The Hercules System/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture Emulator
The Hercules System/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture Emulator










Hercules is an open source software implementation of the mainframe
System/370 and ESA/390 architectures, in addition to the latest 64-bit
z/Architecture. Hercules runs under Linux, Windows,
Solaris, FreeBSD,
and Mac OS X.



Hercules is OSI Certified Open Source Software
licensed under the terms of the Q Public Licence.



Hercules was created by Roger Bowler.
Jay Maynard (“the Tron Guy”) was the maintainer from 2000 to 2012.
Jan Jaeger designed and implemented many of the advanced features of
Hercules, including dynamic reconfiguration, integrated console,
interpretive execution and z/Architecture support. A dedicated crew of
programmers is constantly at work implementing new features and fixing bugs.

To find out more about Hercules, follow these links:

Web documentation:

Hercules Installation and Operation
Hercules Configuration File
Hercules System Messages
What's new in this release
Release notes
Hercules Frequently-Asked Questions
Technical Support
The Q Public Licence


PDF manuals:

Hercules General Information
Hercules Reference Summary
Hercules Installation Guide
Hercules User Reference Guide
Hercules Messages and Codes


To download the current release version, use the following links:


Source code:

hercules-3.13.zip (Windows format)
hercules-3.13.tar.gz (Unix format)


Windows binaries:

hercules-3.13-w32.msi:
Windows 32-bit Installer package
hercules-3.13-w32.zip:
32-bit binaries only archive
hercules-3.13-w64.msi:
Windows 64-bit Installer package
hercules-3.13-w64.zip:
64-bit binaries only archive


Note: Installing the .msi Windows Installer package ensures the
required Microsoft Runtime components are installed and also provides
convenience shortcuts in the programs menu. If the required components
are already present and the shortcuts are not needed on the target system,
the self-extracting or .zip archive may be used instead.









What people are saying about Hercules




“
Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see MVS
running on a machine that I personally own.
Hercules is a marvelous tool.  My thanks to you all for a job
very well done.
”
—
Reed H. Petty

“
I do miss my mainframe a lot, and playing with Herc sure brings back
memories.  Just seeing the IBM message prefixes, and responding to
console messages again was a wonderful bit of nostalgia!
”
—
Bob Brown

“
I have installed your absolutely fantastic /390 emulator.
You won't believe what I felt when I saw the prompt.
Congratulations, this is a terrific software.
I really have not had such a fascinating and interesting
time on my PC lately.
”
—
IBM Large Systems Specialist

“
Such simulators have been available for a long time.  One of the most
complete (up to modern 64-bit z/Architecture) is hercules.
”
—
Michel Hack, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

“
An apparently excellent emulator that allows those open source
developers with an "itch to scratch", to come to the S/390 table
and contribute.
”
—
Mike MacIsaac, IBM

“
BTW grab a copy of Hercules and you can test it at home.
It's a very good S/390 and zSeries (S/390 64bit) emulator..
”
—
Alan Cox

“
It works even better than I imagined.
Hercules is a fine piece of software!
”
—
Dave Sienkiewicz

“
Hercules is a systems programmer's dream come true.
”
—
René Vincent Jansen

“
Aside from the electric trains my parents got
me in 1953, this is the best toy I've ever been given,
bar none.”
—
Jeffrey Broido

“
Congratulations to you and your team on a fine piece of work!
”
—
Rich Smrcina

“
Congratulations on a magnificent achievement!
”
—
Mike Ross

“
For anyone thinking running Hercules is too much trouble or too hard
or whatever, I came home from work one day and my 13 year old 8th
grade son had MVS running under VM under Hercules on Linux. He had
gotten all the information about how to do this from the Internet.
When he complained about MVS console configuration and figuring out
how to get it to work with VM, I knew he had felt all the pain he
ever needed to feel about mainframes.
”
—
Scott Ledbetter, StorageTek

“
I am running a fully graphical Centos z/Linux environment on my desktop.
The Hercules emulator is an amazing feat of engineering.
I just wanted to send my compliments to the team for an excellent job!
Thanks much for making this product part of the open-source community!
”
—
Roby Gamboa

“
I have DOS and DOS/VS running on Hercules with
some demo applications, both batch and on-line.  It does bring back
some good memories. My compliments go to the Hercules team.  Thank you.
”
—
Bill Carlborg

“
This is stunning piece of work. To say that I am blown away is an
understatement. I have a mainframe on my notebook!!!!!!
P.S. Now if I can just remember my JCL
”
—
Roger Tunnicliffe


Read Moshe Bar's BYTE.com article about Hercules at

http://web.archive.org/web/20010712143133/http://www.byte.com/documents/s=429/BYT20000801S0002/

For eighteen months, the IBM Redbook
SG24-4987 Linux for S/390 at

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg244987.html
contained a chapter written by Richard Higson
describing how to run Linux/390 under Hercules.
Then suddenly, all mention of Hercules was mysteriously
removed from the online edition of the book!
Read the story of the disappearing Redbook chapter at

http://www2.marist.edu/htbin/wlvtype?LINUX-VM.25658


View the foils from Jay Maynard's presentation given at
SHARE Session 2880
in San Francisco on 20 August 2002
as a PDF file (815K) from

http://linuxvm.org/Present/SHARE99/S2880JMa.pdf



The source code repository



The complete source code and development history for
Hercules is also available via anonymous access from
these git repositories:



https://github.com/rbowler/spinhawk


The spinhawk repository is used to build the 3.xx series
of “gold” releases.
The intent of the 3.xx release stream is to provide regular
production-quality releases fully compatible with version 3.07,
containing additional architectural features and bug fixes,
as well as selected enhancements from the developer sandbox.



https://github.com/hercules-390/hyperion


The hyperion repository is used by a group of developers as a
cutting-edge developer sandbox.
It is currently designated as version 4.00.
This repository evolved from Hercules version 3.07 enriched by
a series of user interface changes and usability enhancements
produced during the TurboHercules period.
It also contains experimental support for the QDIO and MPCPTP6
networking interfaces and a redesigned I/O subsystem.



Please note that the development repositories may contain faults which
may be fixed at an unspecified later date, as well as experimental code
which might not appear in any future production release.

Build instructions are contained in the source files
INSTALL (for Unix)
or README.WIN32
or README.WIN64 (for Windows).




Other Hercules-related sites




    http://www.bsp-gmbh.com/hercules/index.shtml
    Volker Bandke's Hercules site.  This is the site for
    users of Hercules on Windows, and here you can also obtain Volker's
    MVS 3.8J turnkey system.

    http://wotho.ethz.ch/tk4-/
    Juergen Winkelmann's TK4- update to Volker's turnkey system.

    http://www.softdevlabs.com/hercgui.html
    Fish's Hercules GUI for Windows.
http://cbttape.org/~jmorrison/
    Jim Morrison's downloads (includes 3380 support for MVS 3.8!)
http://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules
    Jay Moseley's Hercules site - lots of Hercules and MVS information
http://www.tommysprinkle.com/mvs
    Tommy Sprinkle's MVS 3.8 documentation
http://hansen-family.com/mvs
    Bob Hansen's MVS 3.8 documentation

    http://www.clueful.co.uk/mbeattie/hercules/tso.html
    Malcolm Beattie's MVT/TSO documentation
http://www.ibiblio.org/jmaynard
    Jay Maynard's S/360 and S/370 public domain software archive

    http://www.shedlock.org/Shedlock/Hercules/index.html
    George Shedlock's archive of
    DOS/VS Release 34 and VM/370 software, books, and information

    http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/VM370.htm
    Dave Wade's VM/370 archive

    http://perso.wanadoo.es/rptv2005/en/index.html
    Rafael Pereira's Standalone Programs and 1401 simulator project
http://timpinkawa.net/hercules/
    Tim Pinkawa's Hercules Page
http://www.lightlink.com/mhp/2703/
    Max Parke's Hercules 2703 Page - TTY, TCAM, 3705 and more







If you have any questions or comments
 please consider joining the hercules-390 discussion group at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hercules-390.

Bug reports for the current release (together with your diagnosis of the fault, please)
may be posted at the hercules-390 discussion group.
Problems with the developer sandbox version should be entered
into the Hyperion issue tracker at

https://github.com/hercules-390/hyperion/issues.







IBM, System/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture are trademarks or
registered trademarks of IBM Corporation.
Other product names mentioned here are trademarks of other companies.



Last updated $Date$ $Revision$

