Re: "Phantom" Spool file entries

[Gary Kaplan <gkaplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I had this same problem a few years ago.  IBM sent me the following link:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/phantom-spooled-files-shown-navigator-or-wrkoutq-command

Gary


On 11/10/2025 5:15 PM, Jon Paris wrote:
> I'm trying to clear up thousands of old spool files.
>
> Tried using SQL to delete anything prior to 2025, and some disappeared, but nowhere near as many as should have. Used option 4 to delete a bunch of the remainder to see if there would be some error message. Nope - nothing.
>
> So I decided to hell with it and used CLROUTQ against those queues that I knew contained nothing that was needed.  That worked - kinda.
>
> I now have this situation in WRKOUTQ:
>
> Queue          Library           Files
>
> QPFROUTQ       QGPL                  0
> QPRINT         QGPL               1731
> QPRINTS        QGPL                  0
>
> But if I take option 5 against the QPRINT entry, instead of seeing 1,731 files, I see 4! And those 4 are for currently active jobs so all normal. But where the heck are the other 1,727 that WrKOUT shows?
>
> Similar situation with QEZDEBUG, and QEZJOBLOG.
>
> Any ideas on the cause and how to get the numbers to make sense?
>
>
> Jon Paris
> Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx