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TechTalk: RTGDTA and RQSDTA in Job Descriptions

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From: Charley Shanks To: All

I've been working with job descriptions, and I'm confused about the purpose of a couple of parameters: RTGDTA and RQSDTA or CMD. Why (or how) would these parameters ever be used?

From: Pete Hall To: Charley Shanks

The routing data (RTGDTA) is data that's compared with the subsystem's routing entries when a job is initiated, to determine what the routing program (a program that is run prior to any other programs a job calls) will be. It's usually QCMDx, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. You can get a feel for it if you display one of your subsystem descriptions and look at the routing entries.

The RQSDTA and CMD parameters are where you specify your command to execute. On the S/38 there was only RQSDTA. RQSDTA is still available for the same purpose, and has one advantage: it is a text string. You can use it the same way you would use QCMDEXC if you wanted to execute a text string in line, except you're submitting it. It's extremely useful if you need to submit a command with optional parameters, and you don't know which ones are used until execution time. You just construct your command by concatenating all the pieces into a variable, and then specify RQSDTA(&CMDTXT). Works great. If you specify your own routing program, I think you can also use this parameter to pass data to it, because the value is placed in the job log and can therefore be retrieved from the job's *EXT message queue.

From: Charley Shanks To: Pete Hall

Thanks. I still don't understand why you would ever want to change the routing entry. Smoke and mirrors.

From: James Coolbaugh To: Charley Shanks

Routing entries can be useful for setting certain jobs to different priorities within the same subsystem. They can also be used for validation of requests prior to execution of the request. I know of one such implementation; if a specific routing entry was encountered, a program was called that would interrogate the request. If the program was a compile, the routing entry would open the source member to retrieve any special compile options and tack them onto the request--all before the command was ever executed.

Normally, however, you don't have to worry about the routing entries. However, under certain conditions, there are valid reasons for changing a routing entry.

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