zar@XHMEIA.Caltech.EDU (Daniel M. Zirin) (07/21/87)
I found out today that while you can make the logical name SYS$ANNOUNCE point to a string as big as 255 characters, once that string exceeds 128 characters, the LOGINOUT system no longer uses it (you end up with no announcement prior to username: prompt). This is STUPID! I'm generating a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. From The Great Zar
mhg@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (Mark H. Granoff) (07/22/87)
>I found out today that while you can make the logical name SYS$ANNOUNCE >point to a string as big as 255 characters, once that string exceeds >128 characters, the LOGINOUT system no longer uses it (you end up with >no announcement prior to username: prompt). This is STUPID! I'm generating >a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give >some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. That's why there's such a thing as 'SYS$MANAGER:WELCOME.TXT' or whatever you might call it. After a person logs in, and is executing (not by choice) SYLOGIN.COM, there can be a TYPE command to display a text file with 'useful info at login.' +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Mark H. Granoff Member of the Technical Staff | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | USMAIL: The MITRE Corporation | ARPAnet: mhg @ mitre-bedford.ARPA | | Burlington Rd. M/S B015 |-----------------------------------| | Bedford, MA 01730 | A T & T: (617) 271 - 7030 | +--------------------------- Disclaimer ------------------------------+ |The views expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect | | those of my employer. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Unix commands are based on the principle of intuitive complexity. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
BEB@UNO.BITNET (07/23/87)
<Mailers are mudders. This line is mudder fodder, brudder.> > I'm generating >a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give >some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. You can also make SYS$ANNOUNCE point to a file to be typed to the terminal by defining SYS$ANNOUNCE as "@filespec". This is a big win for us, since we have four or five lines of "Welcome to so-n-so, the operator is awake, etc" plus an indetermine number of flashworthy news items, that are added and deleted "frequently"(several times/week). I hope this is accurate, somebody updated my doc set by throwing out all the old pages and putting just the updated pages in the binders. <twitch> Bruce <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> <>Handle: Bruce Bettis <>USnail: University of New Orleans <> <> <> Computer Research Center <> <>BITnet: <BEB@UNO.BITNET> <> New Orleans, La. 70148 <> <> <> <> <>Voices: (504) 286-7067 <> (Assume appropriate disclaimer) <> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
carl@CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick) (07/23/87)
> I found out today that while you can make the logical name SYS$ANNOUNCE > point to a string as big as 255 characters, once that string exceeds > 128 characters, the LOGINOUT system no longer uses it (you end up with > no announcement prior to username: prompt). This is STUPID! I'm generating > a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give > some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. This may be a holdover from the days when equivalence names were limited to 64 characters (remember, logical names were originally intended only to point to files). However, all is not lost. Why don't you put the SYS$ANNOUNCE text in a file (say, SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT), then issue the command: $ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXECUTIVE_MODE SYS$ANNOUNCE "@SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT" The same strategy works for SYS$WELCOME.
BOB%HOWARD%CENTER@UTAHCCA.BITNET (07/23/87)
To The Great Zar (sic) VAX/VMS System Manager's Reference Manual (V4.4) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 2.3.11.1 SYS$ANNOUNCE SYS$ANNOUNCE defines text to be printed whenever a user begins to log in; that is, the text is printed immediately after a successful dial-in, CTRL/Y, or RETURN is received. The text may consist of up to 63 characters. For longer messages, you can precede the name of a text-containing file with an at sign (@) so that the login command procedure prints the entire file as an announcement. For example, you could include a command of the following form in your SYSTARTUP.COM file: $ DEFINE/SYSTEM SYS$ANNOUNCE "ENTER IF YOU DARE" Or you might prefer to print a file: $ DEFINE/SYSTEM SYS$ANNOUNCE "@SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT" If you do not define SYS$ANNOUNCE, no announcement is printed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have a rule in my shop : If I find it in my manual it costs you $10.00, if I I find it in your manual it's $50.00. Not only are you terrible conceded you also appear to very stupid (hopefully just naive). Those of us who have been running VMS systems for a while usually try to consult the documentation before yelling "SYS$ANNOUNCE logical name bug" or running to the net showing our stupidity. Then when we do find a legitimate problem unless it has a great impact on other systems we simply and quietly fill out an SPR instead of trying to show everyone how cute and clever we are. QUIT USING THE NETWORK AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR READING THE DOCUMENTATION SET. I typically don't uncover mail bugs while sending mail to myself, nor do I want to see the time of day in 47 thousand different languages. If you have so much time on you hands. Try the orange binders! "The Great Zar" is an oxymoron. Bob Wheeler Howard Hughes Medical Institute
christosz@ppc.ubc.CDN ("Christos C. Z.") (07/24/87)
Daniel Zirin writes: >I found out today that while you can make the logical name SYS$ANNOUNCE >point to a string as big as 255 characters, once that string exceeds >128 characters, the LOGINOUT system no longer uses it (you end up with >no announcement prior to username: prompt). This is STUPID! I'm generating >a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give >some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. Instead of reassigning the SYS$ANNOUNCE logical name to a string you could assign it to look to a file so the whole file is printed every time prior to USERNAME: . I think the proper command would be: $define/system sys$announce "sys$manager:@my_message.txt" where my_message.txt file contains all the thing you want and it can be as long as wish . Regards, Christos Pulp and Paper Centre U. of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, V6T-1W5 ChristosZ@ppc.ubc.CDN ...!ubc-vision!ppc.ubc.cdn!christosz ChristosZ%ppc.ubc.cdn@csnet-relay.ARPA Christos%UBC.Mailnet@MIT-Multics.ARPA ------------------------------------------------------------------------
DHASKIN@CLARKU.BITNET (Denis W. Haskin, Manager, Technical Services) (07/24/87)
> From: "Mark H. Granoff" <mhg@mitre-bedford.ARPA> > Comments: To: "Daniel M. Zirin" <zar@XHMEIA.Caltech.Edu> > In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, > 21 Jul 87 11:04:11 -0700. <870721110411.016@XHMEIA.Caltech.Edu> > > >I found out today that while you can make the logical name SYS$ANNOUNCE > >point to a string as big as 255 characters, once that string exceeds > >128 characters, the LOGINOUT system no longer uses it (you end up with > >no announcement prior to username: prompt). This is STUPID! I'm generating > >a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give > >some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. > > That's why there's such a thing as 'SYS$MANAGER:WELCOME.TXT' or > whatever you might call it. After a person logs in, and is executing > (not by choice) SYLOGIN.COM, there can be a TYPE command to display a > text file with 'useful info at login.' Close; you don't need to have the SYSLOGIN.COM do a TYPE; establish SYS$ANNOUNCE as a system logical name that translates to @<filename>, and the contents of <filename> will be displayed before the user logs in. For example, here SYS$ANNOUNCE is "SYS$ANNOUNCE" = "@SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT" (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE) and SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT is Welcome to node Kukla at Clark University a VAX 11/750 running VMS version 4.5 (remember that if you're on a cluster the ANNOUNCE.TXT files should be in SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSMGR], not SYS$COMMON). Similarly, SYS$WELCOME may be used for the message-of-the-day text. Have fun... % Denis W. Haskin Manager, Technical Services % % ----------------------------------------------------------------------- % % DHASKIN@CLARKU.BITNET Office of Information Systems (617)793-7193 % % Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester MA 01610 % % % % "Revenge is best served cold." % % -- Anonymous %
helen@uhccux.UUCP (Helen Rapozo) (07/24/87)
In article <870721110411.016@XHMEIA.Caltech.Edu>, zar@XHMEIA.Caltech.EDU (Daniel M. Zirin) writes: > I found out today that while you can make the logical name SYS$ANNOUNCE > point to a string as big as 255 characters, once that string exceeds > 128 characters, the LOGINOUT system no longer uses it (you end up with > no announcement prior to username: prompt). This is STUPID! I'm generating > a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give > some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. I know that there is a way to have SYS$ANNOUNCE to point to a filename and that will allow you to have a much bigger announcement before the USERNAME prompt
jdh@bsu-cs.UUCP (John Hiday) (07/25/87)
In article <703@uhccux.UUCP> helen@uhccux.UUCP (Helen Rapozo) writes: > ... >I know that there is a way to have SYS$ANNOUNCE to point to a filename >and that will allow you to have a much bigger announcement before the >USERNAME prompt Yes, but it is not a normal logical name. (ala SYS$SYLOGIN, etc.) You must precede the filename in the logical with an @ sign. For example to make the announcement message come from SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT, SYS$ANNOUNCE would have to be "@SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT". -- == John Hiday UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo}!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!jdh == Ball State University / University Computing Services GEnie: JDHIDAY == Muncie, IN 47306
payne@watdcsu.UUCP (07/25/87)
In article <8707221212.AA17899@mitre-bedford.ARPA> mhg@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (Mark H. Granoff) writes: > >>I found out today that while you can make the logical name SYS$ANNOUNCE >>point to a string as big as 255 characters, once that string exceeds >>128 characters, the LOGINOUT system no longer uses it (you end up with >>no announcement prior to username: prompt). This is STUPID! I'm generating >>a rather long SYS$ANNOUNCE string with embedded <CR>s and <LF>s to give >>some useful info at login and DEC contradicts itself. Geez. > >That's why there's such a thing as 'SYS$MANAGER:WELCOME.TXT' or >whatever you might call it. After a person logs in, and is executing >(not by choice) SYLOGIN.COM, there can be a TYPE command to display a >text file with 'useful info at login.' > An even better way is to define SYS$ANNOUNCE (and SYS$WELCOME) to point to a text file: $ DEFINE /SYSTEM /EXEC SYS$ANNOUNCE "@SYS$MANAGER:ANNOUNCE.TXT" $ DEFINE /SYSTEM /EXEC SYS$WELCOME "@SYS$MANAGER:WELCOME.TXT" This gives the advantage of being able to make these files however long you want, and of being able to change them on the fly (i.e. to announce down time, etc.). Just make sure that they are WORLD readable. Doug