HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Introducing the Native Mode Spooler by Thomas McNeal Commercial Systems Division With this release of MPE XL, the Compatibility Mode (CM) spooler (SPOOL is an acronym for Simultaneous Peripheral Operation On-Line) has been replaced by a Native Mode (NM) spooler. The functions provided by the CM Spooler and the SPOOK utility have been integrated into the MPE XL file system and Command Interface (CI). Consequently, SPOOK is no longer included, but will remain as a supported utility for all MPE V/E and pre-2.1 MPE XL releases. Spoolfiles are now permanent, recoverable disk files handled by the NM file system. A new account, called HPSPOOL, has been created to handle spoolfiles and spooler processes. Each spooled device is now managed by a separate spooler process. The device may be identified by a logical device number (LDEV), or by an optional device name, which is an alphanumeric string of up to 8 characters. In addition, a device class may define a related set of devices, allowing operations to be performed on this set with a single command. The commands previously available within SPOOK are replaced by modifications to the existing CI, or by separate utilities. Modifications to the CI include extensions to existing commands and additional commands. Three new commands (LISTSPF, SPOOLER, SPOOLF) and two new utilities (SPFXFER, PRINTSPF) are being introduced. LISTSPF lists out spoolfiles, SPOOLER controls the spooler process, and SPOOLF alters spoolfile characteristics. SPFXFER allows spoolfile transfer to the CM spooler, and PRINTSPF emulates the "mode c=on" command found in SPOOK. Any previously existing disk file utilities, such as FCOPY, STORE/RESTORE, or text editors, can now manipulate spoolfiles. SPOOLFILES AND THE HPSPOOL ACCOUNT NM Spoolfiles have been created in this release in conjunction with the NM Spooler. Their implementation is compatible with the MPE V/E Spooler Block Format. As standard disk files, they will have the same file size limit (2 Gbytes), and may be opened via their UFID as well as with their name. Input spoolfiles (file code 1515) are privileged files (protected by file privilege level 2) created explicitly by the :STREAM command, by the input spooler, or by a call to HPFOPEN. The call to HPFOPEN must be privileged, and must designate the input spoolfile code when creating the spoolfile. If no file code is given, HPFOPEN will create an output spoolfile. Output spoolfiles (file code 1516) may be either user or privileged files, and are created when a job directs output to a spooled device. They may also be explicitly created by using the :BUILD command, or by calling HPFOPEN (or FOPEN), with the spoolfile type and the NEW or CREATE option. Checkpoint spoolfiles (file code 1517) are companion files to output spoolfiles, allowing the spooler to recover gracefully from spooled device errors. At least one checkpoint spoolfile will be created for each output spoolfile. If the spoolfile is being sent to more than one device, then a checkpoint file for each device will be created. A new account will be created (as part of the FOS installation) to contain input and output spoolfiles. As required by the MPE XL accounting structure, an account manager, MGR.HPSPOOL will also be created, but it should never be necessary to log onto this account. Passwords should be created for this account manager, since any user who manages to log on with MGR.HPSPOOL will have unlimited access to all non-private files in the account. SPOOLFILE TRANSFER The user may transport non-private output spoolfiles between XL Release 2.1 systems with STORE/RESTORE. When restoring spoolfiles into the HPSPOOL account, the output spoolfiles are automatically linked into the output spoolfile directory (SPFDIR). Alternatively, since the ;PURGE option of STORE is supported for spoolfiles, an output spoolfile is deleted from the output SPFDIR and purged from the system when storing the file with this option. For transporting spoolfiles between XL Release 2.1 systems and earlier systems, a utility program called SPFXFER has been created. It allows spoolfile transferral between any MPE XL or MPE V/E system (with the exception of MPE V/E spooler releases prior to G.02.B0; for those releases, SPOOK will not be able to read SPFXFER tapes). The SPFXFER utility can create SPOOK readable tapes, and can read tapes created by SPOOK, including those created by releases prior to G.02.B0. The SPFXFER utility writes NM Spoolfiles to tape in a format which can be read by the SPOOK utility on MPE V/E (for release G.02.B0 and after) and all pre-2.1 release MPE XL systems. The utility can read OUTPUT tapes created by SPOOK on any release of MPE V/E and pre-2.1 MPE XL system. SPFXFER may also be used to transport output spoolfiles between XL Release 2.1 systems, but the preferred method for this situation is to use STORE/RESTORE. COMPATIBLE FEATURES Spoolfile security remains compatible with security implemented on MPE V/E and on MPE XL (with the CM Spooler). The concept of Private spoolfiles has been developed to protect both input spoolfiles (which are all private) and sensitive output spoolfiles (which can be designated as private in the :JOB command or the :FILE command). Spoolfiles are still handled by spooler processes identified with particular spooled devices. Two new directories, called the spoolfile directories, or SPFDIR, will manage the spoolfiles contained in the IN.HPSPOOL and OUT.HPSPOOL groups. All spoolfiles will now be identified by a SPOOLID, rather than a DFID. The SPOOLID will be used in the same manner as a DFID, which means it will be displayed as a number following the letter "I" or "O", and should be used with the :ALTSPOOLFILE and :DELETESPOOLFILE commands. However, DFIDs will not disappear, since they will be used to manage non-spooled devices. LOG RECORD CHANGES The CM Spooler log record, identified by log event 108, has been replaced by a new log record for the Native Mode Spooler. Log even 120 will identify the new log record. The new log event must be enabled if spoolfile printing is to be logged. Enabling event 108 will have no effect. The version of LOGTOOL released with this MPE XL release will support log event 120. If you are using any other log file reduction tool, you should verify that the tool supports the new log record and event. For a more complete discussion of the Native Mode Spooler features, including CI command syntax, Spooler utility program syntax, and a definition of Private spoolfiles, refer to the related article in the "Technical Articles" section in this Communicator.