[comp.os.vms] VMS exec question

mhg@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (Mark H. Granoff) (03/16/88)

>To VAX gurus-wizards:
>
>I'm looking into some possibilities, and need some advice on doing the
>following:
>
>If I turn off the bit EXE$V_DUMPBUG in the longword EXE$GL_FLAGS, does anyone
>know of any non-desirable side-effects?

I assume you know what that flag means.  If it corresponds to the
SYSGEN parameter DUMPBUG, then here's what happens when it is not set
(zero):
     If DUMPBUG is not set, crash dumps are written into the page file
     on the system disk (PAGEFILE.SYS), provided there is enough room
     in the page file for a system crash dump.  If this is desireable
     (i.e. what you want), then your page file has to be as large as
     physical memory plus 1004 pages (blocks).

     If a crash dump gets written into the page file, it will be lost
     when the system is rebooted, UNLESS the SAVEDUMP parameter is set
     (non zero).  In this case, the space in the page file must be
     RELEASEd via the system dump analyzer (ANALYZE/IMAGE).

I hope this helps.  (You can find more info (or rather, the *official*
information) in the System Dump Analyzer manual, page SDA-5).

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nagy%warner.hepnet@LBL.GOV (Frank J. Nagy, VAX Wizard & Guru) (03/18/88)

> If I turn off the bit EXE$V_DUMPBUG in the longword EXE$GL_FLAGS, does anyone
> know of any non-desirable side-effects?

My guess is no - because I'd guess that this is *exactly* what the
SYSGEN parameter DUMPBUG does!

= Frank J. Nagy   "VAX Guru & Wizard"
= Fermilab Research Division EED/Controls
= HEPNET: WARNER::NAGY (43198::NAGY) or FNAL::NAGY (43009::NAGY)
= BitNet: NAGY@FNAL
= USnail: Fermilab POB 500 MS/220 Batavia, IL 60510

JEN@VTCS1.BITNET (03/18/88)

In a posting to INFO-VAX, MIKE@uhvax1.uh.edu writes:
>
>To VAX gurus-wizards:
>
>I'm looking into some possibilities, and need some advice on doing the
>following:
>
>If I turn off the bit EXE$V_DUMPBUG in the longword EXE$GL_FLAGS, does anyone
>know of any non-desirable side-effects?

It appears that this bit is equivalent to the SYSGEN DUMPBUG parameter.  A
reasonable assumption is that by turning the bit off, your system won't write
a dump file when it crashes (note this inclues operator requested shutdowns
via SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN).  A quick check of SYS$SYSTEM:SYS.MAP reveals that
EXE$GL_FLAGS is defined in module SYSCOMMON and referenced in:

    BUGCHECK    INIT    PAGEFAULT       PROCSTRT        SYS$IMGACT

To be completely sure of the side effects of your actions, you should examine
the source code for each of these modules to see how (or if) they reference
the EXE$V_DUMPBUG bit.

However, I have a feeling that you aren't asking the right question.  You
state that you're looking into possibilities -- for what?  If you're trying to
remove your SYS$SYSTEM:SYSDUMP.DMP file, there's a much easier (and
supported!) way:  simply rename the file (e.g., to SYSDUMP.OLD) and reboot;
you may then delete SYSDUMP.OLD.

If this doesn't help then please state the problem you want to solve, not the
solutions you're trying to explore.


Jeff E. Nelson
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
jen@vtcs1.bitnet