[Info-vax] Using MRU

[Syltrem]

"Paul Sture" <paul.nospam at sture.ch> wrote in message 
news:paul.nospam-1DB2A6.19325008012010 at pbook.sture.ch...
> In article <RTl1n.21895$er1.20583 at en-nntp-07.dc1.easynews.com>,
> "Syltrem" <syltremzulu at videotron.ca> wrote:
>
>> I upgraded the Alpha version to 1.8B and that should support cartridges
>> names (barcode labels) as per documentation
>>
>> As found in the MRU18B_IGUIDE.TXT :
>> The LOAD command moves a cartridge from a slot into a drive.
>>
>> LOAD { SLOT slot_number } [ DRIVE drive_number ] [ ROBOT robot_name ] [ 
>> CART
>> cartridge_name ]
>>
>> Can I load a cartridge directly by name or must I always know what slot 
>> it
>> resides in ? It seems to me that naming the cartridge is much easier; I
>> don't really care what slot it's in...
>>
>>      (1)
>> $ robot load drive 0 cart "abc" robot gka0
>> The LOAD command requires a Slot parameter.
>> %ROBOT-E-CLI_EXPECTS_ARG, CLI: Parameter expects argument
>>
>>      (2)
>> $ robot load drive 0 cart "abc" robot gka0 slot 2
>> LOAD failed on gka0: Cartridge invalid.
>> %ROBOT-E-CART_INVALID, Cartridge invalid
>>
>> I understand the result of my 2nd command as I don't have an "abc" 
>> cartridge
>> and the doc also says that if you specify both SLOT and CART parameters, 
>> MRU
>> will check that the expected cartridge is in the specified slot before
>> taking action upon it.
>>
>> But how about command 1 ? Isn't that supposed to work directly without me
>> having to do a FIND to start with ?
>> Especially when FIND will only display the slot on the screen, I have to
>> redirect output to find out what slot it is in DCL, etc. Not very 
>> pratical.
>>
>> Same for UNLOAD, it's not important to know in what slot the cassette 
>> will
>> go, if I can always retrieve it by name (after all, that's why we use
>> barcodes to name the cartridges...)
>>
>> I'm not sure what's the difference in the syntax from dthe doc, between 
>> {}
>> and [], what is optional and what is not.
>> I would like to LOAD and UNLOAD cartridges by name, without bothering 
>> with
>> slot numbers which are not important.
>>
>
>
> I have never used the cartridge name myself. However I do recall that
> some colleagues had a robot which used bar codes on the tapes to
> identify them - this was a Tru64 system so I didn't use it myself. The
> bar codes identified the physical tape, not the tape label as known by
> the operating system (not all operating systems understand ANSI tape
> labels, as used by VMS).
>
> I suggest trying:
>
> $ robot load drive 0 slot 2 robot gka0
>
> although if you only have one robot, you are best defining the logical
> name MRU_ROBOT to point to the device and omitting the robot parameter.
>
> $ DEFINE MRU_ROBOT robot_name
>
> -- 
> Paul Sture

Hi Paul

Thank you for your response.

This is what I do already, but since I have tape labels (sticker with a bar 
code on it) that's readable by the loader, and which MRU can interpret, I`d 
like to skip tracking what slot the cartridge is in altogether. It`s MRU's 
(or the loader's) job to find the slot if I identify the cartridge by name, 
in my opinion.

I'll open a call with HP. I just can't imagine MRU is not smart enough to do 
the FIND and LOAD (or UNLOAD) all by itself in a single command.

Thanks for pointing our the MRU_ROBOT logical, I didn't know this one. Cool.

Syltrem