[Info-vax] Latest TCPIP Services seem irreparably horked...

[Subcommandante XDelta]

On Sat, 3 Mar 2012 12:16:57 +0000 (UTC), Simon Clubley
<clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:

>On 2012-03-02, Subcommandante XDelta <vlf at star.enet.dec.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:27:18 -0500, JF Mezei
>><jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote:
>>
>>>Mr VAXman, I would delete the SMTP service from that node and recreate
>>>it from scratch.
>>>
>>>The services database seems to be shared in a cluster and perhaps TCPIP
>>>services shows you the records it thinks belong to this node while POP
>>>uses either records from another node or perhaps another copy of the
>>>database.
>>>
>>>set watch file might be of use to see exactly which file TCPIP utility
>>>uses to read the SMTP service config and which file is used by the pop
>>>server.
>>>
>>>It is possible that the drones haven't been taught about logical names
>>>yet and they hardcoded the service config filename in the pop software.
>>
>> AUUGGGHH...
>>
>> ... the Horror, the Horror...
>>
>> ...Never get out of the boat - God damn right...
>>
>> Don't mind me, I was having a sensibility infarction.
>>
>> Back to normal.
>>
>> What are the last clean (classic, pure, old-school)  VMS versions, VAX
>> and AXP?
>
>I think I know where you are going with this, but that doesn't help
>you when it comes to TCP/IP services as you need to upgrade to new
>ECO versions to fix any public facing security issues found in the
>stack. You have to be able to trust that the latest ECO will work
>without introducing any new functionality/security problems.
>
>BTW, you can also add the VMS sftp client to the list of wonky software.
>
>HP are currently chasing a sftp protocol error I am experiencing (we don't
>know yet if it's the client or (non-VMS) server at fault) and it doesn't
>help matters that when a protocol error occurs the transfer is silently
>terminated and you are returned to the sftp> prompt without _any_ error
>message been output.
>
>You have to enable the detailed debugging mode in order to see what is
>going on. If the VMS sftp client were a student project (which is what it
>feels like :-(), I would have docked the student marks for not reporting
>the error back up through the various layers of the program. In VMS
>software, you simply should not be experiencing this.
>
>It's also got half finished functionality (such as the ascii mode) which
>is documented in the V5.6 ECO5 help, but is only (apparently; I have not
>tested it yet) functional in the very latest images.
>
>Simon.

Ok, I will resist going into AUUGGGHH... recursion.

Perhaps a practical first step for Meg Whitman would to buy a copy of:

The Minimum You Need to Know  to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer
Roland Hughes (2006)
http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/app_book.html
(Yes, I know it's previously been essayed on C.O.V)

For each and everyone in VMS Engineering, including management (so
that they will understand that the programmers will need to take time
out to tool themselves up).