The OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
%
ABSTRACT
G This document contains answers to many common questions on the OpenVMS F operating system, and covers OpenVMS, and OpenVMS running on Itanium, Alpha, and VAX hardware.
C This document is available in various formats, and the text-format > version of this FAQ is generally the easiest format to search.
, Revision/Update Information OpenVMS V8.2-1
. Revision/Update Information: Revision Date/September 2005
| P Contents | 4J Index |
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Preface
u This is the OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) posting for the news://comp.os.vms/ 4 and news://comp.sys.dec/ usenet newsgroups.
Please send your suggestions for changes, additions, or corrections directly to FAQ Editor |
~ Please do not send technical questions to the FAQ Editor N . The FAQ Editor B is not in a position to answer general questions, nor to G provide general product support. Rather, please post your questions to E the appropriate newsgroup, or please contact your preferred hardware 1 and/or software support organization(s) directly. A Your understanding in this matter is greatly appreciated. |
If you believe any particular discussion worthy of inclusion in a future edition of the FAQ and particularly once you have or know both the question and the answer, please then send the w entire discussion along to the FAQ Editor for potential inclusion.
X Do note that the FAQ Editor takes URL link continuity seriously, and strives to maintain current links. This is, however, a large task, and it is only becoming more difficult. URL link continuity is also something that you can assist with, of course. If you should find a dead link or a stale URL pointer, please notify the FAQ Editor . If you have or can find the current, correct or updated URL, of course, that greatly assists the FAQ Editor . in maintaining the most current set of links.
Thank you!
Please consider reading Section 1.3 before posting to the news://comp.os.vms/ E or any other newsgroups. (What you post can come back to haunt you.) |
Contributors
Many people have contributed to this FAQ, directly and/or indirectly. In many cases, part or all of an answer included in the FAQ has been adapted from one or more postings from the news://comp.os.vms/ or other newsgroup---this though individual citations and specific quotations are generally not included in this FAQ. (The FAQ Editor > wishes to thank to all of those folks who post answers to the D newsgroups, and that have contributed to the contents of and to the " general improvements of this FAQ.)
G The following is an incomplete list of the folks that have contributed F directly or indirectly to the contents of the OpenVMS FAQ. Additions, A corrections, and updates to this list of contributors and to the > contents of the FAQ itself are welcome, and all omissions and C misspellings are unintentional. Thanks to each of the contributors G here, and to all of the folks that have participated in the FAQ and in the newsgroups.
G Jim Agnew, Paul Anderson, Jason Armistead, Zoltan Arpadffy, John AtoZ, E Bailey, (The) Beav, Jeremy Begg, Colin Blake, Fabrice Blanquart, Ken F Blaylock, Kenneth Block, Bol, Craig Berry, Mark Berryman, Jim Becker, G Verell Boaen, Bol, Jim Brankin, Richard Brodie, Robert Alan Byer, Jeff H Campbell, Scott Campbell, Antonio Carlini, Keith Cayemberg, Ken Chaney, H Cristy, John Croll, David J. Dachtera, Robert Deininger, Dale Dellutri, G Leo Demers, Sue Denham, Thomas Dickey, Eric Dittman, Jim Dunham, Eric, G Glenn Everhart, Ken Fairfield, Yaacov Fenster, Gunther Froehlin, Harry D Garonzik, Derek Garson, John Gillings, Andy Goldstein, Clair Grant, H Hunter Goatley, Ruth Goldenberg, Vance Haemmerle, Ki Suk Hahn, SHarris, G Fletcher Hearns, Phillip Helbig, Hein van den Heuvel, Stephen Hoffman, A Eberhard Heuser-Hofmann, Sue Holt, Mark Hopkins, Horn, Jaf, Leif D Jansson, Kevin Jenkins, Don R. Jones, Henry Juengst, inazu_k, Geoff B Kingsmill, Fred Kleinsorge, Felix Kreisel, Veli Korkko, Ruslan R. G Laishev, Norm Lastovica, p_lee, Jerry Leichter, Richard Levitte, Steve D Lionel, Denis Maillard, Kerry Main, John E. Malmberg, David Mathog, A Dale Miller, Dick Munroe, Patrick Moreau, Morrison, otis, George F Pagliarulo, Keith Parris, Plass, pvhp, David Rabahy, Stan Rabinowitz, E Mike Raspuzzi, Steve Reece, Ian Ring, Aaron Sakovich, Warren Sander, B Mark Schafer, Brian Schenkenberger, Atlant Schmidt, Wayne Sewell, @ Steven Shamlian, Sue Skonetski, Scott Snadow, Sue Sommer, Scott G Squires, stfp, Dave Sweeney, Mike Thompson, Arne Vajhøj, Martin E Vorländer, Peter Weaver, William Webb, Williams, Paul Winalski, Uwe Zinser.
Again, any omission from this list and any errors or misspellings are entirely unintentional. Please notify the FAQ Editor F of any omissions, corrections, or updates that might be needed within H this list. And thanks to each of these individuals for their assistance @ and for their contributions, and particularly for sharing their expertise. A
FAQ Archives and FAQ Locations
B The OpenVMS FAQ is archived in (at least) the following locations:
- C
- ' http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/faq/ L
- 0 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.os.vms/ 5
- news://comp.answers 5
- news://news.answers 6
- http://www.faqs.org/ 8
- http://www.google.com/ <
- http://www.kjsl.com/vmsfaq E
- ) http://eisner.decus.org/vms/faq.htm <
- http://www.hoffmanlabs.org
? Other internet FAQs are generally available in these locations:
- 5
- news://comp.answers 5
- news://news.answers @
- $ ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/ 6
- http://www.faqs.org/ 8
- http://www.google.com/
FAQ File Formats and Production Information
G This FAQ is available in ASCII text, Postscript, Bookreader, and HTML, D and potentially in other file formats. Certain formats, such as the F Adobe Acrobat PDF conversion from the Postscript format, are provided > downstream from the FAQ text formatting, and are provided and maintained by others.
As the HTML-format FAQ is not a single monolithic (and accordingly large) HTML file, it is the most difficult format to search using the most common standard (platform-local) tools. Accordingly,K the FAQ Editor F recommends downloading, using and searching the ASCII text FAQ format.
E The OpenVMS FAQ is maintained in DECdocument SDML format and all FAQ ? maintenance and the primary output file format conversions are A performed on OpenVMS systems. For information on the DECdocument + product, please contact Touch Technologies. >
Old FAQ Section Notations Available in Index
D For the folks that are familiar with older editions of this FAQ and @ specifically for those folks looking for the older section name F keywords, please see the index entries located under FAQ Sections F (Old). These older section names include the prefixes DCL, DECW, H DOC, FILES, MISC, MGMT, INTRO, SOFT, VMS, etc., followed by the section number. 1
The Fine Print
D Corrections and suggestions are welcome. Should you believe you can B provide better stewardship of this FAQ, or should you have strong H feelings over the content, structure, organization or implementation of B the FAQ, do realize you may be offered the editorship. The editor C maintains this document as a free service to the OpenVMS community.
E While the information contained here is believed correct, the use of G any and all information acquired from this document is entirely at the E risk of the user(s). If your system should crash or your data should H become corrupted or the answer(s) found here should be found erroneous, 1 that is solely your risk and your responsibility.
H Though the editor of this FAQ is an employee of Hewlett-Packard Company H (HP), this posting and the information contained within this FAQ are is = not an official statement of HP, nor a commitment by HP. All ? information, comments or opinions included, cited or otherwise E referenced here may or may not reflect the stated opinions of HP, of # the editor, or of any other entity.
All trademarks, registered trademarks, servicemarks and registered servicemarks used or referenced here are the properties of their respective owner(s) or holders. Please route any corrections, j requests or related updates to the FAQ Editor
E The redistribution, reposting and/or the web-serving of complete and D unaltered copies of this FAQ document is permitted. Other uses only with prior permission.
( The master copy of this FAQ is posted at
B Translations of this FAQ into various languages may be available, @ please contact the maintainer(s) of any translated document for F assistance or feedback involving the particular translated edition of this FAQ.
A
Chapter 1
Introduction
A If you are searching for something here, please ( consider using the text-format FAQ.
k1.1 What core OpenVMS URLs do you need to know?
If you have no other OpenVMS URLs bookmarked, you will want to be familiar with the URLs listed in Table 1-1:
| URL | #Contents |
|---|---|
| H Core OpenVMS Information, including roadmaps and release schedules | |
| \ http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/ | |
| 4 OpenVMS and Core Layered Product Documentation | |
| C ' http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/ | |
| D Core OpenVMS Support Search Engine URLs, the ITRC support and ? discussion forums, and the ITRC FTP-accessable Patch Area | |
| Z http://askq.compaq.com/ (Natural Language Search Assistant) | |
| / | Y http://www.itrc.hp.com/! | e
| = | Q u5 ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/c | c
| n | > |
| C The OpenVMS Freeware | e|
| H , http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/ | e|
| d | - |
| n* The OpenVMS Hobbyist License Program | |
| A t% http://www.openvmshobbyist.org/a | r|
| e | hL http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/license_software_programs/index.html | i
1.2 What are the OpenVMS Usenet Newsgroups?
an There are a huge number of newsgroups available, some of which discuss topics of interest to folks using OpenVMS operating system. Key among these are the " news://comp.os.vms/ n3 newsgroup and the vmsnet.* heirarchy of newsgroups.h S 1.2.1 What is the scope of the comp.os.vms newsgroup?
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a3 The news://comp.os.vms/ f newsgroup is the primary newsgroup for discussion of the HP OpenVMS operating system and the computer systems on which it runs. Questions about layered products which run on OpenVMS are also welcome, though many of them (in particular, language compilers and database systems) have more specific newsgroups. If a question has some relationship to OpenVMS, it belongs in sB Keith Cayemberg has performed some some experimentation on the HP E Natural Language Search Assistant, and reports the following formula F for easing the effort of locating OpenVMS Support content within NLSA. l eG You can replace the "Example+VMS" with the keywords you wish NF to search for. Important for selecting the OpenVMS content content is , the "&source=1000" at the end. cE Here is an extract from Keith Cayemberg's Programming Examples links: n o@ The vmsnet.* hierarchy is operated by the Encompass users group H (formerly known as DECUS), and contains various newsgroups of interest, ' including vmsnet.misc and vmsnet.alpha.r F Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Besuchen Sie bitte den newsgroup de.comp.os.vms. v yH The comp.sys.dec newsgroup carries general discussions about various HP G computer systems, and specifically systems that were acquired by HP as nE part of the acquisition of Compaq, systems which had previously been nC acquired by Compaq as part of the acquisition of Digital Equipment i Corporation (DIGITAL). ,B Also of interest are resources and conferencing systems including = Encompasserve (formerly known as DECUServe) and Ken Farmer's e OpenVMS.Org forums:i u r ' Extensive archives of INFO-VAX mailingse e3 and o news://comp.os.vms/ g& postings are archived and available at eL SRI International: # ftp://crvax.sri.com/info-vax/ a o Google r3 also has extensive newsgroup archives available at ,t INFO-VAX is a mailing list which is bidirectionally gatewayed to the news://comp.os.vms/ {W newsgroup. This means that postings to p news://comp.os.vms/ w get automatically sent to INFO-VAX subscribers and messages sent to the INFO-VAX list are automatically posted to news://comp.os.vms/ c nD INFO-VAX can be a useful way to participate in the newsgroup if you D can't access the newsgroup directly through a newsreader. Note that E INFO-VAX is a closed mailing list, which means that only subscribers sv may post to it. Please see Section 1.2.4.1 for information on how to A subscribe, and how you can subscribe such that you can post from nB multiple addresses but still receive no more than one copy of the mailings.w rF Please remember that propogation delays can and do vary, meaning that H mailings and postings may be delayed or even lost. It is quite possible C that postings may not be delivered for several days, and that some / postings will appear out of the expected order.> /q For details on the available archives, please see Section 1.2.3.e Y Q) The address for subscription requests is sD Info-VAX-Request[at]Mvb.Saic.Com. Subscription requests are handled E automatically by a mail server. This mail server ignores the subject n9 line and processes each line of the message as a command.i fA The syntax for subscribing and unsubscribing, as well as setting 0 various parameters on your subscription, is: cH The mail server is not case-sensitive; case is irrelevant. Settings and E policies can be retrieved from the mail server, typically using HELP.t lF The INFO-VAX moderator can be contacted directly at the email address Mark.Berryman[at]Mvb.Saic.Com. m a h 1.2.1.1 Using the Natural Language Search Assistant (AskQ)?
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" C http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+VMS&source=1000 =
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" ACMS Examples - Ask VMS D http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+ACMS&source=1000 ADA Examples - Ask VMS iC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+ADA&source=1000 r APL Examples - Ask VMS pC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+APL&source=1000 t ALL-IN-1 Examples - Ask VMS L http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+ALL%20IN%201&source=1000 e BASIC Examples - Ask VMS sE http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+BASIC&source=1000 n { BLISS Examples - Ask VMS E http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+BLISS&source=1000 d n C++ Examples - Ask VMS aG http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+C%2B%2B&source=1000 y r CMS Examples - Ask VMS iC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+CMS&source=1000 o COBOL Examples - Ask VMS lE http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+COBOL&source=1000 Datatrieve Examples - Ask VMS J http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+Datatrieve&source=1000 S DCL Examples - Ask VMS cC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+DCL&source=1000 e o DECforms Examples - Ask VMS H http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+DECforms&source=1000 o FMS Examples - Ask VMS rC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+FMS&source=1000 ! Fortran Examples - Ask VMS cG http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+Fortran&source=1000 o GKS Examples - Ask VMS eC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+GKS&source=1000 n Lexical Examples - Ask VMS eG http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+Lexical&source=1000 > f LISP Examples - Ask VMS D http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+LISP&source=1000 a LSE Examples - Ask VMS tC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+LSE&source=1000 r MACRO Examples - Ask VMS >E http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+MACRO&source=1000 i t Motif Examples - Ask VMS aE http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+Motif&source=1000 o OPS5 Examples - Ask VMS D http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+OPS5&source=1000 / Pascal Examples - Ask VMS F http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+Pascal&source=1000 t PHIGS Examples - Ask VMS hE http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+PHIGS&source=1000 " SORT Examples - Ask VMS D http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+SORT&source=1000 h TDMS Examples - Ask VMS D http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+TDMS&source=1000 TPU Examples - Ask VMS eC http://hp.ciber.net/hp/match.asp?query=Example+TPU&source=1000 h 1.2.2 What newsgroups carry VMS-related information?
a 1.2.3 What newsgroup archives are available?
1.2.4 What is the INFO-VAX mailing list?
l 1.2.4.1 How do I subscribe to or unsubscribe from INFO-VAX?
p > e g
" Command & Description r c
HELP ( Acquire information on mail server o t SUBSCRIBE INFO-VAX Join to the mailing list a m UNSUBSCRIBE INFO-VAX y Leave the mailing list h SET INFO-VAX DIGEST s N Select periodic omnibus mail messages from the mail server, rather than 4 multiple individual messages for each posting. D SET INFO-VAX NODIGESTa n 3 Separate mail delivery of each message postedn s c SET INFO-VAX NOMAILo a M Establish an email address for posting, though not for receiving, mail.o O n e SET INFO-VAX MAILo e N Establish an email address for both posting and for receiving mail from the mailing list.e a
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