topic 8.3-1H1 peculiarity !! (Bug??!!) in Operating System - OpenVMS

8.3-1H1 peculiarity !! (Bug??!!)

The Brit — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:01:25 GMT

As we all know, SYS$COMMON is a concealed logical.

$ show log sys$common/full
"SYS$COMMON" [exec] = "DSA101:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.]" [concealed,terminal] (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE)

I accidentally entered the following command on a 7.3-2 system, and got

$ dir sys$common:*.dir

Directory SYS$COMMON:[000000]

APACHE.DIR;1 CDA$LIBRARY.DIR;1 CDD$TEMPLATE.DIR;1 CDD$TEMPLATEDB.DIR;1
CDDPLUS.DIR;1 CDD_EXTENSIONS.DIR;1 CDE$DEFAULTS.DIR;1
CDSA.DIR;1 CER_RO.DIR;1 CER_SQLSRV.DIR;1 DECC$LIB.DIR;1

etc., etc.

I was a little surprised that I didn't generate an error, however, that aside I noticed that it defaulted to [000000].

I entered the same command on an 8.3-1H1 Itanium blade system, and got.

dir sys$common:*.dir

Directory SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]

VAXINFO$PRODUCTS.DIR;1 _MOZILLA.DIR;1 VAXINFO$PRODUCTS.DIR;1
_MOZILLA.DIR;1

Total of 4 files.

Note, on this system, it defaults to [SYSMGR], and lists (and Counts) the directory files twice. Examining the file_ID shows,

$ dir sys$common:*.dir/file_id

Directory SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]

VAXINFO$PRODUCTS.DIR;1
(17223,2,0)
_MOZILLA.DIR;1 (10141,1,0)
VAXINFO$PRODUCTS.DIR;1
(17223,2,0)
_MOZILLA.DIR;1 (10141,1,0)

however, if I display sys$common:[sysmgr] explicitly, I get,

dir sys$common:[sysmgr]*.dir/file_id

Directory SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]

VAXINFO$PRODUCTS.DIR;1
(17223,2,0)
_MOZILLA.DIR;1 (10141,1,0)

Total of 2 files.

Similarly, I get the correct display for sys$common:[000000], if I enter the command explicitly.

Is this a bug? Or is my system disk screwed up? (and if so, is it recoverable)

Dave.

Re: 8.3-1H1 peculiarity !! (Bug??!!)

Volker Halle — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:13:23 GMT

Dave,

what was your default directory when you issued this command on the V7.3-2 system ? Maybe SYS$SYSDEVICE:[000000] and not SYS$MANAGER: ?

The fact, that files are listed twice, if your default directory device contains a multi-valued logical name, is normally seen, if you do a $ DIR MUA0:*.* command on an ANSI-mounted tape and wonder, why all files on the tape are shown twice. This is normal behaviour.

So there is probably nothing wrong with your system disk ;-)

Volker.

Re: 8.3-1H1 peculiarity !! (Bug??!!)

Richard Whalen — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:15:26 GMT

My 8.3-1H1 system shows the same thing. An Alpha system running 8.3 with recent patches also acts similarly. So does an Integrity system running VMS 8.2. So, I would guess that something was changed in VMS V8 so that the current directory is substituted where it wasn't in the past.

Re: 8.3-1H1 peculiarity !! (Bug??!!)

Jess Goodman — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:17:51 GMT

Very odd. It would help if you included output from commands SHOW DEFAULT and SHOW LOGICAL SYS$MANAGER* /FULL right before the DIRECTORY commands.

It is possible that the backlink for VMS$COMMON.DIR is wrong. DFU VERIFY/FIX SYS$SYSDEVICE: will correct that, but I'm not sure that problem would cause these symptoms.

Re: 8.3-1H1 peculiarity !! (Bug??!!)

Hoff — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:20:28 GMT

What I see here implies you're now learning about how RMS file specifications, default file names, and related file name parsing works (and sometimes goes all weird-looking) in the presence of logical names.

Re: 8.3-1H1 peculiarity !! (Bug??!!)

The Brit — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:23:37 GMT

Volker is (of course) correct.

When I set my default to sys$manager on both systems, then I get the same result on boths systems 7.3-2 and 8.3-1H1.
On both systems I get duplicate output, probably because sys$manager translates to

$ set def sys$manager
$ show def
SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR]
= SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR]
= SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]
$

Thanks Volker (learn something new every day)

(In over 20 years, I have never noticed this before)

Dave.