[Info-vax] Running OpenVMS native on x86 . . .

[hb]

On Dec 9, 6:20 pm, BillPedersen <peder... at ccsscorp.com> wrote:

> Porting Unix application to OpenVMS - some of the most interesting and
> useful - is near impossible due to the lack of a real SSIO and a real
> FORK mechanism at present.  This has been know for years and years.

9+ years? OpenVMS V7.2-6C2 was released in July 2002. This was the
last VMS version which supported VMS Integrated Posix. (VIP). With
some luck you may be able to run VIP on V7.3.  V7.2-6C2 with VIP was
certified to be Posix compliant.

VIP was not widely accepted due to performance problems (caused by
fork and Posix style file operations) and weak integration with
"native" VMS. Once you were in Posix and its shell you could not
easily use any VMS utility. The GNV environment is better integrated
with "native" VMS and probably performs better but lacks the Posix
compliance.

SSIO was planned to be included in V8.4. But before that release was
delayed - for whatever reason, it was estimated that the project could
not be finished within the given time frame. The project was
postponed. However, there are specs, there is code, so it should be
"easy".

All code in VMS to support VIP - especially fork - was removed from
V8.0. To add fork you have to understand and bring back some of that
code or design a "new" fork. Any of that is much work, it isn't
"easy".