RE: Saving spool files! -- MIDRANGE-L

Shannon wrote ...

>mmm....I don't think so.   I'm capturing everything and restoring it, as
is.
>That is, if it's created as job TB01 by user MEUSER with job #, 456778,
then when
>I restore it, it will be placed back out there the same way.

I've tried... You may want to try again. When you restore the spool file it
retains all the attributes that are needed for printing, it retains the
userid, it retains the file name, it retains page width and length etc...
but the "original creation date" is the current time and the "job name"
associated with the restored file is the name of the job which was run to
restore it....

So if a user wants to find a restore spool file by date, they are out of
luck... 

If they want to find all the restored spool files associated with a
particular job, they are out of luck...

The reason why this happens is that when you save a "copy" of spool file via
the API's and then it gets deleted from the output queue the information for
the original job is removed from the Work Control Table. The job no longer
exists on the system when all the spool files are deleted, therefore the
restore of the spool file "copy" can't be associated with the original job
anymore. It has to be associated with something so it becomes a output file
for the restore job and is given a creation date that equals the current
date and time. 

This is all due to the fact that spool files are associated with jobs that
create them and are not objects themselves. All the API's do is save
"copies" of spool files, they don't save the original spool file.

What I wish IBM would do is to change how spool files defined to the system
and how they are saved. Instead of saving copies via API's define spool
files as objects (*SPLF for example). These objects could then be saved via
SAVOBJ, SAVLIB commands like any other object on the system. Object
information like the original job name and the original creation time could
be retained as *SPLF object attributes. API's could be created that would
access this information allowing a user to find restored spool files for
jobs that no longer exist on the system. 

Kenneth

--
********************************
       Kenneth  E.  Graap
    IBM Certified Specialist
          AS/400   Professional 
          System  Administrator
 NW Natural - Information Services
           System Services
        503 226 4211 X5537
          FAX  503 721 2521
      keg@nwnatural.com
********************************


-----Original Message-----
From: Shannon O'Donnell [mailto:ORION@auburnctnet.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 3:27 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Saving spool files!

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