[Info-vax] How do I make zip, unzip etc. available to all users?

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2016-01-06 07:41, lists at openmailbox.org wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Jan 2016 11:00:44 -0800 (PST)
> Bob Gezelter via Info-vax <info-vax at rbnsn.com> wrote:
>
>> The intent of the original question has been previously answered, to wit:
>>
>> - Set the file protection to allow file EXECUTE
>> - Provide a definition in SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM to define the symbol.
>>
>> However, the phrasing "where should I put them" brings to mind the manner
>> in which many *IX systems are run.
>>
>> OpenVMS do not have an equivalent of bin on *IX systems (where the shell
>> will automatically search for otherwise unspecified executables). There
>> is a facility to do the equivalent (DCL$PATH), but generally it is used
>> with extreme caution (searching large directories can be expensive).
>
> Thank you. I understood I will have to point each user at it at logon time.
> I just didn't know what the options were as far as where global non-system
> executables (addons) should go. Now that David reminded me about the virtue
> of not mucking with system directories I'll create a directory somewhere
> and update the system logon proc to point everybody to it.

You could say that you do not have any equivalence to the /bin,/usr/bin 
and similar in Unix. VMS do not work on the basis that just because a 
binary is in some specific directory, it suddenly becomes a program of 
more importance.
You do not normally have a search path in VMS. Instead, you define 
commands for things that people might want to use, and they can then 
point to binaries anywhere.

Good and bad, as with everything. You do not have the problem you see in 
Unix, where people might not know/understand what they are running, 
because depending on their path variable, they might be running 
something completely different to what they think they are running. 
(Such as getting some weird directory first in the path variable, and 
then have a program called 'ls' in that directory...)
However, it also means that it might be harder to actually understand or 
find out what programs do exist. You have a similar problem with finding 
out what users exist, since you do not have a world readable /usr/passwd 
equivalent. Once again, good and bad...

You need to totally throw out your Unix knowledge here, and start over 
and think in a very different way.

Jan-Erik's suggestion about util: is actually a pretty good starting 
point. Go from there, and you should get something usable.

(Another advantage is that you really do not get into the problem of 
Unix where people overwrite stuff in the "known" directories, since that 
is pretty much where stuff is expected to live, and then systems started 
spreading out their installation to /usr/local as well, making people 
even more creative on how/where to place stuff in Unix. It's all a mess.)

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol