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The API Corner: Module, Module, Who's Got My Module?

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It's time you learned how to use the List Service Program Information (QBNLSPGM) API.

 

A recent article of mine in iApplication Designer, "V6R1 CL: The Story Continues," prompted the following note from reader David S.: "I enjoyed your article on V6R1 (6.1) CL. One of the enhancements you mentioned reminded me of a question I have had for some time... [about] CL and RPG modules. If I change and recompile a module (the module may be used in multiple programs), how do I find which programs need to be updated/re-created to include the new module? Does 6.1 CL/RPG help with this?"

 

Unfortunately, 6.1 does not help in this specific area, but David's note did inspire me to provide a practical demonstration of how to use two types of APIs. The APIs are List and Open List, areas that we haven't talked about in this column yet. For the next several columns, we'll be developing an application that will find all of the places a module has been bound into a *SRVPGM or *PGM.

 

As we need to start somewhere, we will start with the List Service Program Information (QBNLSPGM) API, which is documented here. The QBNLSPGM API returns information about *SRVPGMs, similar to what is returned by the Display Service Program (DSPSRVPGM) command. In particular, the API can return information concerning what *MODULEs are bound into the *SRVPGM. The API takes four parameters:

 

Required Parameter Group:

1

Qualified user space name

Input

Char(20)

2

Format name

Input

Char(8)

3

Qualified service program name

Input

Char(20)

4

Error code

I/O

Char(*)


  Default Public Authority: *USE

  Threadsafe: No

The first parameter, Qualified user space name, is the name of the *USRSPC the API is to return information into. We will, in the program, be creating this *USRSPC using the Create User Space (QUSCRTUS) API. The first 10 bytes of the qualified name is the name of the *USRSPC object. The second 10 bytes is the name of the library containing the *USRSPC or one of the special values *CURLIB and *LIBL.

 

The second parameter, Format name, describes the type of information we want returned. The QBNLSPGM API supports several formats corresponding to the types of information that are available--procedure name exports, data imports, copyrights, etc. Format SPGL0100 is used to access *MODULE-related information. The format of the information returned with SPGL0100 can be found in the API documentation. The key piece of information we will be working with today is the bound module name located at decimal offset 20 of format SPGL0100. The QSYSINC/QRPGLESRC definition for format SPGL0100 is found in source member QBNLSPGM, and the first few fields of the format are shown below.

 

DQBNL010000       DS                                             

D*                                             Qbn LSPGM SPGL0100

D QBNSN00                 1     10                               

D*                                             Srvpgm Name       

D QBNSLIBN               11     20                               

D*                                             Srvpgm Library Name

D QBNBMN00               21     30                               

D*                                             Bound Module Name 

D QBNBMLN00              31     40                               

D*                                             Bound Module Library

D QBNSFILN00             41     50                               

D*                                             Source File Name  

D QBNSFLN00              51     60                               

D*                                             Source File Library

D QBNSFILM00             61     70                               

D*                                             Source File Member

 

 

Within the QSYSINC-provided data structure QBNL010000 are the fields QBNBMN00 (the Bound Module Name) and QBNSN00 (the service program name), two fields that are clearly of interest to us. Also in the data structure is a wealth of

additional information about the module. We won't be using these additional fields, but, for instance, field QBNSFILM00 is the Source File Member name used to create the *MODULE. If necessary, we could use this source member information to confirm that module X was indeed created from source member X, determine if module Y was really X renamed, etc. Reviewing all of the information that is available to you, even if you don't believe you need it initially, may very well suggest additional features your application may need to provide.

 

If you don't have the QSYSINC library installed on your system, you can install it with RSTLICPGM, specifying option 13 of the operating system. The QBNLSPGM API returns one occurrence of the QBNL010000 data structure for each *MODULE found bound into a *SRVPGM.

 

The third parameter, Qualified service program name, is the name of the *SRVPGM we want information about. The first 10 bytes of the qualified name can be a specific *SRVPGM name, a generic *SRVPGM name such as A*, or the special value *ALL. The second 10 bytes of the qualified name can be the name of a specific library or one of the special values *ALL, *ALLUSR, *CURLIB, *LIBL, or *USRLIBL.

 

The fourth parameter, Error code, is the standard error code structure we have seen before.

 

With that information out of the way, let's now write a sample program that displays all occurrences of a specific module that is found within one or more *SRVPGMs. Here's the initial code (and I stress initial because this code needs several improvements, which we will make before concluding on this topic in a future column):

 

h dftactgrp(*no)                                           

                                                           

dModUsage         pr                                       

d ModNam                        10    const                

d SrchLib                       10    const                

                                                           

dModUsage         pi                                       

d ModNam                        10    const                

d SrchLib                       10    const                

                                                           

d/copy qsysinc/qrpglesrc,qusec                             

d/copy qsysinc/qrpglesrc,qusgen                            

                                                            

dChkSrvPgmMod     pr                                       

dSetup            pr                                       

                                                           

dGenHdr           ds                  likeds(QUSH0100)             

d                                     based(ModLstSpcPtr)          

                                                                   

dObjLibNam        ds                                               

d                               10    inz('*ALL')                  

d ObjLib                        10                                 

                                                                   

dModLstSpcPtr     s               *                                 

dCount            s             10i 0                              

dNbrMods          s             10i 0                              

dHits             s             10i 0                              

dWait             s              1                                  

                                                                   

dModLstSpc        c                   'MODLUSRSPCQTEMP'            

                                                                   

 /free                                                              

                                                                   

  // check that the required parameters were passed                  

  if %parms < 2;                                                     

     dsply 'There are two required parameters:';                     

     dsply '1. The module you are searching for';                    

     dsply '2. The library to be searched in';                       

     dsply 'The program did not run.' ' ' Wait;                      

     *inlr = *on;                                                    

     return;                                                         

  endif;                                                             

                                                                      

  Setup();                                                           

                                                                     

  ChkSrvPgmMod();                                                     

                                                                     

  dsply (%char(Hits) + ' *SRVPGM instances of ' +        

         %trimr(ModNam) + ' found.') ' ' Wait;            

                                                                      

  *inlr = *on;                                                       

  return;                                                            

                                                                     

 /end-free                                                            

                                                                     

 *****************************************************************   

                                                                     

pChkSrvPgmMod     b                                                  

                                                                     

dChkSrvPgmMod     pi                                                 

                                                                      

dGetSrvPgmInfo    pr                  extpgm('QBNLSPGM')             

d QUsrSpcNam                    20    const                          

d Format                         8    const                          

d QSrvPgmNam                    20    const                          

d QUSEC                               likeds(QUSEC)                  

                                                                     

d/copy qsysinc/qrpglesrc,qbnlspgm                                     

                                                                    

dSrvPgmE          ds                  likeds(QBNL010000)            

d                                     based(SrvPgmEPtr)             

                                                                     

dSrvPgmEPtr       s               *                                 

                                                                    

 /free                                                              

                                                                     

  // Get the list of all *SRVPGMs and bound *MODULEs                

  GetSrvPgmInfo( ModLstSpc :'SPGL0100' :ObjLibNam :QUSEC);          

                                                                     

  if (GenHdr.QUSIS = 'C');                  

     SrvPgmEPtr = ModLstSpcPtr + GenHdr.QUSOLD;                     

     for NbrMods = 1 to GenHdr.QUSNBRLE;                            

         if SrvPgmE.QBNBMN00 = ModNam;                               

            dsply ('*SRVPGM: ' + %trimr(SrvPgmE.QBNSLIBN) +         

                   '/' + SrvPgmE.QBNSN00);                          

            Hits += 1;                                              

         endif;                                                      

         SrvPgmEPtr += GenHdr.QUSSEE;                               

     endfor;                                                        

  else;                                                             

     dsply ('Unable to access *SRVPGMs.');                          

  endif;                                                            

                                                                    

 /end-free                                                           

                                                                    

pChkSrvPgmMod     e                                                 

                                                                    

                                                                      

 *****************************************************************   

                                                                     

pSetUp            b                                                  

                                                                      

dSetUp            pi                                                 

                                                                     

dCrtUsrSpc        pr                  extpgm('QUSCRTUS')             

d SpcName                       20    const                          

d SpcAttr                       10    const                          

d SpcSiz                        10i 0 const                          

d SpcVal                         1    const                          

d SpcAut                        10    const                          

d SpcTxt                        50    const                          

d SpcRpl                        10    const options(*nopass)         

d QUSEC                               likeds(QUSEC) options(*nopass) 

d SpcDmn                        10    const options(*nopass)         

d SpcTfrSiz                     10i 0 const options(*nopass)         

d SpcSpcAln                      1    const options(*nopass)         

                                                                     

dGetUsrSpcPtr     pr                  extpgm('QUSPTRUS')             

d SpcName                       20    const                          

d UsrSpcPtr                       *                                  

d QUSEC                               likeds(QUSEC) options(*nopass) 

                                                                     

 /free                                                                

                                                                     

  // set Error code bytes provided to send exceptions                

  QUSBPRV = 0;                                                       

                                                                      

  // Set the library to search for *SRVPGMs                          

  ObjLib = SrchLib;                                                  

                                                                      

  // Create *USRSPC for module listing                               

  CrtUsrSpc( ModLstSpc :' ' :1 :x'00' :'*CHANGE' :' ' :'*YES' :QUSEC); 

                                                                       

  // Get pointer to *USRSPC for module listing                         

  GetUsrSpcPtr( ModLstSpc :ModLstSpcPtr :QUSEC);                       

                                                                       

 /end-free                                                              

                                                                       

pSetUp            e         

 

 

This program, MODUSAGE, takes two parameters. The first parameter is the name of the module we are looking for. The second parameter is the name of the library or one of the special values *ALL, *ALLUSR, *CURLIB, *LIBL, and *USRLIBL to search for *SRVPGMs. Given these two input parameters, the program then examines each *SRVPGM found in the specified library (or libraries in the case of a special value) and displays the qualified name of any *SRVPGM found that contains the specified *MODULE.

 

To compile MODUSAGE, use the command CRTBNDRPG MODUSAGE. To test MODUSAGE, in order to find all *SRVPGMs in library MYLIB that module MYMOD is bound to, use CALL MODUSAGE (MYMOD MYLIB).

 

As to how the program works, that will have to wait until our next column as we have run out of room in this issue of RPG Developer. There is, though, enough of the program shown above for you to use it for testing, and certainly feel free to examine the program in order to determine how it works. Hopefully, in the next column we'll confirm your understanding! And, yes, some of the style may appear a bit strange, but you will in time see why as we add more function to MODUSAGE.

 

One word of caution: While MODUSAGE accepts special values such as *LIBL, you may, for now, want to limit your testing to specific libraries (or at least to special values that do not include QSYS--for instance, *ALLUSR or *USRLIBL). Otherwise, you may end up with error message CPF3CAA--List is too large for user space MODLUSRSPC. This is one of the considerations that we will be addressing with a future enhancement to MODUSAGE.

 

Meanwhile, if you have other API questions, send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I'll see what I can do about answering your burning questions in future columns.

                                          

Bruce Vining

Bruce Vining is president and co-founder of Bruce Vining Services, LLC, a firm providing contract programming and consulting services to the System i community. He began his career in 1979 as an IBM Systems Engineer in St. Louis, Missouri, and then transferred to Rochester, Minnesota, in 1985, where he continues to reside. From 1992 until leaving IBM in 2007, Bruce was a member of the System Design Control Group responsible for OS/400 and i5/OS areas such as System APIs, Globalization, and Software Serviceability. He is also the designer of Control Language for Files (CLF).A frequent speaker and writer, Bruce can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 


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