[Info-vax] Still no DIR/SORT_BY_TIME

[David Froble]

Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2015-08-16, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>> On 2015-08-16 20:05, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> RSTS/E DCL did this as well and you could still use PIP directly
>>> if you needed to (/mode:4096 for example).
>> Well, unless I remember wrong, it was/is not done the same way. Under 
>> RSTS/E, DCL would probably invoke PIP, with the command line massaged to 
>> accomplish the task.
>> Under RSX, the command line is rewritten by the DCL CLI, and then passed 
>> to MCR to actually parse and execute it. So DCL do not invoke any 
>> programs, except MCR. And you can turn on debugging in DCL, which cause 
>> the command line DCL generates to be printed, but not executed. That way 
>> you can see what MCR line it translates to.
>>
>> Example:
>> $ set debug
>>
>> $ dir /since:1-jan-2001
>> PIP /DD:1-JAN-2001:*&/LI
>> $
>>
>>> BTW, does RSX also have a read regardless mode ?
>> Not sure what you mean by that. Maybe you can explain in more detail 
>> what you're asking, and then I can answer. :-)
>>
> 
> With RSTS/E, when opening a file, you could specify various options
> using a mode field which was a bitfield encoded integer. Opening a file
> with mode 4096 allowed you to open and read a file when you normally be
> blocked due to an incompatible open mode from another currently running
> program.

Locking is ALWAYS a cooperative thing.  It's always possible to not conform to 
locking.  Just be careful when doing so.  Read only usually is safe.

> It's been a _long_ time since I last used it, but I think (IIRC) it
> could even be used to see the current contents of a file which was
> exclusively opened for writing by another program. (Assuming you had
> suitable access rights to the file of course.)

Well, since as far as I know, RSTS/E was definitely cache nothing, yes, if it's 
on the disk, you should be able to read it.