23
Sat, Nov
1 New Articles

Don't Lose Important Comments

General
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Perhaps you felt cheated the last time you looked at a job log. One program produced incorrect results, so you decided to look at the job log. At one point, a CL program called another program. You hoped to catch the value of an important parameter, but all you got from the job log was something like Figure 1.

That’s not very helpful, is it? The job log does not reveal any of the parameters. By the same token, the job log doesn’t show the values of variables in CHGVARs or IFs; in fact, the job log doesn’t record such statements at all. The only way to force a variable to appear in a job log is to run a command that uses the variable—any command other than CALL, CHGVAR, or IF. And CL comments don’t show up either.

That’s why I decided to create a command that, to put it bluntly, does nothing. Its main purpose is to force the job log to display variable data. As you’ll see in Figure 2, however, this “nothing” is highly valuable. What I did was code a COMMENT command immediately before the CALL. The COMMENT command looked like this: When the system reaches the COMMENT command, it evaluates the variable and resolves the TEXT parameter by concatenating its components.

The COMMENT Command

COMMENT (Figure 3) has two parameters. The first parameter, TEXT, is where you enter whatever you want to write into the job log. You can enter up to 512 characters of text, and you can use any combination of literals, variables, %SST expressions, and concatenations you want. The only limitation is imposed by the maximum length of 512 characters.

The second parameter tells COMMENT what to do with the resulting text. By default, it does nothing with it besides writing it to the job log. But you can force COMMENT to send that text as a message: *STATUS so it appears as a status message,

COMMENT TEXT(‘Parameter =’ *BCAT &DATA) MSGOPT(*NONE)

*USER to send the text as a message to the user running the job, *WRKSTN to send it to the workstation, or *SYSOPR to send it to the system operator, QSYSOPR.

At first, I wrote COMMENT with only one parameter, TEXT. It was simple, and the command processing program (CPP) was simple indeed (Figure 4) because it contained no executable statements. In fact, it had only the PGM and ENDPGM statements and a DCL for the TEXT parameter. To accommodate the MSGOPT parameter, however, I had to insert code, which you can see in Figure 4.

If you select MSGOPT(*STATUS), the program sends the text as a *STATUS message to *EXT (the job’s external program message queue). If the job is running interactively, that message appears at the bottom of the screen, in high intensity.

If you select *USER, the program gets the name of the current user by running the Retrieve Job Attributes (RTVJOBA) command and then runs the Send Message (SNDMSG) command to send the message to the current user’s message queue. The user can then look at the message with the Display Message (DSPMSG) command.

The value *WRKSTN works a bit differently. RTVJOBA gets the name of the current workstation as the job name and then uses SNDMSG to send the message to that particular message queue. Batch jobs, however, have no workstation attached, so SNDMSG fails; in that case, the message is sent to QSYSOPR.

*SYSOPR directs the message straight to QSYSOPR. Of course, if you selected *NONE, none of the conditions in the IF statements are satisfied, so no messages are sent anywhere.

Other Uses

Using COMMENT is very safe because you can write anything you want to the job log without executing any commands that do anything at all. But writing to the job log is not the only purpose of COMMENT, although it is an important one. You can also use it to alert users when a program reaches an important part of your program, taking advantage of the various “do something” options of the MSGOPT parameter. Finally, you can also use COMMENT instead of the normal comments you use in your CL programs, so you don’t have to mess with /* and */ symbols.

Display All Messages

System: MCRISC

Job . . : QPADEV0008 User . . : MALAGA Number . . . : 043011

> call x

600 - CALL PGM(XXX) /* The CALL command contains parameters */

- RETURN /* RETURN due to end of CL program */

- RETURN /* RETURN due to end of CL program */

> dspjoblog

Bottom

Press Enter to continue.

F3= Exit F5=Refresh F12=Cancel F17=Top F18=Bottom

Display All Messages

System: MCRISC

Job . . : QPADEV0008 User . . : MALAGA Number . . . : 043011

> call x

500 - COMMENT TEXT(‘Parameter = HERVE’) MSGOPT(*NONE)

Figure 1: Typical, unhelpful job log

5700 - RETURN

600 - CALL PGM(XXX) /* The CALL command contains parameters */

- RETURN /* RETURN due to end of CL program */

- RETURN /* RETURN due to end of CL program */

> dspjoblog

Bottom

Press Enter to continue.

F3= Exit F5=Refresh F12=Cancel F17=Top F18=Bottom /*===================================================================*/

/* To compile: */
/* */

/* CRTCMD CMD(XXX/COMMENT) PGM(XXX/COM001CL) + */
/* SRCFILE(XXX/QCMDSRC) TEXT(‘CL Program + */
/* Comment’) */
/* */

/*===================================================================*/

CMD PROMPT(‘CL Program Comment’)

PARM KWD(TEXT) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(512) EXPR(*YES) +

PROMPT(‘Comment text’)

PARM KWD(MSGOPT) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(7) RSTD(*YES) +

DFT(*NONE) VALUES(*NONE *STATUS *USER +

*WRKSTN *SYSOPR) PROMPT(‘Message option’) /*===================================================================*/

/* To compile: */
/* */

/* CRTCLPGM PGM(XXX/COM001CL) SRCFILE(XXX/QCLSRC) + */
/* TEXT(‘CPP for COMMENT command’) */
/* */

/* Prerequisite: */
/* */

/* Utility command FWDPGMMSG. */
/* */

/*===================================================================*/

PGM PARM(&TEXT &MSGOPT)

DCL VAR(&MSGOPT) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(7)
DCL VAR(&TEXT) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(512)
DCL VAR(&USER) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(10)
DCL VAR(&WRKSTN) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(10)

MONMSG MSGID(CPF0000 MCH0000) EXEC(GOTO CMDLBL(ERROR))

/* Send as a status message */

IF COND(&MSGOPT *EQ ‘*STATUS’) THEN(DO)

SNDPGMMSG MSGID(CPF9897) MSGF(QCPFMSG) MSGDTA(&TEXT) +

TOPGMQ(*EXT) MSGTYPE(*STATUS)

ENDDO

/* Send message to user profile */

ELSE CMD(IF COND(&MSGOPT *EQ ‘*USER’) THEN(DO))

RTVJOBA USER(&USER)
SNDMSG MSG(&TEXT) TOUSR(&USER) MSGTYPE(*INFO)

ENDDO

/* Send message to workstation */

ELSE CMD(IF COND(&MSGOPT *EQ ‘*WRKSTN’) THEN(DO))

RTVJOBA JOB(&WRKSTN)
SNDMSG MSG(&TEXT) TOMSGQ(&WRKSTN) MSGTYPE(*INFO)

/* If message queue not found, send to QSYSOPR */

MONMSG MSGID(CPF0000) EXEC(DO)

SNDMSG MSG(&TEXT) TOUSR(*SYSOPR) MSGTYPE(*INFO)

ENDDO

ENDDO

/* Send message to QSYSOPR */

ELSE CMD(IF COND(&MSGOPT *EQ ‘*SYSOPR’) THEN(DO))

Figure 2: Job log augmented with a COMMENT

Figure 3: Command COMMENT

SNDMSG MSG(&TEXT) TOUSR(*SYSOPR) MSGTYPE(*INFO)

ENDDO

RETURN

ERROR:

FWDPGMMSG

MONMSG MSGID(CPF0000)

ENDPGM

Figure 4: CL program COM001CL

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: