7.4 TR 4 and 7.3 TR10 announced

Today IBM has announced the latest Technology Refreshes for the current IBM i releases, 7.3 TR10 and 7.4 TR4. While the PTFs for some of these will be available on Friday (April 16, 2021) most of them will not be released as a PTF until May 14.

What's in these TRs?

For 7.4 TR4 only: Blocked insert is extended to include tables containing generated columns.

An enhanced new Query supervisor for the SQL Query Engine (SQE) to allow real time monitoring of things like the Open Query File command, OPNQRYF.

16 new IBM i services. The ones that caught my eye are:

• Send messages to QSYSOPR message queue, SEND_MESSAGE
• Return the contents of a user space, USER_SPACE
• Generate a PDF, GENERATE_PDF
• Change user profile, CHANGE_USER_PROFILE
• A series of table functions that provide the audit journal information for Authority failure (AF). Authority change (CA), Object ownership changed (OW), Invalid password (PW) entries, AUDIT_JOURNAL_AF, _CA, _OW, _PW

And 11 enhanced IBM i services.

Four new Db2 for i services, 3 related to the all new Query Supervisor and one to end idle SQE threads in the current job.

Th Db2 PTFs will be available May 14.

In RPG:

• New built in functions %UPPER and %LOWER (about time)
• %SPLIT BiF to split a string into an array
• Control option EXPROPTS(*STRICTKEYS) to stop overflows when using the %KDS

Barbara Morris, lead developer for the RPG compilers in the IBM Toronto Lab: "The PTFs may be a bit later than the Spring 2021 TRs"

Improvements to GO SAVE and GO RESTORE.

A new version of Access Client Solutions, 1.1.8.7, which will be released on April 23 or "thereabouts".

All the links I have found are:

• 7.4 TR4 announcement material
• 7.3 TR10 announcement material
• 7.4 TR4 enhancements
• 7.3 TR10 enhancements
• RPG Cafe
• Access Client Solutions
• PTF details for 7.4 TR4
• PTF details for 7.3 TR10
• You and i blog by Steve Will, chief IBM i architect

I will update this post as and when I find addtional information.