r_wright@mail.uwa.oz (01/22/88)
>.... The problem is that sometimes the ACL on one of these >directories gets munged somehow, causing the directory to be (as near as I can >tell) TOTALLY INACCESSIBLE. You can't look at, much less use, the files in the >directory; you can't copy anything; and you can't delete or rename the >directory. All of these operations result in an error message SYS-F-IVACL, >Invalid Access Control List. I can't even find this error message in _System >Messages_ so I'm even more confused. The problem you describe existed in 4.4 and probably still exists in 4.5 - I have no knowledge of the behaviour in 4.6. The following conditions contribute to increasing probability of occurrence:- Excessive fragmentation of the volume Long ACLs - typically, files which experience the problem have an ACL which will not fit in a single header, leading to... Extension headers A (presumed) timing problem, probably related to the IO rate at the time A Digital spokesperson indicated to me that "this was an excessive-load condition, which tests VMS beyond the design parameters" - or somesuch garbage. You can often get to the file with the 'try again later' approach. Mostly you can prevent it by BACKUP/save/restore (refresh) or by running a defrag utility. Avoid long ACLs - you never really need them anyway. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PSI%505294523000::crobw Robert J. Wright ACSnet:R_WRIGHT@mail.uwa.oz Computing Centre, CSnet :R_WRIGHT@mail.uwa.oz Curtin University of Technology ARPA :R_WRIGHT%mail.uwa.oz@uunet.uu.net Kent Street, Bentley 6102 JANET :mail.uwa.oz!R_WRIGHT@ukc Western Australia UUCP : {enea,hplabs,mcvax,prlb2,uunet,ubc-vision,ukc}!munnari!mail.uwa.oz!R_WRIGHT Bitnet:R_WRIGHT%mail.uwa.oz.au@GATEWAY [NOTE: GATEWAY is YOUR gateway] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~