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This section explains advanced job interaction and gives examples of how to gain even more control of your job runs. While initiates and prerequisites allow a full range of interactivity between jobs, the advanced techniques described below can add an extra degree of programmability to your job runs.
In a standard job interaction sequence, when all prerequisites are completed the job is run and then the initiate list is processed, executing connected jobs. However, suppose you want to suppress the job if another job is currently running? Maybe you want to limit the number of jobs that can access a resource like a database at the same time. Or maybe you want to be able to set a variable that shuts off a whole section of your job group or even the whole group when you see fit. This is where advanced job programming comes into the picture.
Unlike initiates and prerequisites, a job's general resource list is not connected to other jobs. Instead, the commands in a resource list perform variable evaluation dictating the behavior of the job. Depending on the results of the variable evaluation, the job run can be suppressed, put in a wait state, or a new value can be assigned to a variable.
In addition to the resource list, the initiate list, the prerequisite list and the end actions list can also be used for advanced job interaction, though in different ways. Each of these methods is explained later in this section.
For examples of setting and using advanced interaction in jobs, see Setting initiate conditions, Setting prerequisite conditions and Resources - Adding resources and end actions.