Checking a URL from OpenVMS

[Harold Johnson_1]

Hi All. Does anyone know how I can check for the availability of a URL from VMS?
ie: using a .com file, check that a URL (such as http://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=ca) is available.

thnx

[Volker Halle · Accepted solution]

Harold,

welcome to the OpenVMS ITRC forum.

cURL has been ported to OpenVMS:

http://curl.haxx.se/download.html

You can use it to download WEB pages from an OpenVMS system from the DCL prompt, e.g.

$ curl http://www.openvms.org

Volker.

[Harold Johnson_1]

Thnx Volker. I downloaded the OpenVMS version of the EXE and tried running it with your example, but I keep getting the following error. Any ideas?


%DCL-W-MAXPARM, too many parameters - reenter command with fewer parameters
\HTTP\

[Steven Schweda]

You could also try Wget:

http://antinode.org/dec/sw/wget.html

but for the %DCL-W-MAXPARM problem, you
should read the FAQ:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/faq/openvms_faq.html?jumpid=/go/openvms/faq
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/faq/vmsfaq_stmlf.txt

Look for:

8.2 How do I run a program with arguments?

[Hein van den Heuvel]

Exactly how did you activate it?
With the commance Volker showed?
How did you define 'curl' ?
Did you try using:
$MCR your-curl-location:curl ....

Or did you try having the curl location be part of your DCL$PATH search list logical?

Did you google for help?
Google: +vms +site:curl.haxx.se +"too many parameters"
This points to a seemingly relevant article:
http://curl.haxx.se/mail/archive-2002-10/0119.html

Btw.. you may also try 'lynx' as a simple, command line based, http reader.

Hein.

[Harold Johnson_1]

Yes, I had a brain fart and forgot about the $ in the equivilence name. doh

thnx, it works like a charm!

cheers

[Harold Johnson_1]

How about an address like the following:

http://ila.educ.gov.bc.ca/dev60cgi/rwcgi60?ila&report=DoNotDelete.rep&destype=cache&desformat=HTML

I'm attempting to run an oracle report and get the output back. In a regular windows browser, the output is displayed, but using CURL, I get an:

Error: The requested URL was not found, or cannot be served at this time

any ideas?

thnx

[Steven Schweda]

It's hard to test that URL from here.

Showing the actual command used is often
more helpful than a vague description of the
actual command used.

Did you quote the URL, as it contains DCL
special characters ("&")?

If cURL has any debug options, you might try
to persuade it to show you the URL it's
actually using (after "&" interpretation).

[Harold Johnson_1]

The url as shown is exactly the same URL as put into a browser. It looks like CURL cannot deal with this type of command. I'll keep playing with it.

cheers

[Steven Schweda]

You still haven't shown the actual command.

If the URL is on a DCL command line, did you
quote it?