Midrange Information, Tips and Techniques
Brian Coy
Command Entry Panel
If you are new to the AS/400, you may have been using menus exclusively. Menus are nice and handy, and they sport a command line from which you can type commands. …But there is something better out there: the Command Entry Panel. With this new feature, the command line takes up the entire screen, and you get a running history of the commands you have executed, along with whatever messages they’ve produced. To invoke the Command Entry panel, run the following command:
CALL QCMD
From that point on, any command you type won’t simply go away (the way it does in a menu); it will scroll up. You can then move the cursor up as far as you want (you can roll up to see even older commands), press F9 once, and retrieve a command you executed two hours ago. Or you can press F4 and have it prompted, without having to press F9 first.
On the other side of the picture, if you are the security officer and have users you prefer to have no access to commands, you can limit their capabilities. This can be done by the CHGUSRPRF command on the Limit Capabilities field. With this option, a user can have full, partial or no access to commands. Below are the definitions for the valid Limit Capabilities values:
*NO
The program, menu, and current library values can be changed when the user signs on to the system. Users can change the initial program, initial menu, current library, or Attention key handling program values in their user profiles with the Change Profile (CHGPRF) command. Commands can be run from a command line.
*PARTIAL
The program and current library cannot be changed on the sign-on display. The menu can be changed and commands can be run from a command line. Users can change the initial menu value with the Change Profile (CHGPRF) command.
*YES
The program, menu, and current library values cannot be changed on the sign-on display. Commands cannot be run when issued from a command line or by selecting an option from a command grouping menu such as CMDADD, but can still be run from a command entry screen. The user cannot change the program, menu, current library, or the ATTN key program handling values by using the Change Profile (CHGPRF) command.