dtprefs error message in [.DT]ERRORLOG.

[Galen Tackett]

I posted the following on comp.os.vms a couple of years ago but never got a response. Maybe someone here can help.

---Message as posted at c.o.v on April 29, 2004---

In my [.DT]ERRORLOG. file I'm getting several errors that look like this:

dtprefs: colon missing on line nn, ignoring entry "\n"

I've searched all the man pages that come with CDE but haven't found any references to dtprefs, and I've google searched for dtprefs, but so far I have had no luck determining what is reporting this error or what file it is reading that has the missing colons.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Volker Halle]

Galen,

I have NO idea...

Did you consider doing a

$ SEARCH [*...]*.* dtprefs

over all your disks, which may contain related programs and data ? I searched on my VAX V7.3 system disk and nothing showed up.

Volker.

[Galen Tackett]

Volker,

I had something similar to what you suggest but forgot to mention it. (I only searched executables though.)

The only place I found dtprefs was in SYS$LIBRARY:CDE$LIBDTSVC.EXE. Actually, the entire error message text I gave is there.

Does this help any?

[Volker Halle]

Galen,

so maybe I should have searched my Alpha system disk instead ;-(

Still no idea. The only other string in that .EXE file, which could be somehow related is:

_DT_SM_PREFERENCES

I don't have any files in my [.DT...] tree, which look remotely related.

Volker.

[Galen Tackett]

> I don't have any files in my [.DT...] tree, which look remotely related.

Same here...

[Edwin Gersbach_2]

How about the meaning of dtprefs being 'desktop preferences' and the whole message complaining a empty line in one of the resource files in the [.DT] tree?

Check all the resource files in the [.DT...] tree for empty lines and for \n (=newline).

Edwin

[Galen Tackett]

Edmund wrote:


Check all the resource files in the [.DT...] tree for empty lines and for \n (=newline).


Unfortunately it's not at all clear how to reproduce this problem. It's also not clear whether it only occurs on the next login, or on repeated logins. I wonder if some change I make to the session desktop triggers it.

It's also not clear whether the problem is in my "home" session or a saved current session. And it will be difficult to find out since I don't know how to reproduce it.

Once it happens repeatedly, I've hit on a strategy that might help identify the executable that's calling the routine in CDE$LIBDTSVC(or whatever it's called):

Enable image mode accounting, logout, log back in, and disable image mode accounting. Then play back the accounting date (once it's flushed to disk) and correlate image exit times with the time of the "process completion" message that follows the dtprefs messages. This probably won't pin it down exactly but might help me tell which images to check--launch them manually one at a time and see if the same dtprefs messages are produced.

[David B Sneddon]

Galen,

I don't use CDE myself but... I assume that the "nn"
is a valid number. Have you tried looking through
the .DAT files at those line numbers to see if
any of the lines look suspect?
Just a thought.

Dave

[Galen Tackett]

Dave,

Yes, I meant "nn" to represent a line number.

So far I haven't found any of the resource files in [.DT...] that fit with the line numbers. As often as not, line "nn" in any particular file turns out to be a comment or a blank (zero length) line.

(Of course, it's true that most of those lines don't have a colon anywhere. But dtprefs isn't reporting this for many other comment or blank lines.)

And of course it's even more complicated because the problem is hard to reproduce reliably.

[Edwin Gersbach_2]

If memory serves me right, empty lines are (by definition) not allowed in resource files. At least a comment sign must be there. Now, depending on the files record and/or RMS attributes empty lines might be tolerated or not. "\n" might indicate a stream file where a emty line consists of a now line character (or character pair).

just guessing
Edwin

[Galen Tackett]

If Edmund's memory is accurate (at least he as one, unlike current author :-) it's still a little odd. These resource files have not been hand-edited but rather are produced by DECwindows/CDE or its components.

And by the way have you ever seen a message in your errorlog that goes something like:

Illegal mode: fix

This one is easily traced to the calculator, but I don't know why the calculator would incorrectly save a resource value.