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Resubmitting DCL and batch failures?

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The Question is:

 
Dear Wizard,
 
I have batch job that runs from approximately 8:00am to 8:00pm daily that
 collects Monitor performance statistics. Before shutting down for the night,
 it resubmits itself for the following day.
 
Occasionally (perhaps 1 out of 20 days), the job fails to restart the next
 morning. The log file says only this:
 
Error opening primary input file SYS$INPUT
File not found
  KING job terminated at 1-JUN-2000 07:57:25.95
 
I'm not sure what this error means. It doesn't have a standard error format and
 the .COM file it is trying to run looks fine.
 
Any thoughts?
 
Thanks
 
Kevin King
 
 
 

The Answer is :

 
 
  The:
 
Error opening primary input file SYS$INPUT
File not found
 
  error means precisely what it says. The batch procedure was not found.
 
  The most likely cause for this error is that someone (perhaps youself)
  has editted the command procedure and purged away the old version.
 
  When you submit a batch job, the queue manager remembers the exact file
  which was submitted, using the File ID (FID), NOT the name. This is a
  security feature to ensure that only the file which was submitted will
  run. So even if there is a procedure with the same name (even the same
  version number) as the originally submitted procedure, if the original
  file has been deleted, the job will fail and the above message written
  tothe log file. If you modify the procedure, you will have to delete the
  existing batch queue entry and resubmit the new procedure.
 
  For jobs which resubmit themselves, you may want to be able to modify
  the procedure and have the new version used the next time the job is
  submitted. The following DCL will submit the latest version of the
  currently executing procedure to execute at 8am the following day:
 
  $ ThisProcedure=F$ELEMENT(0,";",F$ENVIRONMENT("PROCEDURE"))
  $ SUBMIT/AFTER="TOMORROW+0-8:00" -
       'ThisProcedure' -
       /PARAM=("''p1'","''p2'","''p3'","''p4'",-
    	       "''p5'","''p6'","''p7'","''p8'")
 
  Another solution variation possible involves submitting a stub DCL
  command procedure, a procedure which invokes the "real" procedure and
  that also resubmits itself.  The contents of this "stub" procedure are
  deliberately kept simple, and are thus not modified.  The "real" DCL
  procedure can be modified, and the most current version will be invoked
  when the batch job -- the stub procedure -- runs.
 

  

     

     
answer written or last revised on ( 6-JUN-2000 )
     
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