ODS2 April '98 Say, what is this? ODS2 is a program to read VMS disk volumes written in ODS2 format. Why bother? Well sometimes it is convenient to see what is on a VMS CD, or copy files from VMS disk on another platform. Maybe in future it could be used as a basis for a PC Bookreader program? What other platforms? ODS2 is written in 'Standard C' with the intent that it can be compiled and run on non-VMS systems. However this requires a C compiler which has 32 bit 'int' types, 16 bit 'short' types, and 8 bit 'char'. The current version does no special 'endian' handling so it can only be run on systems which are little-endian like the VAX. Fortunately that inludes Intel... What else? Some operating system support is also required to read an absolute disk sector from the target disk. This is NOT as easy as it sounds. I do not currently have sufficient documentation to set this up for as many platforms as I would like!! However I have modules to read disks under VMS (easy!), floppies and CD under OS2 (!), and floppy drives under Windows 95 and NT. I would hope to read CDs under Windows 95 and NT soon. If you can contribute in this area I would be grateful! What can it do? Basically ODS2 provides cut down DIRECTORY, COPY and SEARCH commands for VMS volumes on non-VMS systems. These can be used to find out what is on a VMS volume, and copy files onto the local file sytem. What file types? Basically ODS2 can only deal with sequential files. I do not have information on how indexed file types are constructed, and relative files are of limited interest. What about volume sets? ODS2 does contain support for multi-volume sets. However there is no checking that the correct volumes have been specified and error handling is very fragile. You should ensure that you specify volume set mount commands correctly! What about bugs? Who knows! This code has been tested for hours (!) by a single developer/user on one workstation. Contrast this to the VMS filesystem which has had many many developers, millions of users, and has run on about 500,000 systems over the last 20 years. I would hope to fix some limitations and provide better error handling fairly soon, perhaps even put some comments into the code! Maybe the next version will have fewer bugs? It is free? Yeap! It is provided 'as is' to help people in the VMS community. However there is NO SUPPORT! I will try to fix any reported problems, but as I really only get to work on it while the kids are at Scouts on Monday nights, fixes happen slowly! Can I use the code? Yeap! You can use and modify the code provided that you leave the name of the original author in any modified source. I would also appreciate being sent any coding or enhancements where possible for my own use. What is the status of ODS2? This is the first beta release. I am not particularly happy with it in a number of areas - but this preliminary release may generate useful feedback and testing, and maybe even be useful to others in current form. However if you are tempted to use this version for file transfer, please do your own testing first! This program may not be able to handle your volumes and files properly!!! Is more work happening? Yes! I find the program very useful moving stuff from my VAXstation to my PC. If I could write ODS2 volumes it would be just as useful in the other direction! Can I see a command sample? Sure:- $ RUN ODS2 ODS2 b1.1 Beta Test Version $> mount dka300:,dka500: %MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, Volume FOX1 mounted on dka300: %MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, Volume FOX2 mounted on dka500: $> direct/file DKA300:[*...] Directory DKA300:[PNANKERVIS] 3MONTH.LOWUSE;1 (51,20,2) ACCTEST.COM;1 (137,4,1) ACCTEST.EXE;1 (53,4,2) ..... $> copy dka300:[pnankervis.f11]*.c * COPY-I-COPIED 213 records to ACCESS.C .... $> show time 24-MAR-1998 20:15:23.5 $> exit Who would do this? Me! Don't ask why. If you have suggestions or want to know more then mail me at paulnank@au1.ibm.com Thanks for listening! Paul Nankervis