Transferring Text files to a Unix system

[Kenneth W. Davis]

I have a few text files on a legacy standalone Vax 3000 running Openvms 6.2. I have a tlz06 4 mm tape drive connected to the Vax and I would like to copy the files to tape to be restored later on a Solaris 9 system. What VMS command and syntax can I use to copy the files to the media to be read later on a UNIX system? Thanks in advance.

[Jon Pinkley]

Is tape the only way to import/export data from the VAX3000?

The normal format for tape interchange to UNIX is tar. There isn't a native VMS command to create tar tapes that I am aware of.

You can download a tar utility for VMS http://vms.process.com/scripts/fileserv/fileserv.com?VMSTAR
but I am not sure how much good that will do you since you say the vax3000 is standalone.

Does stand alone mean that it has no network connection? If so, then you could ftp the files in ascii mode to some unix system with a tape drive, and create your interchange tape there.

Or find a more connected VMS system with a compatible 4 mm tape drive, download the freeware CD to the the connected VMS system, and back the freeware to 4 mm tape with VMS backup. You may want to create a saveset at the beginning of the tape with just the VMSTAR (already unzipped VAX exe) since that is all you are currently interested in.

If the VAX3000 has CD, then you may already have a VMS freeware CD. If not you can burn one.

Or you could copy the files to tape in ansi format, and see if there is a way to read them on unix.

$ init tape: xchng
$ mou tape: xhang
$ copy *.txt tape:*.*
$ dism tape:

Whether that is a viable option I have no idea.

[Jon Pinkley]

I wrote: "Does stand alone mean that it has no network connection? If so, then you could ftp the files in ascii mode to some unix system with a tape drive, and create your interchange tape there."

I meant "Does stand alone mean that it has no network connection? If NOT ..."

[Hoff]

There's no such thing as a standard text file.

There are a gazillion similarly-named named systems in the 3000 series, and based on the Alpha and VAX architectures, and even a few MIPS boxes thrown in for good measure.

As for the first, ensure you have or convert the sequential files into a Stream LF format. DIRECTORY/FULL will show the format, and it's probably going to be the so-called VFC format. This conversion can be done with the CONVERT/FDL command and an FDL file containing the target stream LF format settings, or -- with just a few files -- creating an empty text file (COPY NLA0: X.TXT), issuing SET FILE/ATTR=RFM=STMLF X.TXT, then opening X.TXT with a text editor and including one or more of the sequential files you want to transfer, and saving the result.

VMSTAR is the usual tool for creating tar archives on OpenVMS. Acquire the kit from any of various sources including the previously-cited URL and via the OpenVMS Freeware (http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware), then read the provided documentation. (Not intended to be blunt or rude; I too have to read that same documentation or the same man page every time I use tar or VMSTAR.)

Configuring a network is often the easiest approach, and would be tghe approach I would choose if the OpenVMS VAX box had IP loaded.

I'd tend to haul over the TLZ06 itself, if I did not have a near-match (compatible) drive on the Sun Solaris box. DAT tapes and DAT drives can be mildly fussy. It's SCSI, and the Soliaris box likely has SCSI.

What I usually use between OpenVMS and various Unix boxes is IP and sftp or (in a pinch) ftp. But I do ensure the OpenVMS files are stream LF before I transfer them.

As for approaches rather further afield, there are tools to read and write FAT volumes on OpenVMS, and there are tools to read ODS-2 on various platforms. This stuff is generally found on the Freeware. I've used SCSI and IDE zip drives, for instance, to haul stuff between various Windows, Apple, Linux and OpenVMS drives. (SCSI zip is rare now, but there are certainly SCSI disks around.)

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs LLC

[Robert Gezelter]

Kenneth,

First off, what type of text files?

As a more generic note, I often recommended the use of Kermit as a file transfer mechanism in such situations. All Kermit requires is a serial connection, which is often easily arranged, even to a "standalone" system.

When transferring files using Kermit or similar communications programs, I often also recommend the use of ZIP archives as a container. Kermit has fairly robust error recovery, but the formatting changes can create more excitement than is desirable.

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

[Kenneth W. Davis]

Thanks for the response. By "standalone", I mean no network connectivity at all. This is a testbed system that sits within a lab and hasn't been used in the last four years. Yes, VMSTAR would be the answer, but this program is not on this system. The four files that I'm attempting to transfer are files containing "C" code. A DIR/FULL shows the record format to be stream and the file organization to be sequential. If I can't transfer the data via tape media, I'll run a cable to the lab and connect the Vax to our network again. The Vax still has UCX and its host table is woefully out of date, but that shouldn't be a problem. I can adjust a couple of IPs and host names within UCX to effect some connectivity to our UNIX systems and use FTP to transfer the files.

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] and use FTP to transfer the files.

As already suggested, Zip (if you have it,
or can get it) and UnZip can help with any
adjustments which the "text files" may need
upon arrival at the non-VMS destination.
UnZip on a non-VMS system normally has a
VMS_TEXT_CONV feature, whose purpose you may
reasonably infer. "unzip -v":

[...]
UnZip special compilation options:
[...]
VMS_TEXT_CONV
[...]


Otherwise, that CONVERT advice above may have
some value. Actual testing will, of course,
tell you what doesn't work.

If you don't already have it/them, Zip 2.32
and UnZip 5.52 are the current released
versions, and tend to have fewer bugs,
including some involving recognition of text
files, but I can't guarantee that some
fossilized [Un]Zip version will fail.

http://www.info-zip.org/

On the bright side, at VMS V6.2, you probably
don't need to worry about 2GB large-file size
limitations.

[Hoff]

So it hasn't been used.

No modern machine is truly standalone.

See if UCX has been installed and simply not started or not connected, or if a UCX license is loaded. Many machines of this era had IP loaded. And IP is easy to load and configure.

$ UCX
UCX> SHOW VERSION

As for licenses:

$ SHOW LICENSE UCX
$ SHOW LICENSE NET*

Off the top, I don't know what the Process Multinet or TCPware PAKs are named.

The massively brute-force solution here is to log in over a serial line (into the console, for instance), and capture the output.

Before turning the machine off as the last part of its retirement, I'd likely also make a BACKUP/IMAGE of the disks, either on TLZ (DAT/DDS) or DLT, or onto a SCSI disk.

[Jon Pinkley]

Thanks for the response. By "standalone", I mean no network connectivity at all. This is a testbed system that sits within a lab and hasn't been used in the last four years. Yes, VMSTAR would be the answer, but this program is not on this system. The four files that I'm attempting to transfer are files containing "C" code. A DIR/FULL shows the record format to be stream and the file organization to be sequential. If I can't transfer the data via tape media, I'll run a cable to the lab and connect the Vax to our network again. The Vax still has UCX and its host table is woefully out of date, but that shouldn't be a problem. I can adjust a couple of IPs and host names within UCX to effect some connectivity to our UNIX systems and use FTP to transfer the files.

Since these are files and will survive any text reformatting done by the terminal driver, a simple solution would be to take a laptop into the room, and use a terminal emulator, even the built in hyperterminal will work for this. Use a serial connection, capture the output to a file, and

$ type *.c

Then you can connect to your unix system and paste the file back into a text editor, and split the files.

Not a good solution for 1000 files, but for 4 it will probably be quicker than other solutions.

Jon

[Jon Pinkley]

I didn't mean to leave Kenneth's whole response in that last note.

And meant "Since these are C source files"

If the terminal driver replaces tabs with spaces, the C compiler won't care.

The point is that the text files you are transferring don't have to be 100% the same, screen scraping will almost certainly be "good enough".

[Kenneth W. Davis]

Thanks for advice. It took some doing, but we established a network connection between the Vax and our UNIX system and transferred the files via FTP. Thanks again.