# backgrounds file

The backgrounds file contains data
for each background process submitted for execution. The item-ID is
a user specified string to uniquely identify the background job.

The attributes in the backgrounds file are:

| 00 | BACKGROUND | The item ID of the backgrounds file, user chosen. No spaces are allowed in this attribute. |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 01 | USER | The user that created this job. |
| 02 | PORT | The port that created this job. |
| 03 | MSG | Identifies if a message should be sent to the port that created the job when it ends. |
| 04 | COMMAND | The command to run. |
| 05 | TYPE | Identifies what the job is doing right now. |
| 06 | ACTIVATE.DATE | The date that the job is to be activated. |
| 07 | ACTIVATE.TIME | The time of day when the job is scheduled to be activated. |
| 08 | SKIP.DAYS | The number of days to skip before the job is re-executed. |
| 09 | SKIP.TIME | Identifies how much time to skip between re-executions. |
| 10 | DOW | The days of the week to skip. |
| 11 | INACTIVE.FROM | The time of day after which this job should not be run. |
| 12 | INACTIVE.TILL | The time of day before which not to run. |
| 13 | CREATE.DATE | The date this job was created. |
| 14 | CREATE.TIME | The time of day this job was created. |
| 15 | START.DATE | The date the job last started. |
| 16 | START.TIME | The last time of day this job was started. |
| 17 | END.DATE | The date the job last ended. |
| 18 | END.TIME | The last time of day this job ended. |
| 20 | CNT | The job has been run this many times since it was created. |
| 23 | ACTIVE.PORT | The port the job is running on right now. |
| 24 | STATUS | The current status of the job |
| C | Closed: Job has finish its schedule. | |
| I | Initializing: Job is just being initialized. | |
| Q | Queued: Waiting until its next scheduled time to run. | |
| R | Running: Currently being processed. | |
| 25 | ACCT | The account in which to run the job. |
| 26 | STARTABLE | The state of whether the process will run again or not. |
| ? | Calculating the time to run this process again | |
| A | ASAP: Run the job as soon as the bgsched is available. | |
| N | Never run this job again. | |
| T | Timed: Waiting for the next time to run this job. | |
| 27 | IMMEDIATE | Immediately re-runs a recurring job, regardless of whether the previous job completed after the scheduled time for the next job. |
| 28 | DOPTION | Determines if the jobs file entry should be deleted or not. |
| D | Delete the job item. | |
| blank | Do not delete the job item. | |

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Source: https://d3codex.com/systemfiles/backgrounds-file/ - part of the D3Codex reference.
