Make tool

I don't know if this is proper place to announce but since it involves a
Make tool that is used for compiling RPG, here goes. 

 

I have posted on http://www.think400.dk/downloads.htm a free Make tool
for creating objects on the AS/400. You will find it at the top under
Compile. The utility works with PDM, WDSC or Command line. 

 

Here is short write-up by Scott Kelment from Iseries Tech Programming
Tips Newsletter. Much longer and detailed instructions on how to set and
us on the Think400 site. 

 

 

One of the most common things that iSeries developers struggle with is
remembering the exact procedure required to create objects from source
code. The various create commands (e.g., CRTBNDxxx, CRTxxxPGM,
CRTxxxMOD, CRTDSPF, CRTPNLGRP, CRTPF, CRTLF, CRTPRTF, etc.) have lots of
options that can be specified, and you have to remember to respecify
them if you want to re-create the object in the future.

To help solve this problem, Alan Campin created a utility named Compile.

Alan's utility works by reading source members and looking for comments
that begin with the _> characters. For example, to compile an ILE RPG
program, I might insert into the program a comment that looks like this:

      *_> CRTBNDRPG PGM(@5/@4) SRCFILE(@2/@1) SRCMBR(@3) DBGVIEW(*LIST)

The Compile utility finds this comment in my program (by looking for the
_> characters) and runs the CRTBNDRPG command. Wherever you see markers
that look like "@1", they are replaced by substitution data when the
command is run. Here's a list of the substitution variables and what
they're replaced with:

     @1 = Source file
     @2 = Source file library
     @3 = Source member
     @4 = Compiled object name
     @5 = Compiled object library
     @6 = Optimize (for OPM objects) *YES or *NO
     @7 = Object owner
     @8 = Optimize (for ILE objects) *NONE, *BASIC or *FULL
     @9 = ILE debug view

When the time comes to compile my RPG program (from the preceding
example), I can run the following command:

COMPILE OBJ(mylib/mypgm) SRCFILE(mylib/QRPGLESRC) SRCMBR(mymbr)

The Compile utility uses the OBJ, SRCFILE, and SRCMBR values that I
specify to run the CRTBNDRPG command that I put in the program's
comments.

You can use the same technique to compile all sorts of different
objects. Here's sample code that you might insert at the top of the
source code for a print file. Because the CRTPRTF command has many
parameters that you need to specify, being able to specify them in the
source code is particularly handy:

      *_> DLTF FILE(@5/@4)
      *_> CRTPRTF FILE(@5/@4) SRCFILE(@2/@1) SRCMBR(@3) +
      *_>           PAGESIZE(71 132) LPI(6) CPI(10) +
      *_>           OVRFLW(70) SPOOL(*YES) OUTQ(*JOB) +
      *_>           FORMTYPE(*STD    ) MAXRCDS(*NOMAX) +
      *_>           HOLD(*NO) SAVE(*YES) USRDTA('RUNS_Err')

In this example, the Compile utility first runs the DLTF command to
delete the print file. It then runs the CRTPRTF command to create the
object with particular settings.

The ability to specify more than one command is also helpful when you
need to perform an override before compiling a program. For example:

      *_> CNLLSTSPLF SRCFILE(@2/@1) SRCMBR(@3)
      *_> DLTPGM PGM(@5/@4)
      *_> OVRDBF FILE(FILEXYZ) +
      *_>   TOFILE(LIBABC/FILEABC) +
      *_>   OVRSCOPE(*JOB) +
      *_>   SHARE(*YES) +
      *_>  OPNSCOPE(*JOB)
      *_> CRTRPGPGM  PGM(@5/@4) +
      *_>   SRCFILE(@2/@1) SRCMBR(@3)

This example runs the Cancel Last Spooled File (CNLLSTSPLF) command,
which is included with the Compile utility, to delete any previous
compile listings. It then deletes the program object if it already
exists, runs the Override with Data Base File (OVRDBF) command, and
finally compiles the program with the Create RPG/400 Program (CRTRPGPGM)
command.

Alan's utility works nicely from the command line (as shown here), but
it's also easy to integrate with both the Programming Development
Manager (PDM) and WebSphere Development Studio client (WDSc)
environments. The utility comes with a Microsoft Word document that
explains how to use the utility in all these environments.