Submitted Jobs and WRKSBMJOB

Learning Objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to use WRKSBMJOB to track a submitted batch job from the moment it is submitted through to completion.

Simple Explanation

The Common IBM i Operations Commands for Developers lesson briefly mentioned WRKSBMJOB as a more focused alternative to WRKACTJOB. This lesson covers it in full.

WRKSBMJOB (Work with Submitted Jobs) lists jobs submitted with SBMJOB, covered in the SBMJOB and Batch Job Basics lesson, showing each one's current status as it moves through its lifecycle: waiting on a job queue, covered in the Job Queues and Output Queues lesson, actively running, or already completed. Unlike WRKACTJOB, which lists every active job regardless of how it started, WRKSBMJOB specifically tracks jobs that came from SBMJOB, including ones that have already finished, for a period of time after they end.

Why It Matters

WRKSBMJOB gives a developer one consistent place to watch a specific submitted job's entire journey, rather than needing to check a job queue, then WRKACTJOB, then somewhere else once it finishes. This matters especially for a batch job whose progress needs to be tracked across all three of those stages.

Practical Example

Imagine submitting the nightly order-processing job with SBMJOB and wanting to follow it through to completion. Running WRKSBMJOB immediately after submitting it shows the job waiting on its job queue. Checking again later shows its status has changed to actively running. Checking once more after it finishes shows it as completed, still listed for a period of time, letting the developer confirm it actually ran and select it to check its job log, without needing to switch between several different commands along the way.

This is a simplified, illustrative example rather than a specific real investigation, but it reflects a genuinely common, practical way WRKSBMJOB is used to follow one specific job's progress.

Common Confusions

"Does WRKSBMJOB show jobs that started some other way besides SBMJOB?" No. It is specifically scoped to jobs submitted with SBMJOB, which is exactly what makes it a more focused view than WRKACTJOB's broader list of every active job, covered in the WRKACTJOB Basics for Developers lesson.

"Once a submitted job finishes, does it disappear from WRKSBMJOB immediately?" Not immediately; a completed submitted job typically remains listed for some time afterward, letting a developer confirm it finished and check its results, before eventually aging off the list.

"Is WRKSBMJOB a replacement for checking the job's job log directly?" No. WRKSBMJOB tracks a submitted job's status and progress; checking its actual job log, covered in the Job Logs in Batch Jobs lesson later in this group, is still a separate, necessary step to see exactly what happened during that job's run.

Quick Recap

• WRKSBMJOB (Work with Submitted Jobs) lists jobs submitted with SBMJOB, tracking each one's status from waiting, to running, to completed.
• Unlike WRKACTJOB, it stays scoped specifically to submitted jobs, and continues showing a job for some time after it completes.
• WRKSBMJOB is a practical, single place to follow one submitted job's entire lifecycle.
• Checking a job's actual job log is still a separate step beyond simply tracking its status with WRKSBMJOB.

Try Asking the AI Tutor

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

• "How long does a completed job typically stay listed in WRKSBMJOB before it disappears?"
• "Could I use WRKSBMJOB to confirm a job hasn't even started running yet?"