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Managing Accounts [ Native Mode Spooler Reference Manual ] MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation


Native Mode Spooler Reference Manual

Managing Accounts 

The native mode spooler's directory structure consists of the following:

Reserved Account:                           HPSPOOL

Reserved Groups:                            OUT

                                            IN

                                            All device name groups

Reserved User:                              MGR

Controlling spool file disk allocation 

The HPSPOOL account and all its reserved groups reside on the system
volume set.  The NMS creates them there.  You should not relocate them to
a private volume set.

You can, however, control on which of the system volumes spool files may
be allocated disk space.  When it determines where to allocate spool file
disk space, the system looks for members of the system volume set that
have been configured as volume class SPOOL. If at least one volume exists
with volume class SPOOL, spool files are allocated disk space only on the
one or more volumes configured as volume class SPOOL.

If none of the system volumes are in volume class SPOOL, spool files may
be allocated disk space on any of the system volumes configured as DISC.

File space limits 

Since spool files are normal MPE/iX disk files in an ordinary account
structure, the configuration for NUMBER OF SECTORS PER SPOOL FILE EXTENT
and MAX NUMBER OF SPOOL FILE KILOSECTORS does not apply and has been
deleted from the SYSGEN utility.  You may control the amount of disk
space allocated to spool files by varying the HPSPOOL account file space
limit.  You may limit input and output spool file disk space usage
independently by adjusting the IN and OUT group file space limit;
otherwise, you may set unlimited file space limits on each group.  The
default file space limits set for the HPSPOOL account and its groups is
unlimited file space.

File security 

File security for the HPSPOOL account and its groups are as follows:

HPSPOOL account:                            (R,A,W,L,X:ANY)

Groups in HPSPOOL:                          IN and OUT

                                            (R,A,W,L,X,S:ANY)

Device name groups:                         (R,A,W,L,X,S:GU)

where R is read, A is append, W is write, L is lock, X is execute, S is
save, ANY is any user, and GU is group user. 

When the HPSPOOL account is created during system startup, a user called
MGR for the HPSPOOL account is created.  The existence of user MGR is
required by the account creation process.  MGR.HPSPOOL has only limited
authority over spool files.

Access to users' spool files, including the ability to purge those spool
files, is granted only to the creator of a spool file and to the manager
of an account (AM) whose user creates the spool file in that account.

The user MGR and the HPSPOOL account should have passwords to prevent
unauthorized access.


CAUTION * Never alter the account and group security provisions. They ensure the proper operation of the NMS commands and the other MPE/iX commands. * Never use PURGEACCT or PURGEGROUP to remove spool files from the HPSPOOL account or from the OUT and IN groups. You might disable the entire spooling subsystem. Spool File directory (SPFDIR) routines are used by high-level file access commands. Purging a spool file, for example, also deletes its spool file directory (SPFDIR) entry. The PURGEGROUP and PURGEACCT commands access spool files at a lower level and do not use SPFDIR routines. These commands purge the spool files but leave orphaned SPFDIR entries. You may list these orphaned entries by using the LISTSPF command, but you cannot delete them with SPOOLF...;DELETE. The startup of the system deletes these orphaned entries as part of its recovery procedure. * If you must purge spool files, use SPOOLF O@;DELETE to clean out the appropriate group.
Access control definitions (ACD) Access control definitions (ACDs) are used to control access to files and devices. If an ACD is associated with a file or device, the ACD takes precedence over other (traditional) access controls. Before a file or device can be opened, the ACD is consulted. The ACD contains a list of users paired with the type of access that the users are allowed. An ACD is associated with a file or a device by pairing access modes with users. A user is any username.accountname specification. The modes of access are: R Read W Write A Append L Lock X Execute NONE none RACD read and copy the ACD permission file You could represent an ACD as follows: ACD = (R,W:MGR.ACCTING, DENNIS.LEE; R:@.PAYROLL; A:@.@) This example does not create or assign an ACD. It serves only to illustrate the function of an ACD. This illustration represents the assignment of access restrictions to some file. It grants Read and Write access to users MGR.ACCTING and DENNIS.LEE, Read (only) access to all users in the PAYROLL account, and Append access to all users on the system. Only those who own a file or a device may associate an ACD with it. Files. The owner of a file is any one of these three users: * the creator of the file with which an ACD is associated * a user who has AM capability in the account in which the file resides * a user who has SM capability on the system in which the file resides Devices. The system manager (SM) is the owner of all of the devices on a system. Creating (assigning) an ACD. ACDs may be assigned interactively or programmatically. Interactive assignment is accomplished with the ALTSEC command, as in this example: ALTSEC #O1893765.OUT.HPSPOOL;NEWACD=(R:SAM.DOE;W:JOE.DOE) This grants Read access to the output spool file to user SAM.DOE and Write access to user JOE.DOE. Displaying ACD information. Three commands display information about ACDs. They are * SHOWDEV * LISTFILE * LISTF If a device belongs to more than one device class, the ACD associated with that device is the last ACD created either for the device number or for any of the device classes that it belongs to. Any previously created ACDs for the device are lost when a new ACD is created for the device number or any of the device classes that it belongs to. Refer to Accessing Files, Programmers' Guide (32650-90017) and to the MPE/iX Commands Reference Manual (32650-90003) for more information about ACDs. ACD-related errors. The following commands return interactively the errors listed below as a result of the changes to check for device ACDs: * SPOOLF nn;PRINT * SPOOLF nn;DEV= * SPOOLF nn;UNDEFER * ALTSPOOLFILE xx;DEV= where nn is the spool file identification number or the file set and xx is the output device file identification of a spool file or the logical device number of the device where a spool file currently resides. Interactive errors include 4626 SECURITY VIOLATION - USER DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ldev or device class. (CIERR 4626) 4669 SECURITY VIOLATION - CREATOR OF SPOOLFILE spoolid DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE TARGET DEVICE. (CIWARN 4669) 4701 DEVICE SECURITY VIOLATION ON FILE filename. (CIWARN 4701) 4702 USE OF PRINT OPTION REQUIRES NONSHAREABLE DEVICE (ND) CAPABILITY TO ACCESS TARGET DEVICE OF FILE filename. (CIWARN 4702) More detailed information on ACDs is available in Accessing Files, Programmers' Guide (32650-90017). The OUT.HPSPOOL group The NMS automatically creates the OUT.HPSPOOL group at system startup if the group does not exist already. OUT.HPSPOOL contains only linked output spool files. Other spool files may exist in other accounts but they are not linked because they do not reside in the HPSPOOL account nor do they have an entry in the spool file directory. The IN.HPSPOOL group The IN.HPSPOOL group contains all input spool files. Input spool files are always linked to the spooling subsystem; therefore, IN.HPSPOOL is the only place where you find them. The NMS automatically creates the group IN.HPSPOOL at system startup if the group does not already exist. The device name groups The device name groups contain all the checkpoint files for linked output spool files. Every output spooler creates its own device name group according to the following rules: * If the device name begins with a letter, the group name is the same as the device name. For example, PP1 begins with a letter and, therefore, the group name is PP1. * If the device name was not explicitly configured using SYSGEN, then the default device name consists of eight digits. Replace the first digit with a "D" and append the remaining seven digits. This, then, is the group name. For example, the default device name for logical device 6 is 00000006. The device name group is D0000006. Each spooler creates its device only if the group does not already exist. You must explicitly purge the group if you have sufficient capabilities and if the group is no longer useful (as when the spooling device has been removed from the system configuration). The spooler process that owns the group creates and manages its checkpoint files. Each spooler process creates one checkpoint file for a specific output spool file no matter how many copies that process prints; therefore, if three different devices print copies of a spool file, then three checkpoint files exist, one in each device name group. If only one device prints three copies of a spool file, then only one checkpoint file exists. When a spool file does not print completely for any reason (such as a device power failure, file deferment, device reassignment, spooler process suspension, or stopping), the next spooler process that prints the spool file on the same device uses the checkpoint file for rapid recovery. For devices supporting such recovery, output starts at the page after the last complete page printed before the interruption. Printing may start at another point if you enter the OFFSET option together with the SPOOLER command. Each spooler uses NMS file management to open and close its spool files. When the file management routines close the spool file following its final copy (whether the spool file is deleted or saved), all associated checkpoint files are deleted. If you have sufficient capability, you may purge the checkpoint files with the PURGE command. If you should do this while the associated spool file is still linked to the spool file directory (SPFDIR), a spooler process printing the next copy of the spool file creates a new checkpoint file. This means that the spooler cannot use the file for rapid recovery, as it could have if you had not purged the first checkpoint file.


MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation