To answer this question, you need to understand the concept of condition codes in job control language (JCL).
In JCL, a condition code is a numeric value that represents the success or failure of a jobstep. A return code of 0 typically indicates successful execution, while a non-zero return code indicates an error or failure.
To specify a condition for a jobstep to be executed based on the return code of the previous jobstep, you need to use the COND parameter in JCL.
In this case, you want the jobstep to be executed only if the previous jobstep has a return code of strictly less than 8. To achieve this, you need to use the COND parameter with the condition code (8,LE), where LE stands for less than or equal to.
Let's go through each option to understand why it is correct or incorrect:
Option A) COND=(8,LE) - This option is correct because it specifies that the jobstep should be executed if the return code of the previous jobstep is less than or equal to 8. This satisfies the condition of strictly less than 8.
Option B) COND=(8,GE) - This option is incorrect because it specifies that the jobstep should be executed if the return code of the previous jobstep is greater than or equal to 8. This does not satisfy the condition of strictly less than 8.
Option C) COND=(8,LT) - This option is incorrect because it specifies that the jobstep should be executed if the return code of the previous jobstep is less than 8. This does not satisfy the condition of strictly less than 8.
Option D) COND=(8,GT) - This option is incorrect because it specifies that the jobstep should be executed if the return code of the previous jobstep is greater than 8. This does not satisfy the condition of strictly less than 8.
The correct answer is Option A) COND=(8,LE). This option is correct because it specifies the desired condition of strictly less than 8 for the jobstep to be executed.