                                 Introduction         H                    o  Include a valid e-mail address in the text of yourF                       posting or in a "signature" appended to the end.F                       Reply-to addresses in headers often get garbled.H                       Anonymous addresses can also simply be ignored, asI                       fake addresses are regularly used by folks that are H                       "trolling" and by folks that are spamming. (ThoughE                       to avoid spam-harvesting of your email address, D                       consider adding characters or a field into theJ                       address-but remember to include details around whichJ                       characters or fields should be removed or altered ifA                       you decide to be particularly clever here.)s  D                    o  If you are submitting a question, please be asG                       specific as you can. Include relevant informationhG                       such as processor type, product versions (OpenVMSsI                       and layered products that apply), error message(s), D                       DCL command(s) used, and a short, reproducibleC                       example of problems. Say what you've tried solH                       far, so that effort isn't duplicated. Keep in mindG                       that there's not yet a telepathy protocol for thesH                       Internet. (The more detailed your description, theJ                       better that people can help you with your question.)  G                    o  If responding to a posting, include in your reply J                       only as much of the original posting as is necessaryI                       to establish context. As a guideline, consider that E                       if you've included more text than you've added, F                       you've possibly included too much. Never include?                       signatures and other irrelevant material.   D                    o  Please be polite. If the question isn't wordedE                       the way you think is correct or doesn't include C                       the information you want, try to imagine what F                       the problem might be if viewed from the poster'sC                       perspective. Requests for additional detailedtD                       information are often better sent through mail:                       rather than posted to the newsgroup.  A                    o  If you have a problem with HP (or any other C                       vendor's) product, please use the appropriate C                       support channel. Do not assume that newsgroup I                       postings will get read, will be responded to by theiJ                       appropriate developers, or will be later followed up                       upon.                       1-6    e                              Introduction         H                    o  If you are posting from a web browser, news readerG                       or if you are posting via email sent to INFO-VAX,pI                       please turn off MIME, vcard, attachments, and othersD                       mechanisms that assume anyone reading the postH                       has the corresponding capability-use the text-onlyI                       option of your web browser, news reader, or mailer. E                       Usenet is traditionally a text-only medium, and G                       many comp.os.vms participants will use tools that J                       have this support disabled, or that do not have thisI                       support. If the message uses MIME or attachments or H                       such, the text of your message will be buried in aG                       large pile of gibberish, and some tools will send J                       multiple copies of the text within a single posting.  H                    o  If you find that the postings of a particular userE                       are uninteresting, annoying, or off-topic, most I                       newsreaders include a filter or killfile mechanism, B                       and many mail clients have similar filteringE                       capabilities. Please do not "flame"-to email or G                       to post vitriol - any individual that might annoy F                       you, please enable and filter all of that user'sG                       postings. Posting of vitriol and of "flames" will I                       eventually come back to haunt you; netizens and the J                       net itself have a very large and a very long memory.G                       Similarly, readers that decide that your postings F                       are not worthy of reading will similarly tend toH                       filter or to killfile all of your postings. Please0                       play nice, in other words.  B                    Before posting your question to the comp.os.vmsJ                    newsgroup or sending your message to the INFO-VAX list,J                    also please take the time to review available etiquetteF                    information, such as that included in the following                    documents:   4                    widftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/6                       news.answers/usenet/primer/part1  4                    widftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/3                       news.answers/usenet/faq/part1n  4                    widftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/>                       news.answers/usenet/emily-postnews/part1  J                                                                        1-7                                   Introductionf        4                    widftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/=                       news.answers/usenet/writing-style/part1a  4                    widftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/=                       news.answers/usenet/posting-rules/part1u  B                    This information will document the etiquette ofJ                    newsgroups, as well as providing you with the knowledgeH                    the vast amount of newsgroup-related information thatG                    is readily available to you, and where to find it...   1                                              Note   A                       Please do not post security holes or systemd                       crashers  F                       Rather, please report these problems directly toE                       HP. Why? So that HP has a chance to resolve and F                       distribute a fix before other customer sites can"                       be affected.  A                       Most folks in the newsgroups are honest and >                       deserve to know about potential securityA                       problems, but a few folks can and will makesC                       nefarious use of this same information. Other ?                       sites will hopefully return the courtesy, =                       and will not post information that willn?                       potentially compromise your site and yours+                       computer environment.   D           __________________________________________________________8           1.4  What OpenVMS user group(s) are available?  C                    Encompass, the Enterprise Computing Association, F                    is a user group comprised of information technologyG                    professionals that are interested in the Enterprise- C                    oriented products, services, and technologies of E                    Compaq and of the former DIGITAL. Encompass offers I                    newsletters, the Encompass website, and offers various_F                    gatherings and related services, including symposia9                    events and local users group meetings.i  I                    Encompass is a descendent of the organization known as G                    DECUS, the Digital Equipment Computer Users Society.n                      1-8    i                              Introductiono        F                    For more information on Encompass, please visit the&                    Encompass web site:  1                    o  http://www.encompassus.org/t  F                    The organization comprised of customers of Hewlett-J                    Packard Company (HP) that is probably most analogous to9                    the Encompass organization is Interex:C  -                    o  http://www.interex.org/n  B                    Like Encompass, Interex offers various servicesF                    and events of interest to folks that presently workG                    with and/or that wish to learn about HP products and I                    offerings. Please see the Interex website for details.   D           __________________________________________________________7           1.5  OpenVMS Support, Questions and Comments?   F                    The following section includes contacts for OpenVMSG                    Feedback, and information on how to obtain technicali'                    support information.t  '           _____________________________ @           1.5.1  Corporate contacts for OpenVMS Business Issues?  J                    The HP corporate contact for OpenVMS business issues isI                    Ann McQuaid, the HP General Manager directly in charge_D                    of OpenVMS and OpenVMS Engineering, while featureF                    requests and other related matters should be routedE                    to MaryJane Vazquez, the OpenVMS Business Manager.   H                    Ann and MaryJane will quite obviously respond best toJ                    cogently-worded OpenVMS corporate-level business issuesE                    or requests. With all due respect to all involved, H                    neither Ann nor MaryJane are appropriate contacts forF                    technical support matters nor for technical supportJ                    requests, nor for any other non-corporate-related, non-J                    business-related issues-these questions are best routedG                    to the local or regional customer support center; to @                    the support, technical and engineering teams.  H                    To reach Ann or MaryJane via electronic mail, place aH                    dot between the first and the surname, and append the*                    expected HP.COM domain.  J                                                                        1-9 r  a                              Introductions      '           _____________________________d%           1.5.2  OpenVMS Ambassadors?g  G                    The OpenVMS Ambassadors are senior HP engineers withaH                    advanced technical knowledge and advanced training inI                    OpenVMS, with detailed knowledge of current and futureeH                    OpenVMS releases and product plans, and with contactsE                    directly with the HP and ISV hardware and software9C                    engineering organizations developing OpenVMS and J                    OpenVMS hardware platforms, as well as layered productsG                    and tools. Further, Ambassadors are experienced with B                    integrating HP OpenVMS and application-specificB                    products and ISV applications to solve specific)                    business requirements.a  F                    OpenVMS Ambassadors are based throughout the world.  F                    Your HP sales representative or HP reseller will beG                    able connect you with your local OpenVMS Ambassador.l  '           _____________________________ D           1.5.3  Contact for OpenVMS Marketing Issues and Questions?  *                    Please see Section 3.4.  '           _____________________________u;           1.5.4  Contact URLs for OpenVMS Technical Issues?   E                    For formal technical issues and technical support,sH                    please contact your software support organization, orH                    your local HP Customer Support Center or HP Reseller.B                    In North America, you can call 1-800-HP-INVENT.  =                    For informal (free) support resources, seei9                    the newsgroups including comp.os.vms ( >                    news://comp.os.vms/  comp.os.vms ), see the<                    ITRC discussion forums, the James supportC                    database search engine (search assistant tool) (sC                    http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/james/CPQhome.doyE                    ), and see sections of this document including the H                    platform support information in Section 14.4, sourcesE                    of software and hardware support in Section 14.15,oE                    information on third-party devices and unsupportedoI                    hardware in Section 14.25, and the many other sectionss$                    of this document.                      1-10n o                                 Introductionc        J                    Please remember to review and to bookmark the following                     support URLs:  3                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/s  F                    o  http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/james/CPQhome.do  E                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/wizard/ (reference >                       only; use ITRC forums for new questions)  <                    o  ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/                                                                  J                                                                       1-11 g                       J                    _______________________________________________________  &           2        General Information      D           __________________________________________________________4           2.1  What is OpenVMS? What is its history?  J                    OpenVMS, originally called VMS (Virtual Memory System),H                    was first conceived in 1976 as a new operating systemC                    for the then-new, 32-bit, virtual memory line of C                    computers, eventually named VAX (Virtual Address_                    eXtension).  J                    The first VAX model, the 11/780, was code-named "Star",D                    hence the code name for the VMS operating system,F                    "Starlet", a name that remains to this day the nameD                    for the system library files (STARLET.OLB, etc.).  H                    VMS version X0.5 was the first released to customers,J                    in support of the hardware beta test of the VAX-11/780,G                    in 1977. VAX/VMS Version V1.0 shipped in 1978, along 7                    with the first revenue-ship 11/780s.o  >                    OpenVMS was designed entirely within HP andC                    specifically within the former Digital EquipmentnH                    Corporation (DIGITAL). Two of the principal designersI                    were Dave Cutler and Dick Hustvedt, though with a wideeG                    variety of other contributors. OpenVMS was conceivedsD                    as a 32-bit, virtual memory successor to the RSX-C                    11M operating system for the PDP-11. Many of thehD                    original designers and programmers of OpenVMS hadG                    worked previously on RSX-11M, and many concepts fromm8                    RSX-11M were carried over to OpenVMS.  I                    OpenVMS VAX is a 32-bit, multitasking, multiprocessingt;                    virtual memory operating system. CurrentiA                    implementations run on VAX systems from HP andtC                    other vendors, as well as on hardware emulators;sF                    for additional information on emulators, please see$                    Section 13.12 and    J                                                                        2-1    R          &                    General Information        J                    OpenVMS Alpha is a 64-bit multitasking, multiprocessing;                    virtual memory operating system. Current J                    implementations run on Alpha systems from HP, and other                    vendors.e  B                    OpenVMS has also been ported to the Intel IA-64A                    architecture, and specifically to HP Integrity G                    systems using microprocessors from the Intel Itanium F                    Processor Family. This implementation of OpenVMS isI                    officially known as "HP OpenVMS for Integrity Servers" F                    and more commonly as "OpenVMS I64", and it operatesC                    in the native Itanium IA-64 architecture and 64- D                    bit environment. OpenVMS I64 provides support forJ                    applications requiring 32- or 64-bit virtual addressingI                    capabilities entirely within the native 64-bit Itanium J                    execution environment. (For details on this and related;                    terminology, please see Section 14.4.5.)y  G                    For more details on OpenVMS and its features, pleasepD                    read the OpenVMS Software Product Description at:  9                    o  http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/d  H                       OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx,'                       and SPD 82.35.xx.l  D                    Additional information on the general features ofJ                    various OpenVMS releases, release dates, as well as theJ                    development project code names of specific releases, is                     available at:  G                    o  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/os/openvms- *                       release-history.html  H                    Additional historical information-as well as picturesH                    and a variety of other trivia-is available in the VAX)                    20th anniversary book:l  L                    o  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/20th/vmsbook.pdf  J                    For information on the FreeVMS project, and on hobbyistC                    and educational versions of OpenVMS, please see:p  K                    o  http://www.systella.fr/~bertrand/FreeVMS/indexGB.htmli  :                    o  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeVMS  5                    o  http://www.openvmshobbyist.org/y                      2-2    t          &                    General Information        0                    o  http://www.openvmsedu.com/  H                    Also please see the related software licensing topicsF                    Section 2.8.4, Section 2.8.1, and Section 2.15, andI                    (for developers working on commercial applications fort*                    OpenVMS) Section 2.8.3.  D           __________________________________________________________>           2.2  What is the difference between VMS and OpenVMS?  G                    VMS and OpenVMS are two names for the same operating F                    system. Originally, the operating system was calledF                    VAX-11/VMS; it changed to VAX/VMS at around VAX/VMSH                    V2.0. When the VMS operating system was ported to theG                    Alpha platform, it was renamed OpenVMS, for both VAXoG                    and Alpha (and for the Itanium Processor Family), in_J                    part to signify the high degree of support for industryH                    standards such as POSIX, which provides many features#                    of UNIX systems.t  D                    For those versions with POSIX, an OpenVMS licenseE                    allows you to install and run POSIX for OpenVMS atpF                    no additional charge; all you need is the media andG                    documentation which can be found on the Consolidated J                    Distribution and On-Line Documentation CD-ROMs. SupportH                    for the POSIX package on more recent OpenVMS releasesI                    is not available, various parts of POSIX such as calls G                    from the API are being integrated more directly into E                    OpenVMS. For more information on POSIX for VMS see !                    question SOFT2;  E                    What became confusing is that the OpenVMS name wasnD                    introduced first for OpenVMS AXP V1.0 causing theF                    widespread misimpression that OpenVMS was for AlphaF                    AXP only, while "regular VMS" was for VAX. In fact,D                    the official name of the VAX operating system wasJ                    changed as of V5.5, though the name did not start to be;                    actually used in the product until V6.0.             J                                                                        2-3               &                    General Information      D           __________________________________________________________:           2.3  What's in a Name? Terminology and Products?  H                    The proper names for OpenVMS on the various platformsI                    are "OpenVMS VAX", "OpenVMS Alpha", and "OpenVMS I64".dH                    Use of "OpenVMS AXP" and of "VAX/VMS" are deprecated.  F                    The VAX and Alpha terms are largely interchangeablyB                    used as the names of platforms, of processor orH                    microprocessor implementations, and of the respective+                    computing architectures.T  G                    Somewhat confusing to long-time OpenVMS users, Intel J                    IA-32, IA-64, and EM64T, and AMD AMD64 are the names ofG                    various computing architectures and of architectural"C                    extensions. Only. These are not the names of anys9                    implementations, nor of any platforms.e  J                    Intel Itanium is the name of a family of microprocessorF                    implementations of the Intel IA-64 architecture, asF                    Intel Pentium and Xeon are the names of families ofD                    microprocessor implementations of Intel IA-32 and9                    (potentially) of the EM64T extensions.i  G                    I64 is the generic name for the various HP IntegrityaJ                    platforms supported by HP OpenVMS for Integrity ServersJ                    (and more commonly as "OpenVMS I64"); for the platformsD                    supported by OpenVMS I64. (For additional related;                    terminology, please see Section 14.4.5.)h  '           _____________________________m3           2.3.1  How do I port from VMS to OpenVMS?   @                    You already did. Wasn't that easy? Please see+                    Section 2.2 for details.o  D           __________________________________________________________0           2.4  Which is better, OpenVMS or UNIX?  H                    This question comes up periodically, usually asked byI                    new subscribers and new posters who are long-time UNIXlE                    or Linux users. Sometimes, the question is ignored E                    totally; other times, it leads to a long series of G                    repetitive messages that convince no one and usuallyiJ                    carry little if any new information. Please do everyoneJ                    a favor and avoid re-starting this perpetual, fruitless                    debate.                      2-4    e          &                    General Information        G                    That said, OpenVMS and the better implementations of E                    UNIX are all fine operating systems, each with its D                    strengths and weaknesses. If you're in a positionE                    where you need to choose, select the one that bestfH                    fits your own requirements, considering, for example,E                    whether or not the layered products or specific OS G                    features you want are available, and considering the F                    expected cost-of-ownership over the lifetime of the'                    system installation.i  D                    If you are asking this question, you are probablyC                    comparing OpenVMS to UNIX. It was once certainly C                    true that OpenVMS and UNIX were quite different.nF                    In more recent times, there are tools and C APIs onG                    OpenVMS that directly provide or that easily support D                    porting UNIX programs and commands, and there areH                    equivalent packages bringing various OpenVMS features4                    and mechanisms to UNIX platforms.  D                    If you seek UNIX tools on OpenVMS rather than theG                    more philosophical discussion found in this section, G                    please see the GNV package and other GNU discussionseD                    in Section 13.2.6, and please see the plethora ofC                    C calls currently available in the HP C Run-TimedC                    Library documentation, briefly discussed over ing"                    Section 13.2.1.  D           __________________________________________________________@           2.5  Is HP continuing funding and support for OpenVMS?                      Yes.i  J                    Active development of new OpenVMS releases is underway,:                    as well as the continuation of support.  G                    Please see the following URLs for details, roadmaps,l+                    and related information:   3                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/           J                                                                        2-5 _  _          &                    General Information      D           __________________________________________________________<           2.6  What OpenVMS distribution kits are available?  7                    Various distributions are available.   I                    For the most current information on the available part E                    numbers and current products (OpenVMS distributionwH                    kits, media, documentation, etc) and the most currentC                    associated licensing information, please see the E                    current OpenVMS Software Product Description (SPD)_*                    document, available at:  9                    o  http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/   H                       OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx,'                       and SPD 82.35.xx.   C                    The CD-ROMs listed in Table 2-1 contain just thewG                    OpenVMS Alpha operating system. The operating systemtI                    distribution kits are bootable, and can be used to run J                    BACKUP from the optical media, as well as performing an+                    installation or upgrade.   J           ________________________________________________________________-           Table 2-1  OpenVMS Alpha Media Kits,  J                    _______________________________________________________J                    Part______________Description__________________________  D                    QA-MT1AG-H8       OpenVMS Alpha V6.2-1H3 hardwareF                                      release CD-ROM; also requires QA-1                                      MT1AA-H8.6.2   E                    QA-MT1AR-H8       OpenVMS Alpha V7.1-2 maintenance_3                                      release CD-ROMa  E                    QA-MT1AT-H8       OpenVMS Alpha V7.2-1 maintenance_3                                      release CD-ROM   E                    QA-MT1AU-H8       OpenVMS Alpha V7.2-2 maintenance 3                                      release CD-ROMd  G                    QA-MT3AA-H8       OpenVMS Alpha and VAX products and-<                                      documentation on CD-ROM  H                    QA-MT3AE-H8       OpenVMS Alpha and VAX documentationJ           ___________________________on_CD-ROM____________________________  F                    OpenVMS I64 is distributed on DVD-ROM media, and isF                    bootable. OpenVMS I64 licensing is implemented on aG                    per-processor-socket basis, with the classic licenseO                      2-6 T  -          &                    General Information        G                    tiers based on the numbers of processor sockets that-E                    can be present. Further, three general product and_D                    licensing groupings are optionally available withD                    OpenVMS I64, the Foundation Operating EnvironmentI                    (FOE), the Enterprise Operating Environment (EOE), and H                    (as/when/if available) the Mission Critical OperatingH                    Environment (MCOE). Seperate per-product licenses areG                    generally also available for various of the productsa;                    within the Operating Environment groups.   J           ________________________________________________________________.           Table 2-2  OpenVMS I64 Order Numbers  J                    _______________________________________________________J                    Part______________Description__________________________  <                    BA322AA#???       OpenVMS I64 FOE Product  <                    BA323AA#???       OpenVMS I64 EOE Product  J           _________BA324AA#???_______OpenVMS_I64_MCOE_Product_____________  D                    The product suffix required for the order numbersA                    listed in Table 2-2 can be found in Table 2-3.O  J           ________________________________________________________________-           Table 2-3  OpenVMS I64 Media Suffix_  J                    _______________________________________________________J                    Suffix____________Description__________________________  C                    A18               OpenVMS I64 FOE V8.2 DVD media_  >                    AJR               OE media kit on DVD media  J           _________0D1_______________Factory_installation_________________  H                    The OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64 sourceD                    listings sets referenced in Table 2-4 include theI                    source listings of most of OpenVMS, and these machine- F                    readable distributions are invaluable for any folksJ                    working directly with OpenVMS internals, as well as forI                    folks interested in seeing examples of various OpenVMS *                    programming interfaces.  J                                                                        2-7 p  M          &                    General Information        J           ________________________________________________________________1           Table 2-4  OpenVMS Source Listings Kitsl  J                    _______________________________________________________J                    Part______________Description__________________________  J                    QB-MT1AB-E8       OpenVMS Alpha Source Listings kit and,                                      license  J                    QT-MT1AB-Q8       OpenVMS Alpha Source Listings Updates  H                    BA422AA           OpenVMS I64 Source Listings kit and,                                      license  H                    QB-001AB-E8       OpenVMS VAX Source Listings kit and,                                      license  H                    QT-001AB-Q8       OpenVMS VAX Source Listings Updates  H                    BA422AA           OpenVMS I64 source listings kit andJ           ___________________________license______________________________  I                    Additional OpenVMS packages and technologies including D                    NetBeans, XML, SOAP, UDDI, JDK, Perl, Tomcat, SSLG                    and such are discussed within the OpenVMS e-Business I                    Infrastructure Package SPD 80.58.xx. Again, please see I                    the OpenVMS SPD and the documents and parts referenced :                    there for the most current information.  =                    For information on non-commercial software_F                    distributions for use by and for OpenVMS Hobbyists,,                    please see Section 2.8.1.  '           _____________________________ G           2.6.1  Where can I download OpenVMS and Layered Product Kits?   D                    HP customers with commercial licenses and supportG                    contracts can download software product distributionn6                    kits from the following HP website:  *                    o  http://www1.sqp.com/  E                    You can also find pointers to the Software Rollout G                    Report and to the OpenVMS SPD listings via the above                     SQP website._                      2-8 e  c          &                    General Information        D                    Information on obtaining and transfering licensesG                    is available in Section 2.6 and Section 2.8.4, while H                    information on the OpenVMS Hobbyist licensing programI                    and on obtaining hobbyist product distribution kits ise$                    in Section 2.8.1.  D           __________________________________________________________3           2.7  In what language is OpenVMS written?   E                    OpenVMS is written in a wide variety of languages.   A                    In no particular order, OpenVMS components are H                    implemented using Bliss, Macro, Ada, PLI, VAX and DECG                    C, Fortran, UIL, VAX and Alpha SDL, Pascal, MDL, DEC I                    C++, DCL, Message, and Document. And this is certainly F                    not a complete list. However, the rumor is NOT trueI                    that an attempt was made to write pieces of OpenVMS in J                    every supported language so that the Run-Time LibrariesI                    could not be unbundled. (APL, BASIC, COBOL and RPG are ?                    just some of the languages NOT represented!)   F                    There are a large variety of small and not-so-smallI                    tools and DCL command procedures that are used as part I                    of the OpenVMS build, and a source code control system H                    capable of maintaining over a hundred thousand sourceG                    files across multiple parallel development projects, ,                    and overlapping releases.  D           __________________________________________________________:           2.8  Obtaining and Transfering OpenVMS licenses?  ?                    The following sections describe hobbyist andLJ                    educational license programs, as well as information on5                    commercial licenses and transfers.   F                    For information on the available commercial OpenVMSE                    licenses and for information on license transfers, F                    please see Section 2.8.4. OpenVMS Hobbyist licensesB                    are discussed in Section 2.8.1. For informationC                    on the licensing implementation, troubleshootingnG                    licensing problems, on the License Unit Requirements,F                    Table (LURT), and other related details, please seeI                    Section 5.39. For configuring and troubleshooting LMF,l$                    see Section 12.4.  J                                                                        2-9    .          &                    General Information      '           _____________________________ ?           2.8.1  Questions asked by Hobbyist OpenVMS licensees?n  E                    If you are a member of an HP-recognized user grouptG                    (eg: Encompass, Enterex, DECUS), and are consideringeJ                    acquiring and using a VAX, Alpha or (soon) IA-64 systemD                    for hobbyist (non-commercial) use, (free) licenseE                    product authorization keys (PAKs) for OpenVMS VAX, C                    OpenVMS Alpha, and (reportedly) OpenVMS I64, and_2                    layered products are available.  C                    In addition to the license keys, OpenVMS VAX andnB                    Alpha distribution CD-ROM distribution kits areC                    available with OpenVMS, DECwindows Motif, DECnetiB                    and TCP/IP networking, compilers, and a varietyD                    of layered products. (A hobbyist distribution forD                    OpenVMS I64 is expected.) (While the hobbyist CD-F                    ROM distributions are intended for and tailored forJ                    OpenVMS Hobbyists, the contents and capabilities of theI                    Hobbyist installation kits included within the OpenVMSoH                    Hobbyist distribution do not differ from the standardJ                    distribution installation kits. The products are chosenE                    to reflect the most popular products and the space +                    available on the media.)h  J                    If you have questions on what else is authorized by theI                    license agreement and on what other distribution mediabH                    is available to you, well, please read the applicable1                    software license agreement(s).i  ;                    For further information, please link to:r  5                    o  http://www.openvmshobbyist.org/   D                    On the OpenVMS Hobbyist license registration formD                    at the above website (as of August 2005), you areJ                    offered the choice of the "OpenVMS VAX" license(s), theI                    "OpenVMS Alpha" license(s), and the "Layered Products"aG                    licenses. You will want the operating system license D                    for your particular OpenVMS platform and you willF                    want the "Layered Products" licenses. You will wantE                    to select and to acquire two sets of license PAKs.o  G                    For vendors wishing to license products specifically E                    for hobbyist use (and to not issue hobbyist PAKs),eF                    the program provides hobbyists with the license PAK$                    OPENVMS-HOBBYIST.                      2-10s    e          &                    General Information        B                    If you plan to use a hardware emulator (eg: VAXG                    emulator) on a Microsoft Windows platform, make suresC                    you have an OpenVMS distribution kit that can besG                    installed and/or booted with the particular emulator I                    package you plan to use. For additional information oniG                    emulators, please see Section 13.12 and particularly A                    please see the emulator-related documentation.n  '           _____________________________ 5           2.8.1.1  Vendors offering Hobbyist Licensesu  )                    o  GrayMatter Softwares=                       http://www.graysoft.com/GSCHobbyPR.htmlh=                       http://www.graysoft.com/GSCHobbyPR.html   %                    o  Argent Softwarep@                       http://jams.argent-software.com/hobby.html                      o  Kednos,                       http://www.kednos.com/                      o  LJKr$                       http://ljk.com  &                    o  Process SoftwareB                       http://www.process.com/openvms/hobbyist.html                      o  Raxco 4                       http://www.raxco.com/hobbyist/  <                    o  Software Resources International (SRI)E                       http://www.softresint.com/charon-vax/Tools_and_j                       tips.htm  F                    Hobbyist license product additions, and any updatesG                    for products already listed here are welcome. PleasemE                    contact the FAQ Editor (hoff{atsign}hp{period}com)/  '           _____________________________ 7           2.8.2  OpenVMS Educational and CSLG licenses?w  F                    For information on OpenVMS licenses for educational?                    customers, please see the HP Campus SoftwarerG                    License Grant (CSLG) license program and the OpenVMSH/                    Educational license program:s  0                    o  http://www.openvmsedu.com/  J                                                                       2-11 {  i          &                    General Information      '           _____________________________LB           2.8.3  What developer and partner licensing programs are                  available?   F                    Commercial software developers can join the HP DSPPC                    program, and can (potentially) receive discounts D                    on various software product licenses and softwareC                    distributions, as well as on hardware purchases.   0                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/dspp/  I                    The DSPP program is the descendent of the DIGITAL ISVNLH                    and DIGITAL ASAP programs and the Compaq CSA program,J                    and the analogous developer and partner programs at HP.  D                    One of the benefits available is a (free) licenseC                    product authorization key (PAK) that enables thelF                    generation of license PAKs-the so-called PAKGEN PAKI                    generator license PAK. An example of this is available F                    on the OpenVMS Freeware V8.0 distribution. (And no,H                    you can't use the Freeware PAKGEN PAK to generate any/                    license PAK you might want.)a  I                    Please see Section 2.8.3 for additional details on thee                     DSPP program.  ?                    For information on the OpenbVMS Hobbyist and C                    OpenVMS Educational license programs, please see !                    Section 2.8.1.n  '           _____________________________ @           2.8.4  How do I obtain or transfer an OpenVMS license?  J                    To transfer a commercial OpenVMS license from one ownerG                    to another, or to purchase a commercial license, youeG                    can contact HP at regional sales office or reseller.a  J                    For information on the hobbyist license program, please%                    see Section 2.8.1.e  D           __________________________________________________________=           2.9  Does OpenVMS support the Euro currency symbol?n  H                    OpenVMS can generate the %xA4 character code used forG                    the Euro, and the DECwindows DECterm can display thepJ                    glyph. Please check with the vendor of your terminal or<                    terminal emulator for additional details.                      2-12c e  o          &                    General Information      D           __________________________________________________________F           2.10  OpenVMS Ports? Itanium? Ports to IA-32, EM64T or AMD64                 systems?  H                    OpenVMS has been ported to and is operational on fourI                    architectures: VAX, Alpha, IA-64, and IA-32. The firsteD                    three have available native ports of OpenVMS, theG                    fourth is available via emulation. VAX is the oldest E                    architecture, and limited to 32-bit virtual and up_E                    to 34-bit physical addressing. The Alpha and IA-64 D                    architectures are both 64-bit architectures, withE                    64-bit virtual addressing available. The availableoF                    IA-32 emulation is provided for the OpenVMS VAX andE                    other VAX operating systems, and provides a 32-bitnE                    VAX environment. For additional information on thet7                    emulation, please see Section 13.12.t  H                    As for (the lack of) a native port for IA-32, OpenVMSF                    Engineering presently and continues to believe thatD                    there would be insufficient market (read: profit,E                    customer interest) to justify the cost involved inrF                    a native port of OpenVMS to systems using the IntelF                    IA-32 architecture. In addition to the direct costsJ                    involved in any port and in addition to the substantialD                    effort involved in moving backwards from a 64-bitI                    environment on Alpha and on IA-64 to a 32-bit platform J                    (such as IA-32), and the exceedingly non-trivial deviceH                    qualification costs and the costs in moving backwardsE                    into older PCI and I/O environments (IA-32 systems G                    more than a few years old have equivalently aged I/O H                    support and buses), each organization and each personF                    maintaining a product or a package for OpenVMS willF                    have to justify a port to "OpenVMS IA-32", "OpenVMSG                    EM64T" or "OpenVMS AMD64", akin to the decisions andeH                    the effort involved in porting a product from OpenVMSD                    VAX to OpenVMS Alpha, or the port to OpenVMS I64.  E                    Platform ports of many of the various products can/G                    be easy, and many of the ports of applications usingsF                    documented OpenVMS features are expected to requireH                    little more than a source rebuild. Other products canE                    and do depend on platform-specific or undocumentednA                    features, and the associated ports can be moremG                    involved. Regardless, ports of operating systems are E                    very large and involved projects. The prerequisitet  J                                                                       2-13               &                    General Information        G                    product requirements for an OpenVMS operating systemdB                    port are also non-trivial, as well-compilers inF                    particular are obviously required, and the suite ofI                    compilers provided must maintain a very high degree ofmJ                    source-level compatibility across the platforms. In theG                    case of the HP Integrity port, OpenVMS I64 V8.0 used G                    cross-compilers and cross-tools operating on OpenVMS J                    Alpha systems, while V8.2 and later have various native'                    compilers available.l  E                    The OpenVMS I64 port was centrally built using therI                    existing OpenVMS Alpha environment and around the work E                    and the knowledge from the OpenVMS Alpha port, andoG                    OpenVMS Engineering fully expects that customers andtG                    ISVs will use and will continue to use OpenVMS AlphaoI                    systems to assist with their own ports to OpenVMS I64.lE                    OpenVMS Engineering fully expects to see customers J                    using mixed-architecture clusters and fully shared file$                    systems, as well.  E                    OpenVMS Engineering is well aware of the AMD AMD64 I                    (64-bit) platform and processors. (At least one of theeG                    available VAX emulators can reportedly utilize partstG                    of the AMD64 instruction set, please contact the VAXiE                    emulator vendor(s) or maintainer(s) for assistancelF                    and details on their products.) OpenVMS EngineeringE                    is also well aware of the Intel EM64T platform and J                    processors. There are no plans to provide a native portG                    of HP OpenVMS for any systems based on the AMD AMD64 1                    nor Intel EM64T architectures.r  J                    As part of the work leading to the Itanium port, seniorG                    engineers had extensively evaluated the products andfI                    the architectures available across the high-end 64-bitEJ                    computing space, and chose to target Itanium for 64-bitI                    environments-this while under the Compaq organization.vH                    This included looking at IA-32. HP (a co-developer ofF                    Itanium with Intel) had seperately chosen to targetD                    Intel Itanium for its high-end computer products.F                    Compaq then announced plans for the future of AlphaD                    through EV7-series products and platforms, and HPD                    (entirely seperately) announced plans for PA-RISCF                    products and platforms. The Itanium target has beenE                    maintained consistently since the Itanium port wasc                      2-14     I          &                    General Information        F                    announced by Compaq, and has also been consistentlyJ                    maintained by HP and by the combined company. For thoseJ                    folks prefering to follow the schedules and the productG                    deliveries, OpenVMS Engineering had OpenVMS I64 V8.0oE                    ready (internally) ahead of schedule-and with moreiF                    features available within the release than had beenG                    originally planned for the release. (For information C                    on and for schedules of future OpenVMS releases, J                    please see the roadmap that is available at the OpenVMS                    website.)  H                    OpenVMS I64 itself does not require and does not planF                    to utilize the Itanium IA-32 32-bit environment forH                    the operation of OpenVMS itself. OpenVMS I64 V8.0 andF                    later run natively on the Itanium processor family,C                    with no use of IA-32 instructions. While OpenVMS C                    can and does support 32-bit OpenVMS applications E                    and addressing on Itanium, this is done with sign-bH                    extension addressing techniques entirely analogous toF                    what was done with 32-bit applications operating inH                    the 64-bit Alpha environment. Both OpenVMS 32-bit andH                    64-bit applications operate within the native ItaniumG                    instruction set and run-time environment, and do notM5                    use the Itanium IA-32 environment.V  H                    But yes, a native IA-32 port or a native AMD AMD64 orF                    Intel EM64T port of OpenVMS would certainly be niceE                    to have-this, of course, following the traditionalnI                    Linux preference for having a Linux port available forME                    most (all?) computer architectures known, and even C                    for certain high-end refrigerators and toasters,oD                    and similar appliance-like devices. (The downsideC                    of this all-encompassing approach: this requiresMC                    near-infinite engineering and support costs fromaF                    the various vendors involved, and the qualificationF                    efforts and costs of most everything-everywhere. OrH                    reduced or eliminated testing and support efforts. OrG                    an unfortunate combination of these two. These costs G                    are huge, and the benefits derived from the work areoF                    comparatively small when given the comparable costsH                    of more targeted (and thus supported and supportable)G                    hardware configurations-the platform targets are and D                    must be carefully selected and considered by eachI                    vendor. Put another way, there are no plans to provide   J                                                                       2-15               &                    General Information        I                    a native port of HP OpenVMS for systems based on Intel G                    IA-32 processors, nor for systems based on AMD AMD64 @                    nor Intel EM64T architectures and processors.  B                    All this material having been written, have youE                    looked at the system configurations and pricing oftI                    the available HP Integrity Intel Itanium systems? Low- H                    end computer hardware is clearly a commodity product,F                    and the systems are priced, serviced, upgraded, andE                    replaced accordingly. Intel Itanium is a commodity G                    microprocessor presently used in platforms availablerG                    from various hardware vendors, including (obviously) J                    from HP. Further, Itanium is a microprocessor availableF                    from and supported by Intel, a semiconductor vendorC                    known for exceedingly high-volume microprocessorcC                    fabrication process and production capabilities.,  I                    For information on supported platforms and processors, F                    please see the OpenVMS Software Product Description                    (SPD) at:  9                    o  http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/   H                       OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx,'                       and SPD 82.35.xx.d  >                    Please see Section 14.4.5 for Intel Itanium                    terminology.   D           __________________________________________________________A           2.11  Are there any network-accessible OpenVMS systems?   E                    Yes, though various restrictions can and do apply.                       o  HobbesB                       Hobbes is a MicroVAX 3100 Model 40 for whichG                       free access and accounts are available to OpenVMS J                       enthusiasts. This system has BASIC, Pascal, Fortran,E                       and C compilers installed. If you would like an_>                       account on Hobbes, please see the FAQ at  4                      o  http://www.hobbesthevax.com/  /                    o  OpenVMS Galaxy Test-Drive F                       HP currently offers an OpenVMS Galaxy Test-DriveA                       system, based on an AlphaServer 4100 series                       2-16a a  l          &                    General Information        J                       configured as two instances of the OpenVMS operating8                       system. For details, please visit:  4                      o  http://www.testdrive.hp.com/  (                    o  HP DSPP Test-DriveC                       The HP DSPP program offers various test-driveP@                       systems, including an HP Integrity Itanium>                       development system and an HP OpenVMS I64H                       installation on an HP Integrity rx2600 server. ForG                       details on the DSPP program and on the test-driveeJ                       systems, please see section Section 2.8.3 and please                       visit:  4                      o  http://www.testdrive.hp.com/  /                      o  http://www.hp.com/dspp/s  E                       The test-drive systems do require registration,g;                       though access to the systems is free.   #                    o  EncompasservenG                       Encompasserve offers free access an OpenVMS Alphae                       system.n  2                      o  telnet://eisner.decus.org/                      o  OpenECSlH                       OpenECS offers free access to a VAX 6000 model 530:                       system. If interested, please visit:  1                      o  http://vax6k.openecs.org/e  *                    o  The Deathrow ClusterJ                       The maintainers of the Deathrow Cluster offer accessD                       to an OpenVMS VAX and an OpenVMS Alpha system,.                       configured in a cluster.  5                      o  telnet://deathrow.vistech.net   ;                    o  The Preatorian Public OpenVMS ClustersJ                       The maintainers of the Deathrow Cluster offer accessE                       to an OpenVMS Alpha cluster. Details are at theg+                       website listed below:t  1                      o  http://www.preatorian.neth  J                                                                       2-17 A  a          &                    General Information      D           __________________________________________________________2           2.12  What version of OpenVMS do I need?  E                    For information on supported platforms, please seeeI                    the OpenVMS Software Product Description (SPD) for the :                    particular OpenVMS version of interest.  9                    o  http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/   H                       OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx,'                       and SPD 82.35.xx.   I                    For a table of the minimum and (as applicable) maximum J                    OpenVMS versions required for various platforms, pleaseG                    see the hardware support chart at HP OpenVMS websiteSJ                    and (as available) the following (potentially volatile;'                    intra-website) link:   ;                    o  http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/hw_ '                       supportchart.html1  ?                    For information on the Multia, related Alpha >                    single-board computers, or other officiallyE                    unsupported systems, please see Section 14.4.1 andr$                    Section 14.4.2.1.  F                    The following is a rule-of-thumb for Alpha platformE                    support. The table Table 2-5 contains the earliesttF                    OpenVMS Alpha release with support for a particular3                    series of Alpha microprocessors:   J           ________________________________________________________________8           Table 2-5  OpenVMS Alpha Version Rule-Of-Thumb  J                    _______________________________________________________4                                MicroprocessorOpenVMSJ                    Generic_____Generation____Version_____General_Comments_  E                    EV4         21064         V1.0        few systems;pI                                                          most EV4 requireaG                                                          later; upgrade_B                                                          available  C                    EV5         21164         V6.2        subsequent_J                                                          upgrade available                      2-18_ n  t          &                    General Information      J           ________________________________________________________________@           Table 2-5 (Cont.)  OpenVMS Alpha Version Rule-Of-Thumb  J                    _______________________________________________________4                                MicroprocessorOpenVMSJ                    Generic_____Generation____Version_____General_Comments_  C                    EV56        21164A        V6.2-1H3    subsequent H                                                          upgrade to V7.1B                                                          and later  C                    EV6         21264         V7.1-2      subsequentrJ                                                          upgrade typicallyE                                                          to V7.2-1 orV>                                                          later  C                    EV67        21264A        V7.1-2      subsequent J                                                          upgrade typicallyE                                                          to V7.2-1 ora>                                                          later  K                    EV68        21264B, C     V7.2-1      believed/probable;aE                                and D                     currently antD                                                          unconfirmedJ           _______________________________________________expectation______  ?                    Specific hardware present and various systemeJ                    configurations can require OpenVMS Alpha releases later6                    than those referenced in Table 2-5.  D           __________________________________________________________2           2.13  How can I submit OpenVMS Freeware?  G                    For the guidelines and submission info, please visit                     the URL:n  <                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/  C                    To order the current OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM kitvH                    (shipping and handling charges apply), please request+                    part number QA-6KZAA-H8.s        J                                                                       2-19 _  _          &                    General Information      D           __________________________________________________________0           2.14  Porting applications to OpenVMS?  G                    Porting can range from simple to rather complex, andTI                    depends on the features used on the original platform.i  I                    This section covers generic porting, and porting amongrG                    OpenVMS VAX OpenVMS Alpha, and OpenVMS I64. (Porting C                    among OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64lF                    is often quite simple and involves little more thanJ                    rebuilding from source, though a few applications usingI                    features specific to the platform or the architecture, J                    or using undocumented or unsupported interfaces can andG                    likely will require some additional effort to port.)   I                    Several manuals on porting from OpenVMS VAX to OpenVMS H                    Alpha are available in the OpenVMS documentation set,I                    including information on porting VAX Macro32 assembler D                    code to the Macro32 compiler on OpenVMS Alpha, onH                    management differences, on upgrading privileged code,-                    and application migration:   7                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/s  H                    Documentation on porting to OpenVMS I64 is available,                    as well.n  I                    Details on the C programming environment are available,                    at:  C                    o  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/c/c_                         index.html  I                    Details on porting VAX C to HP C are are available at:v  G                    o  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/c/index_                        vax.htmo  >                    An OpenVMS Porting Library is available at:  M                    o  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/ebusiness/Technology.htmls  H                    Information on the Enterprise Toolkit, a Visual-basedJ                    development environment for developing applications forG                    OpenVMS using a Microsoft platform, is available at:   E                    o  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/et/et_s                        index.html                      2-20t               &                    General Information        C                    Details on DCE, CORBA, BridgeWorks, and COM/DCOMe.                    middleware is available at:  N                    o  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/middleware.html  D                    Information on the COE standards is available at:  1                    o  http://diicoe.disa.mil/coe/   F                    A wide variety of programming development tools andG                    middleware are available as commercial products (eg: C                    DECset, IBM WebSphere MQ-formerly MQseries), and F                    various tools are also available as shareware or asG                    Freeware. Please see other sections of this FAQ, andm                    please see:  7                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/dspp_cataloga  D           __________________________________________________________@           2.15  What resources are available to OpenVMS software                 developers?v  G                    The HP Developer and Software Product Partner (DSPP)eD                    program is open to and intended to support and toH                    assist HP OpenVMS software partners, consultants, and%                    service providers:   -                    o  http://www.hp.com/dspp/   J                    DSPP provides members with various benefits, please see+                    the website for details.   G                    For those not familiar with the DSPP program or withsG                    its history, the DIGITAL Association of Software andSF                    Application Partners (ASAP) program and the DIGITALF                    Independent Software Vendors Network (ISVN) programI                    were incorporated into the Compaq CSA program, and the/J                    CSA program has subsequently been incorporated into the#                    HP DSPP program.   I                    Please see Section 2.8.3 for additional details on theh                     DSPP program.    J                                                                       2-21    A          &                    General Information      D           __________________________________________________________?           2.16  memory management, resource management, processn                  scheduling, etc?  I                    So you have been instructed to write a school researchpC                    paper on OpenVMS, and you need technical contentlF                    on the OpenVMS Virtual Memory System, on any memoryG                    segmentation, on OpenVMS Resource Management, on the F                    OpenVMS File System, on the OpenVMS user interface,                    etc._  E                    Invariably, your professor/instructor/teacher willeD                    ask you a series of questions. Most commonly, theH                    questions will request descriptions of one or more ofH                    the following items, and at varying levels of detail:  5                    o  process scheduling algorithm(s)   0                    o  Interprocess comunications  B                    o  Process or system synchronization constructs  =                    o  Memory management and/or virtual memoryv$                       implementation  0                    o  RMS or XQP file structures  )                    o  Resource management   +                    o  History of HP OpenVMSr  C                    o  History of Compaq and/or of Digital Equipment '                       Corporation (DEC)s  E                    Any particular presentation or research paper, andtC                    particularly a scholastic presentation, can haverF                    many different potential target audiences, and veryD                    different presentation levels. Further, the usualE                    underlying reason for scholastic presentations and G                    scholastic research projects really has little to do E                    with the subject matter, it is a task specificallyoD                    intended to teach the student(s) (eg: you) how toE                    perform the research. The instructor already knows,G                    most of (all of?) the information that you have been $                    asked to collect.                      2-22e t  u          &                    General Information        D                    For very technical details on OpenVMS and OpenVMSI                    internals, the book you want is the Internals and Data E                    Structures Manual (IDSM), available in your school H                    or computing center library, and the IDSM can also beG                    purchased. Additional technical details of the Alpha I                    microprocessor are available in the Alpha Architecture2G                    Reference Manual documentation that is available for G                    download. (Pointers to Alpha technical documentation A                    are available in Section 14.6, and elsewhere.)   I                    For higher-level (less technical) details, the OpenVMS J                    documentation set is available on-line. The ProgrammingH                    Concepts and the File Systems manual are probably theJ                    best manuals to start with, depending on the particular9                    level of detail the research requires.l  H                    And please understand the hesitation of various folksD                    to provide you with a completely-written researchH                    report on your topic. Why? We might have to work withI                    you after you graduate-you need to know how to performrI                    at least basic research on your own, regardless of they                    topic.s  D           __________________________________________________________+           2.17  Basic Units of Measurement?   H                    OpenVMS and the underlying hardware use various unitsJ                    of measurement for disk and memory storage, and relatedC                    abbreviations also typically exist. This section C                    covers the most common units, and the associated !                    abbreviations.e  '           _____________________________ 5           2.17.1  How many bytes are in a disk block?_  C                    A disk block is the minimum unit of disk storageM)                    allocation in OpenVMS.a  G                    Under OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS Alpha, the disk volumemG                    block size is consistent, with each block containingt                    512 bytes.   C                    The minimum disk allocation granularity actuallycH                    permissible (in the ODS-2 and ODS-5 volume structuresJ                    commonly used on OpenVMS) is determined on a per-volumeH                    basis, and is typically based on a combination of the  J                                                                       2-23 e  S          &                    General Information        G                    total number blocks on the disk volume and the total D                    size of the volume storage bitmap. The allocationE                    granularity is known as the volume cluster factor-rG                    the cluster factor is the number of blocks in a diskoH                    cluster, and it is the smallest number of blocks that@                    can be allocated on a particular disk volume.  I                    Prior to OpenVMS V7.2, the maximum permissible size of G                    the bitmap requires larger cluster factors as volumeoH                    sizes increase. Starting with V7.2, the bitmap can beH                    larger, and cluster factors as small as one block can                    be used.r  E                    The number of bytes in a file can be determined bynJ                    multiplying the number of blocks allocated for the fileG                    times the number of bytes in a block. For sequential7G                    files (only), the FFB (XAB$W_FFB, in the File HeaderrE                    XAB) value can be used to find out how much of the.B                    last (XAB$L_EBK) block is used. FFB and EBK areD                    meaningful only for sequential files, and only inF                    a limited context-partial block allocations are notG                    permitted. For other file formats, the EOF marker is "                    not meaningful.  E                    Disk allocations always occur only in units of the(E                    cluster factors, which can be from one block up to E                    (potentially) clusters of eighteen blocks or more, H                    depending on the volume cluster factor. (OpenVMS V7.2G                    and later optionally provide for a cluster factor ofeE                    one up to volumes of approximately 137 gigabytes.)   A                    OpenVMS assumes that the device driver and thegI                    underlying storage device will present the file systemhJ                    with addressable units of storage of 512 bytes in size,H                    or the appearance of same. Various third-party CD-ROMH                    devices, for instance, support only 2048 byte blocks,F                    and such devices are incompatible with the standard*                    OpenVMS device drivers.  G                    To determine the number of bytes required for a fileeG                    from DCL, one option uses the f$file_attributes itemrI                    EOF, multiplied by the size of a block in bytes (512).eI                    This does not account for the unused space in the lastuH                    block of a sequential file, but it also does not haveF                    to differentiate sequential files from other files.                      2-24                &                    General Information      '           _____________________________a6           2.17.2  How many bytes are in a memory page?  I                    A memory page is the minimum unit of memory allocation E                    in OpenVMS. With OpenVMS VAX, the memory page sizeeG                    matches the disk block size: it is always 512 bytes.,  H                    With OpenVMS Alpha, the memory page size is variable,D                    and it can range from 8192 bytes (8 kilobytes) upG                    to 64 kilobytes. The current system page size can be_H                    determined using the sys$getsyi or f$getsyi PAGE_SIZEI                    item. Programs with hardcoded constants for the memory G                    page size (or page alignment) should always assume a -                    page size of 64 kilobytes.i  I                    On OpenVMS I64, the memory page size is also variable,eB                    ranging from 4096 bytes (4 kilobytes) up to 256I                    megabytes (MB) and potentially up to 4 gigabytes (GB).mI                    As with OpenVMS Alpha, sys$getsyi and f$getsyi and the$I                    PAGE_SIZE itemcode can and should be used to determinesH                    the current system page size. In general, OpenVMS I64B                    will use a page size of 8 kilobytes, or larger.  G                    On OpenVMS Alpha and on OpenVMS I64, a 512 byte area I                    of memory- equivalent in size to an OpenVMS VAX memory ;                    page-is often refered to as a "pagelet".G  '           _____________________________p@           2.17.3  How do I convert? Disk Blocks? KB, MB, GB, TB?  I                    The smallest granularity of disk storage addressing istJ                    called a disk block, or sometimes a disk sector. GroupsE                    of disk blocks are usually organized together intohF                    the smallest unit of storage that can be allocated,E                    and this unit is called a disk cluster. The numberoG                    of blocks in a cluster is the cluster factor, and is_C                    established when the disk volume is initialized.   I                    Each individual disk block is composed of five hundred I                    twelve (512) bytes, or one-half kilobyte. Each byte is I                    comprised of eight bits. A bit represents the smallest J                    unit of information, typically refered to as a one or a                    zero.    J                                                                       2-25 t  c          &                    General Information        C                    OpenVMS tends to uses base two notation for diskuF                    storage, while disk storage capacity specificationsH                    from most storage vendors will generally use base ten                    notation.  F                    An OpenVMS disk block is 512 bytes in size; this is:                    one-half kilobyte in base two notation.  @                    The following table describes the prefix, theH                    abbreviation, and the associated base ten (as used byJ                    marketing and by storage vendors) and base two (OpenVMS?                    and various other operating systems) values.   ?                     Base Ten                           Base Two P                     --------------------------------   -------------------------P           Kilobyte  (KB)  10**3                 1000   2**10                1024P           Megabyte  (MB)  10**6              1000000   2**20             1048576P           Gigabyte  (GB)  10**9           1000000000   2**30          1073741824P           Terabyte  (TB)  10**12       1000000000000   2**40       1099511627776P           Petabyte  (PB)  10**15    1000000000000000   2**50    1125899906842624P           Exabyte   (EB)  10**18 1000000000000000000   2**60 1152921504606846976  D                    The base ten representation of the 2**40 value isF                    1099511627776, which is obviously rather ugly. WhenC                    viewed as a base eight or base sixteen (octal or0E                    hexadecimal, respectively) value, the value is fareD                    nicer. Specifically, the value is 10000000000 andF                    40000000 when represented in octal and hexadecimal,                     respectively.  5                                          FAQ Notation   E                       Within the OpenVMS FAQ, a thousand bits (either E                       assuming base two or base ten, as determined by E                       the context) is refered to as a kilobit, and is F                       always represented by the appreviation Kb, whileF                       a thousand bytes is refered to as a kilobyte andE                       is always abbreviated as KB. Similar notational F                       usage also holds for Megabits (Mb) and Megabytes<                       (MB), and for the various other units.  D                    OpenVMS operating system references to system andE                    storage are generally to the base-two version (eg: D                    1024, in the case of a kilobyte or kilobit) whileJ                    storage hardware references and hardware specificationsD                    are generally to the base-ten version (eg: 1000).                      2-26                &                    General Information        I                    To convert OpenVMS disk blocks to (base two) kilobytes E                    (KB; 1024 bytes), simply divide by two. To convert I                    blocks to (base two) megabytes, divide by 2048. Blocks1C                    to (base two) gigabytes (GB), divide by 2097152.sI                    These particular divisions can also be performed usingaH                    bitshifts: to divide a value by two, shift the binary7                    value rightward by one bit position.i  J                    To convert OpenVMS disk blocks to (base ten) kilobytes,4                    divide by approximately 1.953125.  G                    For those folks with an interest in odd applicationseF                    for prefixes, and particularly for those folks alsoE                    rummaging around deep within the OpenVMS operating H                    system, a microfortnight is approximately one second.                                                          J                                                                       2-27 k  o                    J                    _______________________________________________________              3        Documentation      D           __________________________________________________________A           3.1  Where can I find online copies of OpenVMS manuals?h  I                    The HP OpenVMS and HP Layered Product documentation isa(                    copyrighted material.  E                    HTML format on-line product documentation sets for G                    specific HP OpenVMS products are presently available                     at:  7                    o  http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/   J                    Documentation is offered on separately orderable CD-ROMG                    media through a subscription to the Consolidated On-mI                    Line Documentation (ConOLD) product (see Section 2.6.)nI                    ConOLD manuals are readable with BNU, a viewer that isHH                    supplied with the documentation distribution. BNU canG                    display HTML, Bookreader, and documentation in other:                    formats.p  G                    MGBOOK, a viewer for Bookreader-format documentationeH                    is available for character-cell terminals (eg. VTxxx)F                    via the WKU VMS Freeware file server - see question,                    Section 13.1 for details.  D                    Information on the XPDF DECwindows PDF viewer forF                    OpenVMS is available in Section 13.1, and XPDF kitsF                    are available on various Freeware distributions. AnG                    alternative on OpenVMS Alpha uses the Adobe Java PDFoE                    viewer, though this viewer is generally consideredrE                    to be both slower and more resource-intensive whene/                    compared to the XPDF viewer.             J                                                                        3-1 i  r                               Documentation      D           __________________________________________________________B           3.2  What online information and websites are available?  G                    On your OpenVMS system, the HELP command can providevD                    a wealth of information, not only on DCL commandsD                    but on system services (HELP System_Services) andE                    Run-Time Library routines (HELP RTL_Routines). The H                    introduction displayed when you type the HELP commandI                    with no additional keywords provides further pointers._  9                    OpenVMS Marketing runs a web server atr0                    http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/  D                    Here, you will find product information, strategyJ                    documents, product roadmaps, the contents of the latest4                    OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM and more.  J           ________________________________________________________________%           Table 3-1  OpenVMS Websitesm  J           ________________________________________________________________J           URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________             HP OpenVMS Marketing  1                     http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/t             Encompass DFWCUG  3                     http://www.openvmshobbyist.org/o             Arne Vajhj   0                     http://www.levitte.org/~ava/             Saiga Systems_  )                     http://www.saiga.com/              Wayne Sewell  -                     http://www.tachysoft.com/_             proGIS Software_  4                     http://www.progis.de/openvms.htm             Jeff Cameron  0                     http://www.jcameron.com/vms/  B           David Mathog's (quite useful) information about OpenVMS.  <                     http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/soft_doc.html             Cracking                      3-2 t  o                               Documentation      J           ________________________________________________________________-           Table 3-1 (Cont.)  OpenVMS Websitesr  J           ________________________________________________________________J           URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________             "The Beave"uF           Includes system cracking information that can be of interestI           to OpenVMS System Managers, and to OpenVMS Network and Security3J           Managers. This information is available at the Deathrow cluster.  B                     http://manson.vistech.net/ht_root/Hack-VMS-faq             Undocumented Featurese             DECUS Deutschland_  H                     http://zinser.no-ip.info/www/eng/vms/qaa/undoc.htmlx             Arne Vajhj_  =                     http://www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_tip.htmlxd  H           The OpenVMS Freeware contains various examples of undocumented!           features and interfacest  :                     http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/  G           Comparisons of UNIX and Linux shell commands and DCL Commandsc  G                     http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/unixhelp/VMStoUNIX.html   C                     http://wwwvms.mppmu.mpg.de/vmsdoc/UNIX_VMS_CMD_e                     XREF.HTML   ?           Comparisons of emacs and OpenVMS text editor commands/  H                     http://www.unh.edu/cis/docs/vms-to-unix/Emacs/cheat-                     sheet.html             Bibliographies  ?                     http://www.openvms.org/pages.php?page=Bookso  >                     http://www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_book.htmlx             Introductory  I                     Please see Table 3-2 for listings of introductory webw0                     sites and related materials.             Programming   $           An OpenVMS Programming FAQ  @                     http://www.pdv-systeme.de/users/martinv/VMS_(                     Programming_FAQ.html             Networking  J                                                                        3-3 p  =                               Documentation      J           ________________________________________________________________-           Table 3-1 (Cont.)  OpenVMS Websitese  J           ________________________________________________________________J           URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________  I           Tutorial information and tips for connecting OpenVMS systems to            the Internet  3                     http://www.tmesis.com/internet/   F           Documentation and Specifications for DECnet Phase IV, DECnet:           task-to-task DCL examples, and a whole lot more.  8                     http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/wizard/  "           HP OpenVMS Documentation  J                     Please see Table 3-2 for listings of documentation web0                     sites and related materials.             System Performance  %                     See Section 14.2.              Patch (ECO) Kits  B                     For the HP Services FTP server hosting VariousG                     contract-access and non-contract access ECO (patch)a3                     kits, see section Section 5.17.              Catalogs and Pricing  7           HP Product QuickSpecs and product information   9                     http://www.hp.com/go/productbulletin/n  :           The HP Systems and Options Catalog (SOC) archive  3                     http://www.compaq.com/products/t=                     quickspecs/soc_archives/SOC_Archives.html   (           Hardware and Software Archives  E           The VAXarchive, including hardware and software informationh  8                     http://vax.sevensages.org/index.html  &           A VAX to Alpha upgrade diary  J                     http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/docs/alpha_diary.html  =           Scanned versions of old DIGITAL manuals from DFWCUGO  >                     http://www.montagar.com/~patj/dec/hcps.htm  E           A wide variety of HP VAX, Alpha, platform and other productv;           documentation. Some introductory, some technical.   I                     http://www.compaq.com/support/techpubs/qrg/index.html                       3-4 e  r                               Documentation      J           ________________________________________________________________-           Table 3-1 (Cont.)  OpenVMS WebsitesI  J           ________________________________________________________________J           URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________  %           dtrwiz's Datatrieve website   J           __________http://dtrwiz.home.netcom.com/________________________  D           __________________________________________________________F           3.3  How do I extract the contents of a HELP topic to a text                file?  C                    To extract all the text of a HELP topic (and itsID                    subtopics) to a text file for perusal with a textI                    editor, printing out, etc., use the following command:_  E                    $ HELP/OUT=filename.txt help-topic [help-subtopic]_  C                    If the help text you want is not in the standard_E                    help library (for example, it's help for a utilityHC                    such as MAIL that has its own help library), add C                    /LIBRARY=libname after the HELP verb. To see the(A                    names of help library files, do a directory ofw"                    SYS$HELP:*.HLB.  D           __________________________________________________________=           3.4  Does OpenVMS Marketing have an e-mail address?   B                    Yes - if you can't get the answers to marketingJ                    questions elsewhere, if you have comments or complaintsJ                    about OpenVMS, send mail to openvms-info{atsign}hp.com.G                    This address is not a support channel, and is solelymE                    intended to provide informal method to communicateL>                    directly with members of OpenVMS Marketing.  D           __________________________________________________________C           3.5  Where can I learn about OpenVMS executive internals?m  B                    The OpenVMS Internals and Data Structure manualC                    (IDSM) explains how the OpenVMS executive works.sG                    The book covers the operating system kernel: processaH                    management; memory management; the I/O subsystem; andE                    the mechanisms that transfer control to, from, and I                    among these. It gives an overview of a particular area_F                    of the system, followed by descriptions of the dataJ                    structures related to that area and details of the code,                    that implements the area.  J                                                                        3-5 e