[Info-vax] Foreign commands ... newbie question

[Jojimbo]

On Oct 17, 8:28 am, koeh... at eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob
Koehler) wrote:
> In article <j7h4rt$v8... at tdi.cu.mi.it>, supervinx <ness... at libero.it> writes:
> > I must add many foreign commands.
>
> > I could:
> > 1) Add a long list of
> > unzip :== $DKA100:[tools]unzip.exe
> > ....
>
> > but it's not so flexible
>
> > I've read about DCL$PATH (I'm using OVMS 8.3)
>
> > Where is the best way to define it ?
>
> > SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM ?
>
>    If you define it there, you'll need to define it /system or /cluster,
>    and then everyone will see it.  And all processes can take the hit of
>    searching DCL$PATH for mispelled commands, etc.
>
>    I prefer to define it /job in my login.com, so it only affects me.
>
>    And as long as I defined in /job in my login.com, most of my
>    processes won't see one defined /system any how.
>
>    For all user's definitions, I prefer to put foreign command symbols
>    in sylogin.com.  That eliminates directory searching and sets up only
>    the exact names that you need.
>
>    Before you decide to go with DCL$PATH, find out what typing "*" or
>    "%" or some other combination of wildcards at the prompt does when
>    DCL$PATH is defined.

My thoughts exactly.  In one of our systems

$ SHO LOG DCL$PATH
   "DCL$PATH" = "SYS$SYSTEM:" (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE)
1  "SYS$SYSTEM" = "SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSEXE]" (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE)

Try typing just "*" and you get:

$  *
%DCL-W-UNDSYM, undefined symbol - check validity and spelling
 \$LOOP\
%DCL-W-UNDSYM, undefined symbol - check validity and spelling
 \$SKIP\
%DCL-W-UNDSYM, undefined symbol - check validity and spelling
 \A\
%DCL-W-ARGREQ, missing argument - supply all required arguments
%DCL-W-ARGREQ, missing argument - supply all required arguments
%DCL-W-ARGREQ, missing argument - supply all required arguments
%DCL-W-UNDSYM, undefined symbol - check validity and spelling
 \IMAGENAME\
%DCL-W-UNDSYM, undefined symbol - check validity and spelling
 \$\
%DCL-W-UNDSYM, undefined symbol - check validity and spelling
 \TEXT\
%DCL-W-USGOTO, target of GOTO not found - check spelling and presence
of label
 \LOOP\

What did I just run?  Seems some clever person put c.com in the front
of dcl$path.  What it
does I have no knowledge or desire to figure it out.  I think dcl$path
is way too dangerous
to be set in an environment like our with too many user with SYSPRV.

But then, I just work here.  Regards, Jim