[mod.computers.vax] Re

carl@CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick) (06/23/86)

LIB$CREATE_DIR is  also  the  only way to go if you want your operating system to
work  reliably,   since  invalid  directory  formats  have  a  tendency  to  make
ANALYZE/DISK stop before  completion, and under VMS v4.3, if the directory bit is
set  in  the  header  of  a file that has no blocks allocated, then an attempt at
running directory using that file crashes the system, with no privileges required.

carl@CitHex.Caltech.Edu (12/01/86)

In Jerry's response to the request for an easy way to find the length of the
longest record in a file, he neglected to point out that the fields MRZ and LRL
are found in the File Header Characteristics XAB (XABFHC), rather than in the
File Attributes Block (FAB).  According to the RMS manual, the LRL field is
meaningful only for sequential files, but it would appear that it corresponds
to the field named F$RSIZ on page 67 of the 1978 version of DEC's Files-11
On-Disk Structure documentation, in which case it is the length of all records
for fixed-record-length files, and to the length of the longest record for
variable-record-length files. 

RAY@CRVAX.SRI.COM.UUCP (03/07/87)

There are several things that require a CLI in order to work. Run/DETACH
has no CLI associated with the process. Among the things that require
a CLI are LIB$SPAWN and the CLI$ library routines. 

Ray
P.S. CLI is Command Language Interface, i.e. DCL or MCR

carl@CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU (03/15/87)

You're definitely right: optimally, ALL teleconferences should be set up
heirarchically to the fullest extent possible.  Here at CALTECH, we've got
one machine which handles (in theory) all incoming teleconference traffic,
keeping a copy for itself, and forwarding copies to other machines on campus;
these machines in turn redistribute teleconferences to individual users or
machines not accessible to the central machine.  On most VMS systems here, the
teleconferences are not distributed to individual users, but a single copy of
the messages is maintained in a format that allows the users to read it.
If anybody out there is managing a teleconference that is sending stuff to
any machine other than CALTECH (or HAMLET) in the .CALTECH.EDU domain, please
get in touch with me (or KEN@HAMLET) so that appropriate routing can be set up.
By the way, there DO exist gateways between EARN and ARPA that don't involve
WISCVM, but I decline to go into specifics.