[Info-vax] %DCL-W-IVDTIME and the DCL WAIT command

[Bob Koehler]

In article <SQRWG17NvOvD at eisner.encompasserve.org>, cornelius at eisner.decus.org (George Cornelius) writes:
> Let's say I have a job to grab a failing tape drive and hold
> it for an extended period so our backup function (SLS) does
> not try to use it.
> 
> I get this result when I try to wait for a day and a half:
> 
>  $ wait 1 12:0:0
>  %DCL-W-IVDTIME, invalid delta time - use DDDD-HH:MM:SS.CC format
>   \0  1 12:0:0\

   Accodring to HELP, WAIT does not accept the day field.

> 
> After much experimentation, I determine that the dash as a separator
> never works, but DCL will accept this:
> 
>  $ wait 2 0:0:0
> 
> So I interrupt with Control-C and submit a job containing this wait
> command.
> 
>  Question of the day: How much time does it actually wait?
> 
>  Extra credit:        Why?
> 

   I suspect it's going to wait for 2 hours, or 20 hours, depending on
   where the parser is getting confused.

   When I need to do these kinds of things I just loop over waits of
   "23:59:59.".