E.g., a user with *SPLCTL can work withyour spooled files even if you spool them to an *OUTQ that the user has *EXCLUDE authority to. That is, the “special” authority overrides the individual authority that you wanted to impose.

That’s an example of why they’re called “special”.

Tom

Job control (*JOBCTL) special authority gives the user the authority to change, display, hold, release, cancel, and clear all jobs that are running on the system or that are on a job queue or output queue that has OPRCTL (*YES) specified. The user also has the authority to load the system, to start writers, and to stop active subsystems.

Spool control (*SPLCTL) special authority to users who need to perform all spool-related functions. A user with *SPLCTL special authority will always have the power to start, stop, hold, alter, and read all spooled objects on the system.

If we are talking about a system operator, then I can see where they may need these special authorities, but even then I would think twice. Never would I give these authorities to the average user.

There is an article at http://systeminetwork.com/article/jobctl-or-splctl that gives a good explanation of what these authorities allow the user to do.