A formqueue is an item in the FORM.QUEUES file in SYSFILES which is used to group together and schedule a set of print jobs for output by one or more Despoolers assigned to it. It also contains control data which allows common processing to be applied to jobs in the queue. The name of the formqueue is the FORM.QUEUES item-id. One attribute contains the list of queued job-ids. Other attributes contain the control/status information used to manage the formqueue and determine the format of the printer or tape output. Formqueues are managed using SP-STATUS and its associated commands/action codes.
Refer to Spooler File Formats for a description of the FORM.QUEUES definition item structure.
To create a formqueue, use:
SPM Option 1 and FQM can also be used to change the formqueue definition, but can only be used from SYSMAN and SYSPROG.
SP-STATUS Action Code 1 and SP-CREATE create a formqueue with a default definition, and other SP-STATUS actions can be used to change some queue characteristics.
Formqueues can be Public or Private.
A Public formqueue can be accessed and updated by any user with retrieval and update access to the FORM.QUEUES file, as it is fully defined by an item in FORM.QUEUES.
A Private formqueue also has an item in FORM.QUEUES, but it contains just a private queue indicator together with the account name, file name (D-pointer name), and reference name (Q-pointer) for the user file containing the private formqueue definition item.
The user file containing the private formqueue definition item can be protected with retrieval and update locks against other users accessing or changing it. Hence, you can create a formqueue which is restricted for use by specified users or from a specified account or accounts.
A banner is a page of information that is printed before a print job to identify the job and separate it from the previous one. You can specify whether or not a banner is to be printed for a particular formqueue by using SPM command – Option 1, or the equivalent command FQM.
A banner contains the: