RE: Print an IFS file

I can think of a more effective way. If they DON'T work then email you.
It's called "exception reporting". Ask yourself this: "What actions get
me concerned?". For example, an IFS file that does not have today's date
as the last changed may indicate the process either didn't run, or blew
up. Then, if it does have the right date, but carries content like "oh
crud" then you know that an action is necessary. So if you can find a
method that will determine that, and upon so, alert you, then write the
check.

Sure, I can look at DSPMSG QSYSMSG for critical messages every morning.
However I can't recall the last time I did a DSPMSG just to look at my own
messages. Instead we have a product that we use that monitors that. If
it's a hardware message, alert my cell phone. If it's a wireless scanner
that got varied off because of too many invalid sign on's then vary it on
again up to three times. (Three vary on's times three invalid sign on
attempts gives them 9 tries.) It's amazing what some of these products
can do.

Which brings us to the next step in evolution. After you answer the
question "What actions get me concerned?", then you move on to "What
counter actions do I take based on these actions?". Perhaps the solution
can go so far as to say "If job XYZ500 is stuck in MSGW in QBATCH because
of a record lock then kill the locking job and retry." if so, write the
check. Since you wear many hats perhaps you have other things of concern,
like if I socket over to my refrigerator and it's above 0F then I'd better
page Joe the maintenance man, if it's stays that way for two hours, a
backup person.

Common vendors include:
byteware's Messenger Plus
LXI :-(
Robot
etc.


Rob Berendt