One of the great things about writing articles and tips is that people will drop you a note to ask a question or tell you how much they liked (or disliked) what you wrote. But even better is when someone drops you a line to let you know they have taken what you wrote and extended it.

Such was the case with my last tip, What’s That Name?, which described how to go about getting a “record layout” in Run SQL Scripts. I received an email from Lynne Noll, who said she had just written 128 stored procedures, and

I have a program that uses an externally described printer file to create a report. I need to change the program so that it writes some information to one spooled file and the remaining information to a separate spooled file. I could clone the printer file, but that would mean I’d have to change two files instead of one when I modify the report file in the future. Do I have to clone the printer file?

–Mark

No, Mark, you can build two or more reports from one printer file definition. Here’s how it’s done.

Let’s start with a printer

This week, I’ll cover some new information about IBM i library backups, tell you how to specify which TCP/IP servers start whenever TCP/IP is started, and demonstrate a second technique for preventing unauthorized FTP access to your server. Let’s get started.

Determining The Last Time A User Library Was Backed Up

Checking the last time a user library was backed up is easy. You can check it from the green-screen by running the following Display Library Backup List (DSPBCKUP) command.

DSPBCKUPL BCKUPL(*LIB)

This command will display a screen that looks something like this.

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

This