[Info-vax] sys admin default directory

[David Froble]

Bill Cunningham wrote:
> "abrsvc" <dansabrservices at yahoo.com> wrote in message 
> news:e15f7cb7-3740-4164-9ea3-eab9a9826165 at googlegroups.com...
> On Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 4:53:31 PM UTC-5, Bill Cunningham wrote:
>> §5.5.2 mentions "-" and says subdirectory. I want sys admin MFD.
>>
>> Bill
> 
> sys admin is not an OpenVMS concept.  For any user, a "default" directory is 
> specified within the authorization record for that user.  That becomes the 
> "MFD" if you will, for that user.  Most systems are created with a single 
> disk containing the "user directories" for the users of that system.  Many 
> sites have these directories at the base level of the disk or the master 
> directory (also known as directory [000000]).
> 
> When entering a command such as SET DEF [-], the directory focus will change 
> from its current area to one level back.  Consider a directory structure as 
> follows:
> 
> diska:[000000.user1.level1.data]
> 
> User1 would normally be considered the "login" directory and the one 
> specified in the authorization record as the default directory.  If you 
> wanted to see the files in the level1 directory, the command SET DEFAULT 
> [.USER1] would change the focus to the USER1 directory.  A subsequent 
> command of DIRECTORY would list the files there.  From this point, the 
> command SET DEFAULT [-] would change the focus back to the USER1 directory.
> 
> While focused on USER1, the command SET DEFAULT [-] would change the focus 
> to the master disk directory of [000000].  Please note that because of file 
> protections typically set, you may not see any files at this level.
> 
> I hope this helps a bit...  This is only a start.  Feel free to post 
> additional clarification requests.
> 
>     I am thinking when looking at my openvms73 for vax and decuserve that 
> there is a directory created for every user by the "system" account. 
> decuserve you login as a user and that's YOUR directory. You're only allow 
> to go as you're allowed as a user. Hope that makes sense/ My understanding 
> is *nixs so that might be some confusion.
> 
> Bill
> 
> 

Wrong!  Don't confuse weendoze and *ix concepts with VMS.  Not the same ..

On VMS ..

A SYSUAF record is the main part of setting up a user account.

One piece of data in the SYSUAF record is the "default" directory for a user. 
This can be any directory name, even one that doesn't exist.  Multiple user 
accounts can have the same "default" directory.

Note that another piece of data is a default device (disk) which is added to the 
directory name, ie; DISK1:[USER] for example.

There is no automatic creation, if that's what you were implying ....  It's a 
separate task to be performed by whatever / whoever is setting up a user account.