topic Re: Empty out a VMS print queue in Operating System - OpenVMS

Empty out a VMS print queue

Jorge Cocomess — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 09:58:12 GMT

Greetings,

Is there a easier way to empty out a VMS queue with one (1) command line? I have hundreds of entries in this queue and it would take a good 1 hour to empty it by a simgle del/entry=xxx

Please help.

Thank you in advance.
Jorge

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Volker Halle — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:03:32 GMT

Jorge,

note the queue configuration (SHO QUE/FULL) and delete the queue with: DELETE/QUEUE queue-name. Then re-create the queue with the previously documented settings.

Volker.

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Jorge Cocomess — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:23:29 GMT

I get an error deleting the queue. And yes, I did stopped the queue prior deleting it.

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Karl Rohwedder — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:27:28 GMT

Jorgem
did you do a STOP/QUE/NEXT? perhaps this is an execution queue with a generic queue pointing to it? Then you have to stop/delete the generic queue 1st.

regards Kalle

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Jefferson Humber — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:40:51 GMT

Hi Jorge,

I had a little .COM file once that did what you are after, since I couldn't find a way to do it from a single command.

I think it worked with a bit of F$GETQUI in a loop.

I'll have a hunt around and see if I can find it, can't promise it's still about though it was a few years ago.

Jeff

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Jefferson Humber — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:44:16 GMT

Can't find my version, but there is one here on comp.os.vms

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.os.vms/browse_frm/thread/85cdd2ec23acad70/0ace51f857bfc431?lnk=st&q=delete+print+queue+entries+vms&rnum=11&hl=en#0ace51f857bfc431

Jeff

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Jorge Cocomess — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:06:43 GMT

Jeff - Works like a charm in 7.3-2

~Many thanks!!

J

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Gregg Parmentier — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:24:03 GMT

I think this one is a bit more efficient than the one at the search link, since it doesn't have to loop to find the correct print queue. If you have lots of queues, this might make a noticable difference.

It also checks only printer and terminal queues so you can't acidentally clean out an execution queue with a typo. The I/O syntax might not be as clean, though:-)

$ If (P1.NES."")
$ THEN
$ WHICH_Q = P1
$ ELSE
$ READ/END=DONE/PROMPT="Enter the name of the queue you wish to clean: " -
SYS$COMMAND WHICH_Q
$ IF WHICH_Q .EQS. "" THEN GOTO DONE
$ ENDIF
$
$! check queue existence and set context
$ Q_NAME = F$GETQUI("DISPLAY_QUEUE","QUEUE_NAME","''which_q'","PRINTER,TERMINAL,WILDCARD")
$ IF Q_NAME .EQS. "" THEN GOTO NO_QUEUE
$ STOP/QUEUE/RESET 'Q_NAME'
$
$LOOP:
$! get the next entry number and delete it from the queue
$ ENTRY == F$GETQUI("DISPLAY_JOB","ENTRY_NUMBER",,"ALL_JOBS,WILDCARD")
$ IF (ENTRY.EQS."") THEN GOTO DONE
$ DELETE/ENTRY='ENTRY' 'Q_NAME'
$ GOTO LOOP
$
$NO_QUEUE:
$ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT "Queue ''which_q' does not exist."
$
$DONE:
$! clear queue context
$ Q_NAME = F$GETQUI("")

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Jess Goodman — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:32:17 GMT

The easiest way to empty out a batch or print queue takes 3 lines of DCL:

$ INIT /QUEUE JUNKQ !add /BATCH or /DEVICE
$ ASSIGN/MERGE JUNKQ the_real_q
$ DELETE/QUEUE JUNKQ

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Karl Rohwedder — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:46:58 GMT

Attached is a small procedure, that moves queue entries to/from a 'dummy' queue, in order to allow maintenance on the original queue.

regards Kalle

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 01:47:27 GMT

I like the solution of Jess. Didn't think of it (esp. when you are without your toolkit).

Wim

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Galen Tackett — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 06:10:22 GMT

In 20+ years with VMS I don't recall coming across Jess's solution ever before (but my memory is pretty bad these days.) It is efficient, clever, and elegant (in a sort of mathematical sense.)

Re: Empty out a VMS print queue

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 07:02:00 GMT

My solution, which lets select jobs by user,by name, or by queue name:

http://wwwvms.mppmu.mpg.de/util_root/com/abojob.com