[mod.computers.vax] Redirecting boadcast messages

SCHOMAKE@HNYKUN53.BITNET (11/05/86)

Is there a way to redirect the broadcast messages that are messing up my
screen? Suppressing them is like killing the innocent postman.
Wouldn't something like

   $ SET BRO=MAIL/DEV=MY.LOGFIL

be _very_ useful? I'm working with VMS V4.3 and have heard that V4.4 has
something within the SMG$ package that does things like this. I'd rather
prefer a one-shot command that keeps me within DCL, however.
                 *
               ^^^^^
      KKKKKUUUUNNNNN
      KKK  UUUU NNNN           Lambert Schomaker
      K    UUUU  NNN           SCHOMAKER@HNYKUN53.BITNET
      KKK  UUUU   NN           Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
      KKKKK UU     N

art@MITRE.ARPA (Art McClinton) (11/07/86)

    Is there a way to redirect the broadcast messages that are messing up my
    screen? Suppressing them is like killing the innocent postman.
    Wouldn't something like

   $ SET BRO=MAIL/DEV=MY.LOGFIL

    be _very_ useful? I'm working with VMS V4.3 and have heard that V4.4 has
    something within the SMG$ package that does things like this. I'd rather
    prefer a one-shot command that keeps me within DCL, however.
 
     
Yes Iwould like to see a way to place broadcast messages in a status
line that would not distroy everything on my screen.

Suggest that it be along the line of
$ SET BROADCAST/LINE=24/BELL/PAUSE


*---Art
*
*Arthur T. McClinton Jr.     ARPA: ART@MITRE.ARPA
*Mitre Corporation MS-Z305   Phone: 703-883-6356
*1820 Dolley Madison Blvd    Internal Mitre: ART@MWVMS or M10319@MWVM
*McLean, Va. 22102           DECUS DCS: MCCLINTON
*

LEICHTER-JERRY@YALE.ARPA (11/07/86)

    Is there a way to redirect the broadcast messages that are messing up
    my screen? Suppressing them is like killing the innocent postman.
    Wouldn't something like
    
       $ SET BRO=MAIL/DEV=MY.LOGFIL
    
    be _very_ useful? ...
VMS for quite some time - perhaps since V1? - has provided an object known as
an broadcast mailbox.  (Technically, all there really is is an "associated
mailbox"; one of these on a terminal with BRDCSTMBX set is what I'm calling a
"broadcast mailbox".)  When a broadcast mailbox is associated with a terminal,
broadcasts sent to the terminal aren't displayed; rather, they are written to
the mailbox.  Some program will then presumably read the broadcast from the
mailbox and do something appropriate with it.

There is no command even vaguely analogous to the one you give above.  It IS
possible to write a program that runs as a subprocess, grabbing stuff from a
broadcast mailbox and writing it to a file.  Not hard, but not trivial either.

SMG provides a function, SMG$SET_BROADCAST_TRAPPING, that helps with the
administrivia of creating, declaring, and using a broadcast mailbox; you'd
still have work to do, though.

It used to be the case (V3) that you could not SPAWN an interactive subprocess
if the terminal you were on had an associated mailbox.  I don't believe this
is now the case, but I'm not absolutely certain.

The place to learn about broadcast mailboxes is in the I/O User's Guide, Part
I.  In the 4.2 doc set, the relevent section is 8.2.4, Terminal/Mailbox
Interaction.
							-- Jerry
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