Job getting stuck in queue

Hi

I've noticed that a windows version job of mine gets stuck in it's queue now and then, although it's not predictably timed or prompted as far as I can see.

The job is jal, synchronous, attached, and in a queue with subsequent jobs. it runs all day every 3 minutes and does a fileexists check, which if the file exists triggers another job via jobrun. If the file isn't found it exits. I considered using a loop and wait, but found that this locked up the scheduler (could have been my crappy code though).

A number of times now it has stopped, it shows in the queue monitor as running but nothing is happening either visibly or in trace. subsequent instances of the job just queue up afterwards, until the scheduler is restarted or the front job is killed using queue monitor.

Any ideas what might cause that?

Why don't you simple set a file watch schedule for this job, there will not be a need to run the job every 3 minutes just to check for a file?

I haven't used a simple file watch because it needs to change the trigger file based on the date.

Have you looked at macro-variables? They can be used in job properties including file trigger definitions.

I'm familiar with macro-parameters but unless I can initialise my own there's not a lot I can do with them in this context

	Quote:
	unless I can initialise my own

You can set environment variables and then refer to them using macro-variables @V"env:MY_VAR"
The best part is that environment variables set from jobs are only visible to the scheduler and to the job processes invoked from the scheduler.

So I set them in jal using

Run (set var1=value1)

and then refer to them using the macro parameter or is there a way within Jal itself to set them?

SET command is not a program and so cannot be run as a program. You need to use the command processor to execute it.

	Code:
	Dim( pid, number ) Run ( "cmd /C set var1=value1", "", 0, pid )

I've tried that, but I get syntax error in JAL when I try to reference it to test whether it's set properly.

Here are the interesting bits

setcontrol3:
Set( controlfile, "CONTROL3.txt")
GoTo setenvironmentvariable

setcontrol2:
Set( controlfile, "CONTROL2.txt")

setenvironmentvariable:
Dim( pid, number )
dim( commandline, string)
concat ("cmd /C set finish_extract_control=", controlfile, commandline)
Run ( commandline, "", pid )

dim( test, string)
set( test, @V"env:finish_extract_control")

There are 2 issues:

1. The macro-variables are inserted into the script before it is run and the script syntax is validated. So that setting of a variable and getting it in the same script makes no sense. The value is gotten before it is set.

2. Macro-variables are substituted with their values as specified in the script. No additional quotes or symbols are inserted in place. If a value of a variable is nothing , an empty string is inserted. You can see the effect when you open the job script in the debugger. In the provided test script in the last line you get set( test, ) which is invalid syntax. The correct way to enter that is set( test, "@V"env:finish_extract_control""), which if you leave the rest of the script as is, in job run-time would result in set( test, "" )

How do I test whether the run command set the variable correctly?

Run job again in the debugger. You should see the previously set value inserted into the script before you actually start the job second time. Another method is to create 2 separate jobs - setter and getter.

Ok, 2 jobs

setter

Dim( controlfile, string)
Dim( processingeomdate, string)
Dim( processingdate, string)
//check in with processingday.ini to get dates
IniFileGetKey( "d:\\POC\\processingday.ini", "Dates", "procdate", processingeomdate )
IniFileGetKey( "d:\\POC\\processingday.ini", "Dates", "proceom", processingdate )
//if it's the end of the month according to processingday.ini then set control file accordingly
Dim( endofmonth, boolean)
IsEqual( processingeomdate, processingdate, endofmonth )
If( endofmonth, setcontrol3, setcontrol2)

setcontrol3:
Set( controlfile, "CONTROL3.txt")
GoTo setenvironmentvariable

setcontrol2:
Set( controlfile, "CONTROL2.txt")

setenvironmentvariable:
Dim( pid, number )
dim( commandline, string)
concat ("cmd /C set extractcontrol=", controlfile, commandline)
Run ( commandline, "", pid )

and getter

dim blah, string
set( blah, "@V"env:extractcontrol"")

The first job appears to run without a hitch

The second, when run in debugger, sets blah as blank.

Also in the script editor the second script highlights env in red as if it's done wrong? I've tried %extractcontrol% but that didn't appear to change behaviour.

Small correction

Instead of concat ("cmd /C set extractcontrol=", controlfile, commandline)

try
ConcatEx("cmd /C \"@echo set extractcontrol=", controlfile, " > setvar.bat\" && setvar.bat", commandline)

Ok with that correction the setter still runs fine but the getter doesn't display the var. I don't need %%'s?