Ross ponders:
> I am very stuck here I think. I have somehow initiated these jobs
> below and can't abort them.
>
> #J460   WAIT:1   8  10S LP       FRI  3:26P  REPORTS,REPORT00.FIRES
> #J461   WAIT:2   8  10S LP       FRI  3:55P  REPORTS,REPORT00.FIRES
>
> I have issued  - ABORTJOB #J460 and ABORTJOB #J461 and it doesn't stop
> them.

Not sure why ABORTJOB won't work, unless the implementation of ABORTJOB
actually requires the job to log on "a little bit" in order to be aborted.

> I had issued the STOPSPOOL 126 before running the report the first
> time and it didn't affect the spool, the job continued to start
> printing. I turned off the printer and purged the spool file, then
> began again. Now the jobs seem unable to be aborted.

I assume that in addition to the two you're showing us here that there is
also another one that shows as EXEC.

When you did the :STOPSPOOL 126, device 126 ceased to be spooled, but it
is apparently a device which can be accessed "hot" (DTC serial printer,
SCSI or HPIB printer), and so as soon as the spooler let go of the device
it became available, and your first job logged on and grabbed the device,
writing directly to it rather than into a spool file.

You then turned off the printer, but the first job is still running, now
likely hung on a write to the printer (depending on the type of printer
and its interface, the bits may also be pooling up on the floor next to
the printer).

The subsequent jobs cannot log on (or be aborted apparently) because they
cannot open their output device class "LP" which is apparently device 126.

If you issue the command OPENQ LP, then the two jobs should abort at once.
The OPENQ command will allow them to open their $STDLIST files to device
LP (as spoolfiles this time) and the :ABORTJOBs you did earlier should
then kick in.

For the first job which is perhaps still running and attached to ldev 126
(do :SHOWJOB and/or :SHOWDEV 126 to confirm), you should probably turn the
printer back on, then do an :ABORTJOB on that job as well.  You would then
be in a state where the spool queue for class "LP" is open and jobs can
log on and create spoolfiles, but device 126 will still not be spooled
(able to print spoolfiles) until you issue a :STARTSPOOL 126.

Rather than the original :STOPSPOOL 126, if you had done a
:STOPSPOOL 126;OPENQ then you would not have gotten in as much trouble
as the printing would stop and be prevented, but the creation of spoolfiles
on class "LP" would still have been allowed, and none of the jobs would have
been able to grab device 126 directly.

Now whether this is what you intended or not is still a question.  Did you
want to prevent the output of the jobs from printing, or did you want to
prevent the jobs from running in the first place?  You might want to look
at the :OUTFENCE command, the :LIMIT command, the ;OUTCLASS= option on the
!JOB command, and the :ALTSPOOLFILE;PRI= (or the more complicated :SPOOLF
command) for ways to control the execution of jobs and the printing
of spoolfiles.

G.