Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

IBM’s AS/400 platform (now called the System i) boasts a wonderful history of almost 20 years. Those faithful to the platform well know its strengths and the ingenuity IBM has put into the box, which have allowed it to be successful for so long. That being said, it is no secret that many System i shops maintain legacy applications using old tools. That, in turn, has often left developers out of touch with current developer tools and languages. With so many options, it is difficult to know how

Do you ever bother to look at warning messages after a successful program compilation? Most warning messages contain no useful information, but the few that do can make a difference. One message that I am always glad to see in RPG compiler listings is RNF7086.

So what is RNF7086? The text reads, “RPG handles blocking for the file. INFDS is updated only when blocks of data are transferred.” This message is a good indicator that the system is going to handle the transfer of data between a database file and the program’s buffers in an efficient manner. As efficiently as

Recently, I was unable to use the i5/OS Change Network Attributes command (CHGNETA) to change i5/OS network attributes on my System i 550. The system wouldn’t take the change and I found that it was because I needed to temporarily vary off my partition’s Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network (APPN) controllers to complete the process. Here’s what happened and what I learned about how APPN can affect network attribute changes.

The Problem

The symptoms for this problem were that after executing the following CHGNETA command, the command would not change the system name on my system.

CHGNETA SYSNAME(NEWNAME) LCLCPNAME(NEWNAME