Job Queues and Output Queues

Learning Objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to clearly distinguish a job queue from an output queue, and use WRKJOBQ to look at a job queue.

Simple Explanation

The SBMJOB and Batch Job Basics lesson briefly introduced a job queue: a holding area where submitted batch jobs wait to actually start running. The Spool Files and Output Queues lesson introduced an output queue: a holding area where spool files wait to actually be printed. These names sound similar, and beginners commonly mix them up, but they hold two completely different things.

A job queue holds jobs waiting to run. An output queue holds spool files waiting to print. WRKJOBQ (Work with Job Queues) shows job queues and the batch jobs currently waiting on them, the job-queue equivalent of WRKOUTQ, covered in the Working with Output Queues using WRKOUTQ lesson, for spool files.

Why It Matters

Confusing these two can send a developer looking in completely the wrong place: checking an output queue for a batch job that has not even started running yet, or checking a job queue for a report that already finished and produced a spool file. Keeping the distinction clear, waiting jobs versus waiting output, avoids this mix-up.

Practical Example

Imagine a nightly batch job submitted with SBMJOB that seems to be taking a long time. Checking WRKJOBQ shows the job is still sitting on its job queue, waiting for a turn to actually start, perhaps behind other batch jobs already using that queue. Once it does start and eventually finishes, producing a report, that report's resulting spool file would then be found on an output queue instead, checked with WRKOUTQ, a completely separate, later stage of the same overall process.

This is a simplified, illustrative example rather than a specific real investigation, but it reflects a genuinely common source of beginner confusion when a submitted job seems to be taking too long.

Common Confusions

"Is a job queue the same thing as an output queue?" No. A job queue holds batch jobs waiting to start running. An output queue holds spool files waiting to print. They serve entirely different stages of a batch job's life: before it runs, versus after it produces output.

"If WRKOUTQ shows nothing for my batch job, does that mean it failed?" Not necessarily. It may simply not have produced any spool file output yet, either because it has not started running, still waiting on a job queue, or because it has not reached the part of its logic that produces output.

"Does every batch job use both a job queue and an output queue?" Every batch job submitted with SBMJOB uses a job queue to wait before starting, as covered in the SBMJOB and Batch Job Basics lesson. Whether it later uses an output queue depends on whether it actually produces spool file output, such as a printed report, during its run.

Quick Recap

• A job queue holds batch jobs waiting to start running; an output queue holds spool files waiting to print.
• WRKJOBQ (Work with Job Queues) shows job queues and the jobs currently waiting on them.
• A batch job passes through a job queue before it runs, and may later produce spool file output that lands on an output queue afterward.
• Checking the wrong kind of queue is a common, easy mix-up worth avoiding by keeping "waiting jobs" and "waiting output" clearly separate.

Try Asking the AI Tutor

Use the AI Tutor to ask follow-up questions about this lesson. For example, try asking:

• "What would make a batch job wait a long time on a job queue before starting?"
• "Can a single job queue feed jobs into more than one subsystem?"