info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (07/15/85)
From: Charles Hedrick <HEDRICK@RUTGERS.ARPA> The correct solution to the HDR4 problem is that after reading HDR2 you should read and ignore records until an end of file mark. Although VMS currently uses HDR1 through HDR4, ANSI allows up to HDR9, and there can be user headers. So you might as well fix the program so that the next VMS release won't break it again. We have a version of VMSTAPE that handles creation dates and various other things. I have given it back to the author for evaluation, as I don't want to take over maintenance of VMSTAPE myself. Actually, ANSI does not require a HDR2, but without it, there are severe limits to how much processing you can do, so I think it is OK to require it. -------