topic Re: File Version Limit on VMS in Operating System - OpenVMS

File Version Limit on VMS

M C_1 — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 11:41:36 GMT

Does anyone know of a utility that exists that will help manage the file version limit issue on VMS (no more than 32767)? I have written a utility in DCL that searches for files that have a version above 10,000 and notifies me if it finds any but its less than perfect.

I checked the VMS Freeware CD 5 but did not find anything that matched what I was looking for.

Any thoughts?

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Lokesh_2 — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 11:57:38 GMT

Hi,

You can use $set file/version_limit to limit number of versions of any file. Once the no. of files crosses this number, earlier files got deleted. You can set the same for directories.

See online help on SET FILE/VERSION_LIMIT for more details.

HTH,
Thanks & regards,
Lokesh

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Martin P.J. Zinser — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 12:11:56 GMT

Hello,

Version_limit does not help in this case, it just meams your file will not have more than x versions at any one time on disk, but the number will increase anyhow.

You might want to have a look at

http://dcl.openvms.org/stories.php?story=03/11/03/5533108

Haven't tested this by myself...

Greetings, Martin

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

M C_1 — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 12:14:23 GMT

Yes, I did see the help on SET FILE/VER and that works as expected however, the problem I face is once a file get created and its at version 32767 the next creation of the file fails. I was looking for a utility that would search my disks looking for files that could potentially run into this problem.

For example:

NODEX$ create test.txt;32765
EXIT
TCHID1$ set file/ver=2 test.txt
TCHID1$ dir test.txt

Directory TECH:[SYS]

TEST.TXT;32765

Total of 1 file.
NODEX$ create test.txt
Exit
NODEX$ dir test.txt

Directory TECH:[SYS]

TEST.TXT;32766 TEST.TXT;32765

Total of 2 files.
NODEX$ create test.txt
Exit
NODEX$ dir test.txt

Directory TECH:[SYS]

TEST.TXT;32767 TEST.TXT;32766

Total of 2 files.
NODEX$ create test.txt

NODEX$ create test.txt
%CREATE-E-OPENOUT, error opening TECH:[SYSMRC]TEST.TXT; as output
-RMS-E-CRE, ACP file create failed
-SYSTEM-W-BADFILEVER, bad file version number

Thanks - MC

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

M C_1 — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 12:18:59 GMT

Martin - This is more what I am looking for. Only I wanted somthing that would search the disks rather than one file. I guess I could modify it to work for the disks.

Thanks for the info

MC

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

labadie_1 — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 13:10:10 GMT

I think DFU does the job, among many things.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware50/dfu027a/

The doc is at
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware50/dfu027a/dfu027a.html

You can write some Dcl using f$device to find your disks, f$getdvi to check it is mounted and available, and then issue a DFU search disk /version=(min=10000,max=32767)

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Karl Rohwedder — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 00:57:04 GMT

We use a little DCL procedure during login to check for logfiles, purge them to a selectable number and rename the rest to version 1 up to N. I've attached it, may be it has some value to you.

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Willem Grooters — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 02:44:42 GMT

Basiccally, if you just need the version number:

FILE = f$search()
VERS = f$parse (FILE,,,"VERSION") - ";"

vrs will now hold the version number.

Willem

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Ian Miller. — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 04:50:46 GMT

A newer DFU can be found
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware60/dfu/

This utility is very handy and should be installed on every VMS system (you can just copy DFU.EXE - at least with V2.7 that worked). Parhaps hp could start including it with the base o.s.

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Jan van den Ende — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 05:44:22 GMT

Hello from Holland.

Just testing ALL files on ALL disks for their version number wil be a VERY heavy job on bigger systems!.
We hitchhike a little on the fact that we make listings during Backup, and a little DCL procedure that SEARCHes those listings for ";3" (all files with versions starting with the digit 3) into a file, then processing this file to keep just those with a string length 5 after the semicolon gives all files with version over 30000.
IF you are using Backup with .LIS=xx, then this is MUCH more efficient.
I know (from Guy Peleg, who is doing DCL extensions) DCL is getting and extra command or qualifier to address just this problem, but I am not sure whether it is already in 7.3-2 (we're still waiting for that), or if it will be in an ECO kit. So maybe just a little patience (and an update/upgrade) will do the job as well or better
When I get back in the office, I'll attach our procedure.

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Jan Nuyt — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 06:51:24 GMT

Guy Peleg stated (sept 2003, in The Netherlands, the audience applauded) :

$ DIR /SELECT=VERSION=MIN=xxx
$ DIR /SELECT=VERSION=MAX=yyy
$ DIR /SELECT=VERSION=(MIN=xxx,MAX=yyy)

was a "Post v7.3-2 feature"
He completed it just NOT in time to be included in 7.3-2
However : you could ask him privately to get it for 7.3-2 (and prior versions too ???,forgot it)

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Hein van den Heuvel — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:18:13 GMT

MC,
As Labadie and Ian Miller wrote, DFU is your solution do not try anything else untill you tried (and liked) that.

Jan van den Ende,
> Just testing ALL files on ALL disks for their version number wil be a VERY heavy job on bigger systems!.

It will be heavy, but using DFU is will be counted in seconds, not minutes or hours.
The magic there is that DFU scan the indexf.sys file sequentially which will go quick as idexf.sys has minimal fragmentation.

Any DIRECTORY based solution HAS to be slow as is follows the directory structure randomly over the disk to finally randomly read indexf.sys.

Hmmm, Come to think of it... as long as you specify just the name and/or file_id for the directory output, then there is no need to visit the file headers. Do NOT ask fo size or dates in a first selection pass.

Ian,
> Parhaps hp could start including it with the base o.s.

There was talk of that, some years ago, but it hasn't happened yet, and IMHO there is only little need as freeware is so accesible.

Groetjes,
Hein.

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

Jan van den Ende — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 07:28:47 GMT

Well guys (any galls?), I promised our routine.
Actually, it is a subroutine in a much bigger checking routine, so I had to take it out; and I also had to translate the messages and comments into English and explain some more.

So, here it is.
As usual, use is YOUR responsability, don't blame us.
Also as usual, consider the AUTHOR section as unremovable part.

The extension is ",TXT" because of firewall settings, so you probably will want to rename that.

Good luck, have fun, I hope it works for as well as for us.

Jan

Re: File Version Limit on VMS

M C_1 — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 08:50:33 GMT

To everyone, thanks for the support and suggestions. There are a lot of good ideas here and I am sure that I can solve my problem now.

MC