Reviewed January 2009

Short version

This occurs when someone deletes the qflock.sys and/or jobtbl.sys files (or at least clobbers your entry within the latter, perhaps with the QUTL command) while you are running. A-Shell does not notice the problem until it has reason to update the queue (such as when chaining between programs or logging to a new ppn.) If this problem happens every time you launch a second session, then the problem is most likely that A-Shell is not able to generate a unique device identifier due to a problem in your CONSOLE statement in miame.ini.

Long version

The message indicates that another job has overwritten the current job's job-control-record. (Each job has a record in the JOBTBL.SYS file where it stores a variety of current status information about the job; this is the primary source of information used by SYSTAT, JSTAT, and most XCALLs that request information about a job.)

When a new instance is started, A-Shell generates a (hopefully) unique ID for the instance, then scans the JOBTBL to see if there is already a record for it (which happens when a workstation crashes or is rebooted without exiting A-Shell), if so, displays a brief warning message on the screen and in the log, and then re-uses the record.

You can see the instance identifiers using SYSTAT/C (3rd column). Generally they consist of 2 parts separated by a colon: an identifier of the workstation (like a machine name or possibly an IP address), plus an instance number (01, 02, etc.) to separate the instances of A-Shell coming from the same workstation.

For example:

.systat/n/c

Status of A-Shell/32 Ver. 5.1.1134.2 on Friday, January 09, 2009 15:22:26

TSKAAA TSKAAA  JACKT400:01        DSK0:1,4       RN  SYSTAT    2912  986K bytes

TSKAAB TSKAAB  JACKT400:03        DSK0:150,277   RN  MYDOC     5464  939K bytes

TSKAAE TSKAAE  JACKT400:05        DSK0:150,277   ^C  VUE       6892 1502K bytes

This shows 3 instances, all coming from the machine whose name is "JACKT400", and each with a separate instance # (01, 03, and 05).

In some particular environments, such as Terminal Server, or CGI, or when launching A-Shell sessions from another application, it may be necessary to ask A-Shell to add a numeric suffix (-###) to the machine name (and prior to the instance number) in order to prevent duplicates. There are two ways to accomplish this: add OPTIONS=NTTS to the miame.ini file, or add the -awts switch to the A-Shell launch command line.

Besides SYSTAT/C, the best tool for analyzing this problem is the ashlog.log file, provided you add TRACE=INOUT,SIGHUP,BASERR to the miame.ini file (which we recommend as standard procedure.) This will cause A-Shell to log an entry for each session started and ended, along with the ID name, job number, user login, and license utilization information.