• Let Me Out of Here!

  November 10, 2004 Hey, Ted

  Having read your article “Subprocedures: Better than Subroutines,” I have been inspired to use subroutines less and subprocedures more in RPG programs. However, I have come up against a problem that I can’t solve.

  

  In many of my programs I include a clean-up subroutine that runs when the program ends, whether the program ends normally or abnormally. The subroutine includes various house-keeping tasks, sets on the LR indicator, and executes a RETURN operation. You probably know what happens when I implement such a routine in a subprocedure. Instead of returning to the calling program, control returns to the calling routine

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• More Conditional Sorting with SQL

  November 10, 2004 Hey, Ted

  Your tip “Conditional Sorting with SQL” is one cool tip! May I add two more examples?

  

  My examples are in RPG, but I assume they will work with any language. In both examples, I use host variables to control the sort.

  Host variable SortOption controls the sort in the first example. If host variable SortOption has a value of 1, the data is retrieved in order by customer name. If two customers have the same name, they are retrieved in customer number sequence. If SortOption has any other value, the data is retrieved in customer number sequence.

  D SortOption      S              

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• A Different Perspective on WDSc

  November 3, 2004 Bruce Guetzkow

  If you’re using WebSphere Development Studio client to maintain iSeries source, you’re familiar with the Remote Systems Explorer perspective and its associated views. RSE lets you create filters to manage access to source members and other iSeries objects. If you work on more than one user request at a time, however, it may be difficult to keep track of which source members belong with a certain request. The iSeries Projects perspective helps by letting you organize source into projects and to develop even if you are not connected to your host iSeries.

  

  SETTING THE STAGE

  The iSeries Projects perspective allows

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• Qshell Logout Script

  November 3, 2004 Hey, Ted

  I know about the special scripts that run automatically when I begin a Qshell session. Is there a way to make Qshell run a script when I end a session?

  

  –Matt

  Qshell does not support an automatic logout script, but you can tell Qshell to run a script when the session ends by trapping the EXIT pseudo signal.

  Suppose you want to keep a log of your Qshell sessions. You might create an IFS file to contain the log information. The following command creates a file called qsh session history.

  touch 'qsh session history'
  

  Using the text editor of

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• Admin Alert: Safely Deleting a User Profile

  November 3, 2004 Joe Hertvik

  As employees leave a company, many administrators disable their OS/400 user profiles, rather than deleting them, because the profiles may own critical system objects, may be used in regularly scheduled batch jobs, or may be group profiles that others depend on. Disabling terminated profiles is common practice because there isn’t an easy way to discover which objects a profile affects, so administrators generally believe it’s better to play it safe and keep an old user profile.

  

  To help remedy this situation, I offer the following checklist for deleting terminated user profiles instead of disabling them. By following this checklist, you

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• Sending E-Mail from RPG, Take Two

  October 27, 2004 Hey, David

  The code for this article is available for download.

  

  Is there a continuation article to “Sending E-Mail from RPG” from last May? It was a really good article, but I’m not sure I can make modifications to be able to send e-mail with attachments. My problem is in the RPG program. I don’t know how to declare the prototype for the DataSource object (attachments). Could you please help or refer me to an article I could read?

  –Ana

  Your question points out that I could have made the Mailer Java class more RPG friendly. Although it is possible to

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• Spool Control Authority Is a Security Risk

  October 27, 2004 Hey, Wayne O

  I gave many of our users spool control special authority (*SPLCTL) so they can view their reports and start print writers. Our auditor says spool control authority is a security exposure and should be removed from user profiles, including the user profiles of system operators. I do not want to disrupt our users, so I have not removed *SPLCTL. Can I safely remove it from user profiles?

  

  –John

  Thanks for your note. It gives me an opportunity to discuss a security problem that I see in about nine out of 10 installations. I want to be very clear on this

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• Monitoring for System Request Menu Option 2

  October 27, 2004 Hey, Ted

  As part of our Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements, I have to write a CL program that temporarily changes the user’s user profile. (Adopted authority is not appropriate in this case.) One concern I have is that the program may end without executing the code that undoes the temporary change. I can use a global Monitor Message (MONMSG) command to trap unexpected errors and prevent an abnormal termination, but I also need to prevent the user from canceling the program by taking option 2 of the System Request menu. Is there a way to disable that option?

  

  –Paul

  The options that are

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• Prolong the FTP Experience

  October 20, 2004 Hey, Ted

  When I log in to our iSeries system through an FTP client, a message informs me that my connection will close if it remains idle for more than five minutes. Sometimes I have several tasks to perform between FTP commands, and the system times me out. Can I increase the time-out setting?

  

  –Doug

  The FTP server controls the inactivity time-out. The default setting for this value is 300 seconds, but it can be changed with the Change FTP Attributes (CHGFTPA) command. Since you’re working from the client side, you can change the timeout interval for your session by running the

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• Presenting the CHGATR Command

  October 20, 2004 Hey, Ted

  I had a similar problem to Jim’s in “Wanted: Qshell Output in ASCII.” Qshell was building EBCDIC files, but he wanted them in ASCII. In my case, a “Wintel” machine’s FTP client was putting ASCII files in the Integrated File System, but I preferred EBCDIC files. I found a CL command that solved my problem.

  

  I used the Change Attributes (CHGATR) command. This command, which was introduced in V5R1, can change the CCSID of a file. I used commands like the following to change files from CCSID 819 (the CCSID they were assigned when they were created during an FTP

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