends in production.
Examples: An example of an abend could be a payroll processing program that unexpectedly stops due to an error in the calculation logic. Another case could be a database management system experiencing an abend when trying to access an unavailable resource. These events require administrators to review abend logs to determine the cause and apply necessary corrections.
