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TechTalk: Combating Pesky Command Lines

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Having a command line available is great. You can directly enter commands to start any task you wish without having to go through half a dozen menus. The need for command lines is so great that IBM created the QUSCMDLN API to satisfy this need--you can CALL the API from any of your own application programs and bingo--a window pops up, with a command line.

Not all users need command lines, however. And, what's more, some users should never get a command line for security reasons.

And yet, surely it would be to your users' advantage to gain access to the Work with Submitted Jobs (WRKSBMJOB) or Work with Spooled Files (WRKSPLF) panels, even though they provide a command line. Although you cannot disable the command line--it will always be there--you can limit what users can do with it. The key is the user profile's Limited Capabilities (LMTCPB) attribute.

Simply put, you can change a user profile to LMTCPB(*YES) if you don't want the user to be able to execute any OS/400 commands from it. You can perform this change from the Work with User Profiles

(WRKUSRPRF) panel, selecting option 2 to change. Once a user has LMTCPB(*YES), he can no longer execute any OS/400 commands from the command line, except these five: SIGNOFF, SNDMSG, DSPMSG, DSPJOB and DSPJOBLOG. All five are harmless. If you use PC Support, the STRPCO command will also be available to your users. If they attempt to run any other IBM-supplied command, the system will send an error message saying that the command is not allowed.

Warning! The Command Entry panel (CALL QCMD) blatantly ignores the LMTCPB attribute of the user. This means that you must not, under any circumstances, allow your users to gain access to the Command Entry panel unless they are system operators or programmers, or if you have retained the default LMTCPB(*NO) for the user.

Finally, a side issue. A user who has LMTCPB(*YES) will no longer be able to enter a program, menu or library name at the sign-on display. Since this is not common practice, it may not affect your shop. In any case, limited- capability users should be forced to go through an initial program (upon sign- on) that sets their work environment for them.

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