iCan Blog Archive

This week, I’m going to share a super-secret enhancement in the 7.3 release.  The Display Job Log (DSPJOBLOG) command was enhanced with two new parameters: MSGF and DUPJOBOPT.

Display Job Log (DSPJOBLOG)                
Type choices, press Enter.                                                                                                                                    
Job name . . . . . . . . . . . .   *_________    Name, *                      
User . . . . . . . . . . . . .     __________  Name                         
   Number . . . . . . . . . . . .     ______      000000-999999                
Output . . . . . . . . . . . . .   *_______      *, *PRINT, *APIDFN, *OUTFILE 
 File to receive output . . . . .   __________    Name                         
   Library  . . . . . . . . . . .     *LIBL_____  Name, *LIBL, *CURLIB         
 Output member options:                                                        
   Member to receive output . . .   *FIRST____    Name, *FIRST                 
   Replace or add records . . . .   *REPLACE      *REPLACE, *ADD               
 Message file . . . . . . . . . .   *MSG_         *MSG, *LIBL                                                                                               
                            Additional Parameters                                                                                                     Duplicate job option . . . . . .   *SELECT       *SELECT, *MSG                

Duplicate Job Option (DUPJOBOPT) Parameter
The duplicate job option parameter will allow you to select one job when there are several jobs with the same job name.  It is the same parameter that is on many other job commands.

Message File (MSGF) Parameter

Multiple languages are supported on a single IBM i system with language libraries for each secondary language.  The secondary language library is placed ahead of QSYS in the library list to use the other language.  The secondary language library contains message files with translated operating system message descriptions.

The message file parameter was added to allow users on multilingual systems to view most operating system messages for other jobs in their language.  When messages are formatted for display job log many of the current user’s job attributes such as date format and date separator are used.  But prior to release 7.3 the message description used to format the message came from the message file found when the message was sent.  The default value MSGF(*MSG) directs DSPJOBLOG to continue to use the message file found when the message was sent.  The user’s current library list is searched to find the message file when MSGF(*LIBL) is used. 

In this example, the system operator is using the QSYS2931 library containing Spanish language objects.  

This is what the system operator is seeing for his job on device WS2931:

DawnMayImage1.jpg

When we look at his joblog from our job using a primary English language this is how it looks with the different parameters:

> DSPJOBLOG JOB(WS2931) MSGF(*MSG)  
DawnMayImage2.jpg
> DSPJOBLOG JOB(WS2931) MSGF(*LIBL) 
DawnMayImage3.jpg

Work with Job option 10 (display job log) will use the current library list to find the message file.

This week’s blog was written by Mike Russel, who works on the IBM i work management team.  Thanks Mike!

This blog post was originally published on IBMSystemsMag.com and is reproduced here by permission of IBM Systems Media.