cts@dragon.uucp (Charles T. Smith, Jr.) (04/04/91)
WANTED: Vax Hacks
I've collected a number of useful VMS lore and trivia over the years -
useful ways to do things, undocumented logicals, unsupported utilities, etc
that make life much easier on the Vax. For example:
Creating a process has a fair amount of overhead...especally when all
you want to do is grab a small file from another node. One way to
speed things up is to keep a NETSERVER process around longer than the
default timeout period of 5 minutes of inactivity. By defining the
logical netserver$timeout to a string containing a relative time,
netserver processes will be retained for the amount of time specified.
I'd like to collect as many of these useful hacks as possible into a
"cookbook" file which would be organized and then made available to the
net. If you have an interesting hack, lore on undocumented features
or utilities, an interesting way to solve a common problem, or even
quick and dirty programs, please forward them to me via mail. All
contributions will be credited in the final document.
Thanks
Charles Smith
cts@dragon.uucp
{backbone}!gatech!emory!dragon!ctsMatthews@Fwva.Saic.Com (Cameron H. Matthews | SAIC | CPD | MS 42 | Room 2161 | 619535-7161) (04/09/91)
cts@dragon.uucp (Charles T. Smith, Jr.) writes: >WANTED: Vax Hacks > >I've collected a number of useful VMS lore and trivia over the years - >useful ways to do things, undocumented logicals, unsupported utilities, etc >that make life much easier on the Vax. For example: > > Creating a process has a fair amount of overhead...especally when all > you want to do is grab a small file from another node. One way to > speed things up is to keep a NETSERVER process around longer than the > default timeout period of 5 minutes of inactivity. By defining the > logical netserver$timeout to a string containing a relative time, > netserver processes will be retained for the amount of time specified. > >I'd like to collect as many of these useful hacks as possible into a >"cookbook" file which would be organized and then made available to the >net. If you have an interesting hack, lore on undocumented features >or utilities, an interesting way to solve a common problem, or even >quick and dirty programs, please forward them to me via mail. All >contributions will be credited in the final document. > >Thanks > Charles Smith > cts@dragon.uucp > {backbone}!gatech!emory!dragon!cts I probably shouldn't be saying this ( and he may not appreciate it ) but if you want the definitive list of these, talk to Jym Dyer ( who is lurking out there in netland ). Back when I was at DEC, Jym was the moderator of the infamous HACKERS notesfile. There were some *UNSPEAKABLE* hacks in there, many of which never saw the light of day in the external world ( thank goodness!! ). Some of the hottest engineers from various DEC teams contributed their favorites. Until, that is, someone realized the inherent danger involved ( I think this was post-Dyer days ) and the postings became merely sanitized versions of pre-approved content. Too bad ;-{ Oh well, it was incredibly fun while it lasted. Cheers, +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Cameron H. Matthews | | Science Applications International Corporation | | Systems Engineering, Head FlagWaver | | La Jolla, Ca. | | Addresses: | | SPAN/Hepnet : {FWVA,FWVC,FWVF,CHM0,MVB}::MATTHEWS | | {28130,28132,28139,28177,28158}::MATTHEWS | | Internet : matthews@<one_of_the_above_nodes>.saic.com | | Sneakernet : Bunker Delta, Silo 2, 2nd hallway, Cell #4 | +------------------------------------------------------------------+