Browsing folders and text files using a windows-based software

[Alon Jacob]

Hi all.

Can anyone point me at some free software (either on the OpenVMS freeware CD or on the web) that allows me to brows folders and text files on a OpenVMS machine, such as I would use Iexplore for windows folders and text files?
If possible - editing options would be great.

Thank-you.

[Bojan Nemec]

Alon,

I dont understand well what you want to do.

If you want to access VMS files from a Windows PC, you need a software which emulates the Windows network. This is the Advanced Server (Pathworks) which is a product which is licensed separately. There is also a free product called SAMBA which is more used in *NIX world.

If you want to browse the files on a VT terminal you can use the VTfm (a Norton Commander style file manager)

Here are the links:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/pathworks/advancedserver.html
http://www.pi-net.dyndns.org/anonymous/jyc/
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=735939

Bojan

[John Gillings]

Probably easier to install and configure a web server, and enable directory browsing. There are plenty of freeware we servers on OpenVMS.

[Alon Jacob]

Hello again.

I think the option of browsing using a web browser would be best.
Where can I find such software (for the Alpha, of-course)?

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Alon,

Apache for VMS is dowloadable from the HP website. Take a look at:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws.html

Greetz,

Kris (aka Qkcl)

[Robert Atkinson]

Alon, if you're not working in a production or mission critical environment, I'd personally go for using WASD (http://wasd.vsm.com.au/) as the web server.

It's a lot more friendly than Apache, and comes with lots of neat utilities, including a build in file browser and editor.

Rob.

[Keith Parris]

If you're simply looking for a web browser, try Mozilla or Lynx. Mozilla is included on the OpenVMS Open Source Tools CD under the name [Compaq] Secure Web Browser, or on the web at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/cswb/cswb.html .
Lynx is on the VMS Freeware CD (also available on the web at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/freeware/).

This question is also answered in the OpenVMS FAQ at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/openvms_faq.html

[Alon Jacob]

Hi Robert and Kris.

I forgot to metion that my servers ARE mition-critical which means I can't play-around with them and would prefer a software that won't need any instalation on the VMS or the minimum needed.

Alon.

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Alon,


I forgot to metion that my servers ARE mition-critical which means I can't play-around with them and would prefer a software that won't need any instalation on the VMS or the minimum needed.


I think a little more faith in VMS wouldn't hurt (no pun intendend). Although Apache is a layered product and thus requires installation (and a bit of configuration), it does __NOT__ require a reboot of your systems. We've installed it on most of our production servers here, without any disturbence whatsoever of the ongoing 24x7 operation.

Regards,

Kris (aka Qkcl)

[Antoniov.]

Alan,
before install some unknow (for you) software on mission critical server, take experience on your local software.
Apache is very easy to install but it is a bit complicated configure expecially if you will avoid security trouble.

Antonio Vigliotti

[Bojan Nemec]

Alon,

There is another posibility: you can use FTP. Unfortunately Explorer and VMS are not compatible (when you enter a link like : ftp://username:password@ipaddress/ the Explorer just crashes, it works fine with *NIX FTP servers), so you must use some other Windows software to browse the VMS FTP site (Reflection FTP client is one of this and works fine), maybe some other web browser can handle VMS FTP server.

Bojan

[Antoniov.]

Bojan,
URL ftp://username:password@ip doesn't really work but if you use only
ftp://usernmae@ip you can browse from ie.
If you type username and password in URL, browser can't yet work :-(

Antonio Vigliotti

[Bojan Nemec]

Antonio,

I tested it, and you are right you can login and browse but the file names were not OK (explorer adds the size date and protecton of the file to the filename). I try with Netscape 7.2 and the results are much better, but when reading files the contents are not OK. Maybe some TCPIP$FTP* logical names will resolve this problem, but now I have no enough time to play with this.
Can you give me yours versions? (I tested on a VMS 7.3-2 with TCPIP V5.4 - ECO 2,and IE 6.0 on NT 4.0 and XP - SP 6.0) On VMS 6.2 with UCX 4.1 the contents are not displayed.

Bojan

[Joseph Huber_1]

If going the FTP way, one can replace the FTP server of TCPIP services by the freeware HGFTP (Hunter Goatley FTP).
Download it from :
http://vms.process.com/scripts/fileserv/fileserv.com?HGFTP

It can be configured to respond like a Unix system, which then can be handled by most Windows FTP clients and browsers.
(just define a logical:
http://vms. HG_FTP_DO_UNIX_LS "ALWAYS")

[Antoniov.]

Bojan,
I tested with IE V5 and VMS V6.2;
Today, AXP with V7.3-2 is off.

Antonio Vigliotti

[Keith Parris]

Note that if you simply install Mozilla on a VMS system, you can use it to browse local directories and text files without having to install Apache or any other web server -- just preface the file or directory specification in the URL field with "file:".