[Info-vax] Unexpected error using ZIP for OpenVMS

[Paul Sture]

On Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:15:33 +0000, glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:

> Paul Sture <paul at sture.ch> wrote:
> 
> (snip)
>>>    I wouldn't call a disk-full condition an unexpected error.
> 
>> Yes, I should have qualified that with something like "in an order
>> entry application", for that is what I was thinking of when I wrote the
>> above.
> 
> It is if someone else fills it up while you are using it.

OK, another tack.  In my order entry application I might expect that in 
the normal course of events either the RMS indexed file or the database 
where the data gets written has enough space preallocated that each 
application writing to it doesn't have to worry about running out of 
space.

An important differentiation here is whether your program can recover 
from an error itself or not.  I've seen reports that if MySQL runs out of 
disk space, your whole database is toast anyway.

An (extreme) alternative is to test for every conceivable error in every 
program and devise a recovery strategy for every single error.  Good luck 
with that.

> Also, the system I post this from mounts user directories such that they
> time out after some number of hours.  If a program is writing to a file
> at the time, it seems to get the same error as a disk full. (That is,
> the write fails.)
> 

Is that just a generic write error, or is further information available 
if you probe it?

-- 
Paul Sture