Text File

Aucbvax.4706 fa.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!unix-wizards Tue Oct 27 15:59:08 1981

>From decvax!duke!unc!lynn@Berkeley Tue Oct 27 12:44:19 1981 VAX/VMS supports labelled tapes which are supposed to be according to ANSI X3.27-1977. The actual format is rather thoroughly described in Appendix B of the VAX-11 Record Management Services Reference Manual. Text files are ANSI type D, which means that records are variable length, blocked, and do not span block boundaries. Records are preceded by a four character count field containing the (decimal) record length, including the count field, with explicit leading zeros. Blocks are padded to fixed length with the "^" character. Records are not terminated, and VMS does not expect carriage returns, line feeds, or nulls at the end of a record. The count is all you have.

Since version 2.0 VMS expects to find three header records, but you can tell it when you mount the tape that there is no HDR3 record.

I have (also) shell scripts (csh) and a program to read VMS tapes, but don't presently have a program to write them. It isn't hard, though; I did it in half a day once back when VMS was new. Then I moved . . . Anybody who wants what I have can get it, if they mail me a uucp address (unc is not on ARPANET). duke!unc!lynn

----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/

This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.