purging all disks in one go

[Willem Grooters]

Just ran into this, having GNV 2.1-1 installed (and active), I wasn't aware of this side-effect:

$ SET DEF SYS$SYSDEVICE:[000000]
$ purge/log

This will purge ALL disks completely!

It seems that SYS$SYSDEVICE is set similar to Unix root ("/") and therefore contains a [mnt] directory under which ALL disks are mounted.

Purge in itself, in my environment, is not a problem but you should be aware of the behaviour.

[Stephen Daddona]

What's GNV?

(just curious!)

[Robert Gezelter]

Craig,

GNV is the GNU-based UNIX environment. It includes a shell and many *IX utilities.

Download kits and other information can be found at:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/opensource/gnv.html

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[John Gillings]

Willem,

This is a puzzle... I don't have GNV installed to look for myself.

Could you please show the translation for SYS$SYSDEVICE, the contents of the directory and that of the MNT directory.

Even if there were links, how does it walk down the directory trees? Are you sure it doesn't need [...] somewhere as well?


Could you post some output from:

$ SET DEF SYS$SYSDEVICE:[000000]
$ DIRECTORY

showing directory specifications from multiple disks? (by RMS rules, it should generate the same list of files as PURGE).

[Ian Miller.]

I seem to recall some chatter about this. Do you have any patches for GNV?

[Volker Halle]

Willem,

current version is GNV V2.1-2. One of the fixes in V2.1-2 is described as:

Installation --- Changed default to omitting automatic creation of mount points for all disks

Which version of OpenVMS are you running ?

Volker.

[Willem Grooters]

I merely posted it as a reminder, or warning, if you wish ;).

Environment: Alpha VMS 8.3, including all patches up to 24-Dec-2008.

Craig:
GNV is similar to GNU: GNU = Gnu 's Not Unix, Gnv = Gnv 's Not VMS. As Robert states: it offers Unix functionality (though not complete) to VMS (which isn't Unix either)

John: Sorry: pu/lo [...] indeed. My intention was to purge all files on the systemdisk, not on all disks. (Not that it mattered much, I would have done some anyway)

Volker: Probably the mount points were automatically created since I don't recall I mounted the disk under GNV, so it might be the older version causing the problem.

I have no access to the system at this very moment but I'll check what John and Volker asked for.