[Info-vax] OpenVMS - file selection abnormally with Copy / Rename or user ignorance?

[IanD]

I am not sure if this is a bug or my lack of understanding, possibly the later

OS version: 7.3-2
Facility: RMS, called by copy or rename. Backup does not experience the same error
Structure: ODS2

I have a directory with 10's of thousands of small files (VMS is painfully slow dealing with them, but that's another matter)

The 'strange' behaviour I am seeing is when I am attempting to either copy or rename files from this directory down to a subdirectory

The files throwing an error are indeed open for write access BUT they fall outside the creation date time for the file selection command, so they should not be in the attempted copy/rename selection set

The command is of the form: copy/log/before=today *.log;* [.old]*.*;*
The problem is also evidenced using: rename/log/before=today *.log;* [.old]*.*;*

Backup with the /before=today qualifier does not experience the issue or even throw a warning, it correctly excludes the files

Does anyone know if this is a bug or if it's intended behaviour? Seems a bit strange if it's intended behaviour to my way of thinking

For example, Filename1 was definitely created yesterday and is not open for write and it copies down to the subdirectory correctly

Filename2 was definitely created today, not yesterday, but is open for write, yet somehow it is being selected for the copy operation (or at least is causing an error to be thrown)

I have performed an ana/disk/repair in case there was anything strange with the volume but that didn't make any difference when I attempted the copy/before=today command again

So, is this because RMS has to actually open the file header to see what the file creation date is and therefore is throwing the error?
 
I have not tested this on an ODS5 volume