Managing the HPSPOOL Account

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.

Purging spool files from the IN and OUT groups

Normally, you will not have to perform any file cleanup for the IN and OUT groups of the HPSPOOL account, since spool files are automatically deleted once printed. However, if you must purge spool files, use SPOOLF O@;DELETE to clean out the appropriate group.

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.

Purging checkpoint files

When the spooler file management routines close a 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.

File security

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

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.

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:

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.