Re: Open files after programs ending

Otto,

In a message dated 9/7/99 2:01:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, hason@pbsvb.cz 
writes:

> Hello folks,
>  there is a curious issue in this version - we had never such problem in 
> previous verions:
>  There persist some open files after closing programs (don't know which) 
when 
> user is in main bpcs menu.
>  It is not regular - number of open files differs - we noticed it during 
> month-end close (INV901).
>  
>  Any experiences / suggestions ?

I have experienced and understand your problem, but I have not been able to 
pin down the specific programs causing it.  A simple explanation is that we 
are now experiencing on the AS/400 the same sorts of things that have been 
causing Windows GPF's for years.  In order to speed processing, some of the 
BPCS API's have been modified to perform a "return" rather than an "end 
program".  This leaves files open so that the resource-intensive process of 
opening them doesn't have to be performed every time the program is called.

Leaving files open in an API is a rather elegant solution -- right up to the 
point that programs calling the API never tell it to "end program" and close 
the files.  The problem is not in the API itself (I suspect the scheduling 
engine), but in the program that calls it and doesn't have API "shutdown" 
logic behind the F3 key.  The latter leaves files open even when the user has 
returned to the BPCS menu under V5+.  This problem gets worse when "custom" 
programs call the BPCS API's and the developers of these "custom" programs 
don't understand what the "shutdown" logic is for and don't use it.

The only advice that I can offer is to determine via WRKACTJOB or WRKOBJLCK 
which sessions are still in BPCS and end them prior to running INV901.  If 
you wish to take more absolute (and drastic) measures, you can perform an 
ENDSBS against all subsystems under which BPCS is allowed to run and start a 
month end subsystem with INV901 as an auto-start entry.  Personally, I prefer 
to keep an eye on things myself rather than performing a wholesale shutdown 
of a system...

HTH,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"What's real in politics is what the voters decide is real." -- Ben J. 
Wattenberg
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