[fa.info-vax] SYS$NET problem

#D14@DDATHD21.BITNET (10/09/85)

I'm using the following Fortran OPEN statement from a network task:

        OPEN  ( UNIT            = 1                             ,
        1       STATUS          = 'OLD'                         ,
        2       FILE            = 'SYS$NET:'                    )

Sometimes I receive a strange error message

        %FOR-F-FILNAMSPE, file name specification error
          unit 1  file SYS$NET:
          user PC 00000E11
        -RMS-F-SYN, file specification syntax error

I've inserted a $ SHOW LOG SYS$NET into my network object.

Here's the translation of SYS$NET of some successful accesses to my
network object:


   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000013B9/....................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000007AE/5...................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000007AE/....................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000007AE/....................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000007AE/3...................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000007AE/7...................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000007AE/....................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000007AE/....................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=00000D16/3...................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)
   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=00000D16/<...................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)

And this is translation of the failure:

   "SYS$NET" = "BR1::"0=000031A3/"...................."" (LNM$PROCESS_TABLE)

                                 *
                                ***
                               * * *
                                 *
                                 *
                000000000111111111122222222223333333333
                123456789012345678901234567890123456789

The 18th character of SYS$NET is a '"'.
This seems to produce trouble with RMS.

Has anyone else seen this problem?
We're using VMS V4.1 und Fortran V4.2

   Reinhard Goeth @ Technical University Darmstadt, W.Germany, Europe
   (Beware of the number-sign. It's part of my userid !!!)

Chris%ECLD@USC-ECL.ARPA (Christopher Ho) (10/09/85)

I have indeed seen the problem with translation of SYS$NET, where
things work MOST of the time, but occasionally fail.  Unfortunately, I
have not figured out a way around it.

Section 8.6.1.4 of the _Guide to Networking on VAX/VMS_ describes a
structure called a Network Control Block, wherein the slash character
is followed by a binary word containing 'an internal DECnet link
identifier'.  Although this is in the section about non-transparent
DECnet operations, I conjecture that it also applies to transparent
operations, and occasionally one of the two bytes coincidentally
equals the ASCII value of a double quote (or some other character
causing problems).

My $0.02...  Anyone got a solution?
-------

linscomb@NGP.UTEXAS.EDU (Thomas J. Linscomb) (10/10/85)

> I'm using the following Fortran OPEN statement from a network task:
>         OPEN  (UNIT=1,STATUS='OLD',FILE='SYS$NET:')
> Sometimes I receive a strange error message
>         %FOR-F-FILNAMSPE, file name specification error
>           unit 1  file SYS$NET:
>           user PC 00000E11
>         -RMS-F-SYN, file specification syntax error
>    Reinhard Goeth @ Technical University Darmstadt, W.Germany, Europe

	I too had this problem, but with DCL.  The following is
the Digital response.  I have not upgraded to v4.2 and tested
the answer.
Answer for QAR #00460:
------ --- --- -------
A problem was found which caused a node receiving a connect request to
occasionally (and incorrectly) ignore it as a duplicate. This would occur
if the link ID was the same as an existing link from a different node with
a higher address. The result was most visible with applications which
opened large numbers of links one after the other, since whenever they
got around to the same link ID, they would time out. The problem is
exacerbated by a second bug which caused the sequence number field of the
link ID to not be incremented.

Fixed in V4.2.
--------------
--Thomas J. Linscomb aka linscomb@ngp.UTEXAS.EDU
--The University of Texas Computation Center
--Advanced Graphics Laboratory

cctj001@UTADNX (10/10/85)

> I'm using the following Fortran OPEN statement from a network task:
>         OPEN  (UNIT=1,STATUS='OLD',FILE='SYS$NET:')
> Sometimes I receive a strange error message
>         %FOR-F-FILNAMSPE, file name specification error
>           unit 1  file SYS$NET:
>           user PC 00000E11
>         -RMS-F-SYN, file specification syntax error
>    Reinhard Goeth @ Technical University Darmstadt, W.Germany, Europe

	I too had this problem, but with DCL.  The following is
the Digital response.  I have not upgraded to v4.2 and tested
the answer.
Answer for QAR #00460:
------ --- --- -------
A problem was found which caused a node receiving a connect request to
occasionally (and incorrectly) ignore it as a duplicate. This would occur
if the link ID was the same as an existing link from a different node with
a higher address. The result was most visible with applications which
opened large numbers of links one after the other, since whenever they
got around to the same link ID, they would time out. The problem is
exacerbated by a second bug which caused the sequence number field of the
link ID to not be incremented.

Fixed in V4.2.
--------------
--Thomas J. Linscomb aka linscomb@ngp.UTEXAS.EDU
--The University of Texas Computation Center
--Advanced Graphics Laboratory
------