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rcp returning success on failed copy

 
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Mike Kier
Valued Contributor

rcp returning success on failed copy

  HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.4 - ECO 5
  on a AlphaServer ES45 Model 2 running OpenVMS V7.3-2

 

I am using a DCL procedure to copy to what I believe is an old Solaris node.  It currently has limited disk space (our infrastructure team is working on that).  We see in the log that the remote system has a failure on the VMS-initiated rcp, however the rcp utility is returning a success status.

 

$       rcp/log ":DISK$xxx:[xxx.yyy]xxx_28544.ACF;1" "unixnnode:xxx_28544_3acc2.acf"
rcp: can't truncate xxx_28544_3acc2.acf: No space left on device
%RCP-S-NEWFILES, 1 file(s) copied

 

1) Is this a problem with the rcp client on VMS or is the remote system not returning correct status information?

2) If it is a problem with the client, has it been corrected in a later TCP/IP services release or patch, or is there a simple workaround?

 

I know I can pipe the command to capture the output to a file or another pipe stage and search for the string "rcp: can't truncate " but I am concerned I will miss other failure conditions - I would prefer the cllient to return a -E-, or -F- or even a -W- condition to DCL.

 

Thanks!

Mike

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10 REPLIES 10
Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

> 1) Is this a problem with the rcp client on VMS or is the remote system
> not returning correct status information?

   Probably, but if you're looking for bugs, TCPIP is usually a safe
bet.

> 2) If it is a problem with the client, has it been corrected in a later
> TCP/IP services release or patch, or is there a simple workaround?

   It's not convenient to reproduce a "No space left on device" error
here.  Can you try something easier, like, say, a non-existant
directory, and does it fail similarly?  Around here, for example, for an
easier-to-test case, I get a more helpful result:

alp $ rcp login.com "sol:fred/fred"
%TCPIP-E-RCP_REMOTEERR, error reported by remote system:
rcp: fred/fred: No such file or directory

alp $ write sys$output $status
%X1764AA52

 

alp $ exit %x0764AA52
%TCPIP-E-RCP_REMOTEERR, error reported by remote system:

alp $ tcpip show version

  HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.6 - ECO 5
  on a COMPAQ Professional Workstation XP1000 running OpenVMS V8.3    

alp $ rsh sol "uname -a"
SunOS sol 5.10 Generic_141444-09 sun4u sparc sun4u

Mike Kier
Valued Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

Thanks Steven.

 

I'm a little hampered by our contraints here and can't directly access the production systems.

 

However, I can replicate your example in our development system.

 

$ rcp ":disk$devl:[devl.mkk]a.txt" "orpheus:fred/fred"
rcp: fred/fred: No such file or directory

$ sho sym $status
  $STATUS == "%X10000001"

$ rsh orpheus "uname -a"
SunOS orpheus 5.10 Generic_147147-26 sun4v sparc SUNW,SPARC-Enterprise-T5120

$ tcpip sho ver

  HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.4 - ECO 5
  on a AlphaServer DS20 500 MHz running OpenVMS V7.3-2

 

So it appears it is returning success where your version is returning an error condition.

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Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

> So it appears it is returning success where your version is returning
> an error condition.

   Yet more evidence that TCPIP is using the Coué system.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Cou%C3%A9 )

Mike Kier
Valued Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

Helpful and educational as well!  (Steven, not TCP/IP Services)

 

I skimmed the online Release notes for each of the subsequent versions and saw no reference to this issue.

 

I need to do some checking around which versions of TCP/IP Services are supported on V7.3-2.  It is unlikely that we will upgrade the O/S version and time soon.

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Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

Might COPY/FTP  be a workaround for the apparent rcp error return error?  (This given security is clearly not an issue.)

Mike Kier
Valued Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

Quite possibly.  We also use FTP extensively.  I'm not entirely certain why the r commands were chosen here - long before my time - but they were replacing the use of an nfs mountpoint when they were implemented.  This activity takes place in a separate firewalled network (designated "black") and the whole purpose is to use the unix system as a common PGP (now GPG) encrypt/decrypt black box with all the keyrings stored there.  The resulting encrypted file is subsequently FTP's to some location outside the "black" network.  It is very clunky and well overdue for replacement.

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John Gillings
Honored Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

Mike,

 

   I have a recollection of not being able to get a meaningful status back from some of the "r" commands, but, just to make sure, have you checked that the rcp command isn't being diverted to a procedure somewhere that might be swallowing the status?

 

  I think I've also been down the path of catching piped output to check status. Not pretty!

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Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

Dedicated encryption and decryption on a server, and FTP and rcp?   This is past "clunky" and somewhere near  "hilarious". 

Mike Kier
Valued Contributor

Re: rcp returning success on failed copy

Thanks John.  Yes, I've confirmed it is running rcp directly with nothing in between.

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