VDE
Guide to Using
VDE


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Chapter 10
The Graphical User Interfaces

VDE provides an X Windows Motif graphical user interface, as well as a World Wide Web (WWW) interface accessable via Mosaic. This section is under construction...

10.1 Motif Interface

This section is under construction...

10.1.1 Motif Version Information

The VDE is heirarchical; the display shows, in decending order, the VDE library, the streams within the library, the facilities within the stream, and the modules within each facility.

Figure 10-1 is an example of the facility-level display.

Figure 10-1 VDE Motif Facility Display


This is the VDE Motif interface for V1.5-0. This interface is Copyright 1997.

This section is under construction...

10.1.2 Motif Library Selection

This section is under construction...

Initial VDE library selection is based on the definition of the logical name VDE$LIBRARY. If the VDE$LIBRARY logical name is not defined, VDE searches for the file Motif data file DECW$USER_INCLUDE:VDE.DAT. An example of VDE.DAT follows:


# 
# VDE.DAT 
# VDE Motif configuration 
# file created by: VDE for OpenVMS VAX Version V1.5-0
# file created at: Wed Jan  4 13:32:47 1997
# values:  DEFAULT SETTINGS 
# 
VDE.title:  VDE: OpenVMS Development Environment 
VDE.x:   100 
VDE.y:   100 
VDE.remarksVisible: true 
VDE.fontList:  *-*-Menu-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1 
VDE.libraryVDE:  VSC$ROOTDISK:[VMS.DBROOT] 
VDE.libraryVDEDebug: VDED$:[VDE] 
VDE.libraryVSC:  VSC$ROOTDISK:[VMS.DBROOT] 
VDE.libraryVSCDebug: VDED$:[VDE] 
VDE.libraryLabel:     
VDE.libraryList:     
VDE.sctNotesPrefix: SCT- 
VDE.sctNotesNode: NODE:: 
VDE*borderColor: #545445450000 
# end VDE.DAT 

10.1.3 Motif Library Default Selection

This section is under construction...

VDE provides support for multiple default library selection lists. These selection lists allow a VDE user an easy way to avoid memorizing all the various "interesting" libraries that might be around, and they provide an easy way for a user and/or a system manager to change the default library list, and they provide a shorthand reference to individual libraries. Multiple lists of library defaults are supported and can be created for individual users, user groups, all system users, all cluster users, and for eclectic groups of users based on a shared logical name table. Note that each individual user has access to only a single list of defaults.

There are three parts to each default library specification---the library database device and directory specification, the display value shown to the user for each database, and the shorthand mnemonic for each library. These values are used to access the library on disk, for the text used to display the library, and as a nickname for a particular library, respectively.

VDE reads and uses values from logical name search lists, or from the VDE.DAT Motif resource file, as the default values for various library selection operations. The logical names used for this purpose are VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS, VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_LABELS, VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_CMS, and VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_MNEMONICS.

VDE translates the list of default libraries from the above logical names, or (if the logicals are absent) from the VDE.DAT Motif resource file.

Note

A null VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS logical name definition, or a missing VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS logical name definition will cause VDE to access the default Motif resource file looking for the list of defaults. The null definition logic allows a non-privileged user to override a system-wide or group-wide logical name definition (using a null logical name in a searched-before logical name table) and use a set of default library definitions located in a user-specific or system-wide resource file.

An example of the definition of the VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS, VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_LABELS, VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_CMS, and VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_MNEMONICS logical names follows:


$ DEFINE/JOB VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS - 
_$ SYS$SYSDEVICE:[LIB1], - 
_$ XYZZY$:[LIB2], - 
_$ PLUGH$:[MASTERLIB] 
$ DEFINE/JOB VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_LABELS - 
_$ "Library One", - 
_$ "Library Two", - 
_$ "Master Library" 
$ DEFINE/JOB VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_MNEMONICS - 
_$ "L1", - 
_$ "L2", - 
_$ "ML" 
$ DEFINE/JOB VDE$LIBRARY_DEFAULTS_CMS - 
_$ "L1CMS", - 
_$ "L2CMS", - 
_$ "MLCMS" 

The mnemonic names for the libraries are also accepted by the command (non-graphical) interface SET LIBRARY command. The following two commands, based on the aforementioned logical names, are valid and equivalent:


VDE„ SET LIBRARY ML
VDE„ SET LIBRARY PLUGH$:[MASTERLIB]

10.1.4 Motif Resources

This section is under construction...

See the Save Options entry on the Options pulldown for information.

10.2 WWW/Mosaic Interface

This section is under construction...


Appendix A
TroubleShooting Information

The following sections contain troubleshooting information. And in addition, see the VDE Reference Manual.

This section is under construction...

A.1 Periodic Maintenance

VDE has a few tasks that will need to be performed at periodic intervals.

A.2 CMS Troubleshooting

This section is under construction...

A.2.1 CMS Library Locked

The following example shows an CMS CMS$_TRYAGNLAT interlock error.


%VDE-I-GENDEL, generation [KITTING]STARTUP.UP3;38(38) deleted from stream DRAGON 
%VDE-I-GENRETAINED, generation [KITTING]STARTUP.UP3;38(38) retained in library 
%CMS-E-NOREF, error referencing VMS$:[000000.KITTING.CMS] 
-CMS-E-TRYAGNLAT, library locked; try again later 
-RMS-E-FLK, file currently locked by another user 
%VDE-E-CMSINSGEN, CMS error inserting generation 37 of element STARTUP.UP3 into class DRAGON 
-CMS-E-NOREF, error referencing !AS 
%VDE-I-ROLLBACK, database transaction has been rolled back 
Based on the particular CMS library that caused the error, the following example shows the commands necessary to detect the process holding the interlock among all member nodes present in the VMScluster, and how to (brute-force) free it.


$ Run Sys$System:SysMan 
SYSMAN> DO SHOW DEVICE/FILE/NOSYSTEM VMS$ 
%SYSMAN-I-OUTPUT, command execution on node HELENA 
Files accessed on device DSA69: on 21-MAR-1997 17:50:22.21 
%SYSMAN-I-OUTPUT, command execution on node GALAXY 
Files accessed on device DSA69: on 21-MAR-1997 17:50:24.10 
%SYSMAN-I-OUTPUT, command execution on node DIMOND 
Files accessed on device DSA69: on 21-MAR-1997 17:50:25.23 
Process name      PID     File name 
DRAGONBLD       6081487F  [VMS.KITTING.CMS]00CMS.CMS;1 
%SYSMAN-I-OUTPUT, command execution on node EDISON 
Files accessed on device DSA69: on 21-MAR-1997 17:50:27.65 
%SYSMAN-I-OUTPUT, command execution on node BRYTT 
Files accessed on device DSA69: on 21-MAR-1997 17:50:43.58 
SYSMAN> ^Z 
$ SET PROCESS/PRIVILEGE=WORLD 
$ STOP/ID=6081487F 
In the above examples, the VMS$ logical name translates to DSA69:.

A.2.2 CMS 3.8-2 and Indexed Files

Under certain circumstances, CMS 3.8-2 cannot correctly retrieve an indexed file stored in the CMS library. The file remains valid and remains uncorrupted within the CMS library.


%CMS-E-NOFETCH, error fetching element [name] 
-CMS-E-OPENOUT, error opening !AS for output 
-CMS-E-OPENOUT, error opening [name] for output 
-RMS-E-NPK, no primary key defined for indexed file 
%CMS-F-BADBUG, there is an unrecoverable bug in CMS or something it calls 
-CMS-F-RBKNOTOPEN, File passed to rollback is not open 
This is a known problem in CMS 3.8-2 on OpenVMS Alpha. Do not store indexed files directly in CMS, store all binary files as a VDE "marker file".

A.2.3 Recovering Lost CMS Libraries

If the delta files (the CMS libraries) in your VDE library are damaged or lost due to a disk failure or other cause, you must recover as much of its lost contents as possible.

See Section 7.4.10 for details on how to perform this task.

A.2.4 Moving to Larger CMS Disks

This section describes how to move the CMS library to different---and usually larger---disks.

See Section 7.4.11 for one procedure used to get to larger disks.

A.3 VMS_MENU Troubleshooting

This section is under construction...

VMS_MENU displays generated VDE commands the logical name VDE$$DBG_SCRIPT is defined.

A.4 VDE Spawned Processing Troubleshooting

This section is under construction...

Like VMS_MENU, VDE uses logical names to enable the display of DCL commands executed in spawned subprocesses. If the logical name is VDE$$DBG_SENDMSG is defined, the DCL code generated by various VDE routines will be displayed during execution.

A.5 Rdb Troubleshooting

A.5.1 User Process Deadlocks

Process-level deadlocks occur infrequently, and they often involve high-traffic applications such as database backups or they involve a VDE command that was paused via [XOFF] command.

To resolve these deadlocks, see Section 7.3.1.

A.5.2 Freeze in Rdb

It is possible for Rdb processes to deadlock waiting for the Rdb "freeze" resource.

To resolve this deadlock, see Section 7.3.2.

A.5.3 Resolving Rdb process dumps

Rdb generates a dump file when it encounters an unexpected condition. Under typical circumstances, Rdb will display a message indicating a dump is being generated.

To determine the cause of the dump, see Section 7.3.3.

A.5.4 Rdb run-unit journal errors

The run-unit journal area is a key component of the Rdb processing, and allows Rdb to rollback incomplete or erroneous database operations. And when an unexpected condition occurs with the run-unit journal, Rdb tends to generate a dump file.

To resolve these errors, see Section 7.3.4.

A.5.5 Missing run-unit journal area

If the run-unit journal area is entirely messing, one can potentially see an Rdb bugcheck dump generated.

To resolve these errors, see Section A.5.5.

A.5.6 Rdb run-unit journal diskquota errors

Rdb requires the creation of a run-unit journal file. By default, this is in the user's login device, in the directory [RDM$RUJ], and this location can be altered using the logical name RDMS$RUJ.

To resolve these errors, see Section 7.3.4.2.

A.5.7 Rdb recovery process dumps

Rdb generates a dump file when the recovery process encounters an unexpected condition. Also see Section A.5.7.1.

To resolve these errors, see Section 7.3.4.3.

A.5.7.1 Missing run-unit journal files

A recovery-process dump similar to Section A.5.7 can also be seen when the RUJ file is missing.

To resolve these errors, see Section 7.3.4.4.

A.5.8 Recovering from a Lost Journal File

If the after-image journal file for your VDE database becomes unavailable due to a disk failure or other cause, nobody will be able to use the database and VDE operations will fail.

To recover from these errors, see Section 7.4.8.

A.5.9 Moving to Larger Rdb Disks

Sometimes, one just runs out of storage space on the disk(s) holding the Rdb database.

See Section A.5.9, and Section 7.8.


Appendix B
Comparison of VDE, VSC, and VTSC

Certain VSC installations have three command interfaces: VDE, VSC, and VTSC.

As mentioned previously, the VDE, VSC and VTSC command interfaces all use the same command syntax, all use the same message prefix, and all perform the same basic functions. Table B-1 contains a high-level comparison of the differences among the command interfaces.

Table B-1 VDE , VSC and VTSC
VDE VSC VTSC Operation
No Yes No Defaults to referencing the OpenVMS VAX library
No No Yes Defaults to referencing the OpenVMS testing library
Yes No No Defaults to the library referenced by the VDE$LIBRARY logical name
Yes No No Defaults to processing the command in the current process.
No Yes Yes Defaults to spawning a kept subprocess and processing commands there.
Yes Yes Yes Can operate correctly on the OpenVMS VAX library.
Yes Yes Yes Can SET LIBRARY and can operate correctly on user-specified private source code libraries.
There are no other operational differences among the command interfaces.

While this document generally refers to the VDE utility and sometimes to VSC utility, the information here is also directly applicable to the VTSC utility. And in a few places---where information related to libraries other than the OpenVMS VAX source code control library is presented---the VDE utility is specifically used. For additional information on VSC and VDE, please see the VDE Reference Manual.

Why are there three interfaces? Simple: each was tailored to the needs of specific parts of the OpenVMS community. However, due to the creation of various additional libraries and the common use of these libraries for various purposes, the use of the "stock" VDE image has generally become preferable.


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