The OS/400 Display Spooled File (DSPSPLF) command is a convenient way to display and browse through reports at your workstation. You probably use this command often through option 5 of the Work with Spooled Files panel. Although useful, the command makes it difficult to interpret the reports or visualize what they truly look like since it removes all blank lines caused by skipping or spacing.
With the Display Print Spacing (DSPPRTSPC) command found in the QUSRTOOL library, you can display a copy of the spool file, including spacing directives to help you envision the printed output. Spacing requests appear as blank lines. Page skip requests are formatted as control lines that begin with a series of asterisks in column 1, followed by a skip to or skip from/to description as illustrated in 1.
With the Display Print Spacing (DSPPRTSPC) command found in the QUSRTOOL library, you can display a copy of the spool file, including spacing directives to help you envision the printed output. Spacing requests appear as blank lines. Page skip requests are formatted as control lines that begin with a series of asterisks in column 1, followed by a skip to or skip from/to description as illustrated in Figure 1.
A typical use for DSPPRTSPC would be in a development environment where a programmer wants to see what a report looks like without having to print it.
Required Parameters
FILE
Specify the name of the spool file that is to be displayed.
Optional Parameters
JOB
Specify the simple job name or the qualified name of the job that produced the spool file. The possible job name values are:
*: The job that executed the DSPPRTSPC command is the job that created the spool file.
job-name: Specify the name of the job that created the spool file.
user-name: Specify the name of the user of the job that created the spool file.
job-number: Specify the number of the job that created the spool file.
SPLNBR
Specify the number of the job's spool file.
*LAST: The most recently created spool file for the job identified in JOB is displayed.
*ONLY: Only one spool file in the job has the name specified in FILE.
spool-file-number: Supply the number of the spool file.
FIRSTLINE
Specify up to 132 bytes of data to be printed as a comment on the first line of the output.
*NONE: No comment is printed on the first line of the output.
comment: A comment is printed on the first line of the output.
Example
DSPPRTSPC FILE(QSYSPRT) JOB(*)
This command displays the most recently created spool file for the job in which the command is executed. The name of the spool file is QSYSPRT.
Source Members
INFO: DSPPRTSPC (QATTINFO) CDO: TAAPRTE (QATTCMD) CPP: TAAPRTEC (QATTCL) RPG: TAAPRTER (QATTRPG)
The foregoing article was adapted from Midrange Computing's QUSRTOOL Command Reference. The manual contains explanations and syntax diagrams for more than 300 obscure yet useful tools.
The Display Print Spacing (DSPPRTSPC) Command
Figure 1 How DSPPRTSPC Displays Report Skipping
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