staylor@snidely.UUCP (Scott Taylor) (11/19/90)
Is it possible to read EBCDIC standard labeled tapes with VMS 4.7?
I have brought up my old VMS 4.7 (That is the last update is has)
and have found myself unaware of the EBCDIC capabilities.
Is it possible to mount an EBCDIC, labeled tape as a FILES-11
volume? If not, does the current release (albeit $4500 outta
my pocket to get the distribution) support EBCDIC?
-Scott
--
Scott G. Taylor (Akmentins) Pmd Resources (818) 991-0068
staylor@snidely.pmdr.wlv.ca.us -or- 31230 Cedar Valley Dr.
{wlbr,mahendo,teradyne,sagepub}!snidely!staylor Westlake Village, CA 91362
"Dievs, Sveti Latviju -- God Bless Latvia!"resmgt04@spacm1.spac.spc.com (11/30/90)
In article <130@snidely.UUCP>, staylor@snidely.UUCP (Scott Taylor) writes: > Is it possible to read EBCDIC standard labeled tapes with VMS 4.7? > I have brought up my old VMS 4.7 (That is the last update is has) > and have found myself unaware of the EBCDIC capabilities. > > Is it possible to mount an EBCDIC, labeled tape as a FILES-11 > volume? If not, does the current release (albeit $4500 outta > my pocket to get the distribution) support EBCDIC? > 4.7, 5.3, whatever, forget it. What VMS wants to see is ASCII labels for a Files-11 tape. (In an uncharacteristically accommodative gesture, IBM's MVS *will* read ASCII tapes!) So, you got two alternatives: 1) Mount it FOREIGN with a block size of 80, copy off the first file. This is the label, and usually has three records. Translate this from EBCDIC with the run-time library routine LIB$TRA_ASC_EBC or whatever the hell it is, and find the block length of the following files, which is what you really want. The format of ANSI tape labels can be gotten from your VAX guide to mag tape operations, but I like the IBM doc better ("MVS/Extended Architecture Tape Labels", GC26-4003). Then remount the tape with the new block length, skip the label this time, and copy your file to disk. Back in the label (remember?) is also the record length, so THEN you hack this file into the right size records. In the process, you might want to translate them too, but don't step on the non-character data. This assumes fixed-length records. Variable you don't want to know, just like you don't want to know how I found out all this stuff. 2) Get you some SIG tapes and try to find MTEXCH or ETAPE or some such. Make your life easier. If you're willing to lose your amateur standing and pay for a commercial product, RAXCO Software will sell you something that reads and writes IBM labeled tapes, but I don't know how well it works. I believe the DECUS library also has some programs that can help. -- Bill Robertson "Lots of people can sing louder and longer than Elvis, too, but who cares?" Eval Knievel
bruce@ccavax.camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) (12/05/90)
In article <130@snidely.UUCP>, staylor@snidely.UUCP (Scott Taylor) writes: > Is it possible to read EBCDIC standard labeled tapes with VMS 4.7? > I have brought up my old VMS 4.7 (That is the last update is has) > and have found myself unaware of the EBCDIC capabilities. If you are still networked to a pdp-11 running RSX11M+, you should have no problems with EBCDIC as long as there is no embeded binary data which would preclude translating the WHOLE record. The ACP does it for you.