I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all of the GREAT information. My problem was "general" knowledge of service programs but not "detail" knowledge which you have all provided. And yes, I knew that LVLCHK(*NO) was a bad thing (although I didn't know exactly why) but sometimes you have to work with what you are given and that is what I was given. ☹
Now that I understand how a service program is loaded into the activation group, I understand why changing it and calling it from the same session did not give me my expected results. However, if I log of and back on an run it again, I do get the expected results which was the piece that I was missing. I also now understand how I can call the service program, delete it, and it still work until I log off. That one really confused me. 😊
I will say that while this is a nice feature, it sure makes it a pain to debug and fix a service program.
Again, many thanks to all.
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Mark Waterbury
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2019 9:34 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Changing a service program
Hi, Vern,
When "P" gets activated into any AG in your job, at that time, it 'resolves' to the address of "S" and also resolves pointers to any procedures (entry points) in that *SRVPGM. Those pointers are now loaded in the "working storage" of "P" ... in its AG.
Hence, when you recompile "S" if "P" is already activated, those copies still have pointers to the old "S" (now in QRPLOBJ).
You can sign-off and sign-on or issue RRTJOB to "clean up" all AGs and reset the job to the way it was when you first signed on.
Hope that helps,
Mark S. Waterbury
On Sunday, November 17, 2019, 9:18:02 AM EST, Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Joep
I think the same thing is done with P as with S - IF it is in use when it is recreated. That's been my understanding, that objects can be recreated without interrupting work - but the work will use the object before it was changed.
So the job using program P would still not see the new S, since it is still using the old P.
Now someone who knows better than I can straighten me out, please!!
Regards
Vern
On 11/17/2019 7:44 AM, Joep Beckeringh via MIDRANGE-L wrote:
When I think I understand something about RPG and Barbara claims she
doesn't, it is time to start worrying :-)
This is how I understand it:
- When program P, which uses service program S, is activated, S is
located and P receives pointers to the procedures it uses;
- When service program S is recreated, the old version is moved to
QRPLOBJ; P keeps the pointers to the old version in QRPLOBJ; thus it
doesn't "see" the new version;
- When program P is recreated and activated, S is located and so the
new P receives pointers to the new S; and thus it "sees" the new version.
Am I wrong in my understanding?
Joep Beckeringh
Op 16-11-2019 om 14:17 schreef Barbara Morris:
On 2019-11-15 10:01 p.m., smith5646midrange@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
...
What I still don't understand is that I didn't add or remove any
procedures. I only modified the code within an existing one but the
changes won't execute until I recompile the program. I thought the
idea of a service program is that you could make changes (if you
found a bug for example) and not have to recompile everything that
used it because it would automatically pick up the new version. Is
there a restriction that if you change an existing function that you
have to recompile all of the calling programs?
I also thought the service program was not bound into the program
(like a module would be) but when I deleted the service program, the
program still ran.
...
When a service program has been used in an activation group, the
activation group "remembers" the service program. If you change the
service program, the change won't be noticed by anything in the
activation group. (It might be "anything already in the activation
group, which would explain why recompiling the program made it see
the new version of the srvpgm, but I don't really understand how that
aspect of activation groups works.)
When you change a service program, you _could_ (but shouldn't)
reclaim the activation group. I say "shouldn't" because reclaiming
activation groups can sometimes cause strange problems if other
activation groups have hooks into the reclaimed one.
So I find it's safer, and easier in the long run, to just sign off
and sign back on again.
--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit:
https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at
https://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related questions.
Help support midrange.com by shopping at amazon.com with our affiliate link:
https://amazon.midrange.com
--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit:
https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at
https://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related questions.
Help support midrange.com by shopping at amazon.com with our affiliate link:
https://amazon.midrange.com
midrange.com
