Equivalent of DSPPGM and DSPSRVPGM using SQL part 2

At least once a day I use the Display Program command, DSPPGM, and the Display Service Program command, DSPSRVPGM, to look at the service programs and modules bound to ILE programs and service programs I am analyzing. While the command give me the information I need the latest Technical Refreshes, IBM i 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7, gives me another way to get the same information from two new SQL views:

1. BOUND_MODULE_INFO
2. BOUND_SRVPGM_INFO

In this post I am going to describe how I would use them to replace what I do with DSPPGM and DSPSRVPGM commands, and a few other pieces of information I have found that these Views make it easy for me to get to.

Equivalent of DSPPGM and DSPSRVPGM using SQL part 1

I am sure we are all familiar with the Display Program, DSPPGM, and with the Display Service Program commands, DSPSRVPGM as a way to get all sorts of information about the program or service program entered. My two biggest complaints about these commands are:

1. I can only get the information for one program at a time
2. The only output options offered are display or print, no output to file

With the latest Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7, there are a number of new Db2 for i, or SQL, Views to give me the same information I was getting from the commands.

In this post I will be describing two of these Views:

Using SQL to write to the job log

Another useful addition to IBM i with the latest round of Technical Refreshes, 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7, is a SQL function that allows you to write directly to the job's job log.

Why would I want to write to the job's job log?

I would use this to write to the job log when something I would expect to happen did not. Or as a record that some part of the program ran, and completed successfully or failed.

The syntax for this function could not be simpler:

CALL SYSTOOLS.LPRINTF(string or variable)

Data Queues using SQL

The latest Technical Refreshes, IBM i 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7, included four additions to SQL that allow us to do things with Data Queues.

In this post I will be describing how I would do things with data queues pre-the latest TRs and post. These are:

1. DATA_QUEUE_INFO view
2. CLEAR_DATA_QUEUE procedure
3. SEND_DATA_QUEUE procedures (there is more than one and I will describe the differences below)
4. RECEIVE_DATA_QUEUE table function

But, before I start describing any of the above I am going to need to have a data queue I can use. Here is a CL program I wrote to create my data queue:

developerWorks data to be moved to another IBM website

Last month I noticed a banner that appeared on the top of all the developerWorks pages notifying us that it was to be closed on December 31 2019.

This has alarmed many IBM i folks who have taken to social media asking what is to become of the valuable information contained within developerWorks?

Yesterday I noticed the following announcement from Barbara Morris, lead developer for the RPG compilers, in the RPG Cafe:

More SQL Table Functions for interrogating IFS

Last week I started writing about the new table functions introduced in IBM i 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7, describing the first of the four table functions that allow me to retrieve information about IFS directories and files. In this post I will describe the other three:

• IFS_OBJECT_LOCK_INFO
• IFS_JOB_INFO
• IFS_OBJECT_REFERENCES_INFO

 

New Performance FAQ released

A new IBM i on Power Performance FAQ was released yesterday, November 21 2019.

While you may not think there will be anything in it for you as you only program in RPG, there is a section for RPG and Cobol native I/O.

This is available as a PDF from IBM's website here.

Using SQL to list directories and files in IFS

Thanks to the folks at RZKH who downloaded and applied the PTFs for IBM i 7.4 TR1 on the first day they became available, what great service!, I have been able to explore some of the new features added to the operating system we know and love. Amongst the additions to Db2 for i, or SQL, is a number of table functions to list information about the directories and files in the Integrated File System, IFS. My original thought was to write one post about them all, but the more I played with the IFS_OBJECT_STATISTICS table function I came to the conclusion that it deserved its own post.

The IFS_OBJECT_STATISTICS table function returns similar information to the RTVDSKINF command. All I want is just some basic information about the directories and files I choose, but there are many more columns returned by the table function. I encourage you to check the link at the bottom of this post which will take you to the appropriate page in IBM's documentation.

In my folder, MyFolder, I have created the following files and subdirectories:

Technology Refresh release day

Today is the day the new Technology Refresh PTFs become available for download for the two most current releases of IBM i 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7.

I wrote about what is included in these TRs last month:

• Db2 for i enhancements
• RPG enhancements

What are the PTF numbers for the TRs?

Fortunately IBM has pages that have all this information, including links to download the PTFs:

Listing Server Authority users

When I wrote about securing DDM files I bemoaned the lack of a WRKSVRAUTE command. While ago I stumbled across a Db2 for i View that will display a list of all the users I with DDM server authority.

This view has one of the longest names I have used to date: DRDA_AUTHENTICATION_ENTRY_INFO, and it contains the following four columns:

Long column name	Short column name	Description
AUTORIZATION_NAME	USER_NAME	User profile
SERVER_NAME	SRVR_NAME	Target server for the authentication entry
SERVER_AUTHORIZATION_NAME	SRVR_USER	User profile on the target server
PASSWORD_STORED	PW_STORED	Is the password stored in the authentication entry?

Example of why using SQL can be better than RPG

Here is another example of using SQL can make your life easier, coping with a change of the key in file without having to change the program.

At work we are gradually moving all of the US based IBM i partitions from a PowerSystems model 720 to a brand new model 900. I always thought PowerSystems model 900s could only run IBM i 7.3 and 7.4, it turns out that it will also run IBM i 7.2 but a whole load of PTFs have to be loaded and applied when moving from an older model (that was probably not up to date with PTFs too). The moves have been pretty uneventful, apart a change that makes a process I wrote many years ago fail.

The file QA1ALG in library QUSRBRM has changed, a new timestamp field has been added and that is used to replace the existing date and time fields in the file's key:

The future for IBM i looks beyond 2030

The post I wrote last month about the developerWorks closing at the end of this year. This caused a flurry of messages asking me if this meant that this was the end of the "AS400" too.

This is NOT a signal that the end of IBM i is nigh. I have been at various user group meetings where folks from IBM have told us that they have plans for this operating system going many years into the future. They also share an image showing past and the planned future releases of IBM i. After a good deal of "googling" I found this image that was updated after the launch of IBM i 7.4 .