[Info-vax] Where to locate software

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Den 2016-06-09 kl. 14:42, skrev Stephen Hoffman:
> On 2016-06-08 23:18:47 +0000, Paul Richards said:
>
>> I'm running OpenVMS 8.4 on FreeAXP and am a comparative newbie. So, a
>> noob question: I am planning to install some of the HP Open-source
>> software and Freeware.
>>
>> For those applications which don't automatically install where should I
>> locate them such that I can run them from any directory?
>
> Welcome!
>
> I'm one of the resident curmudgeons, and deal with more than few packages
> and tools, and have worked with more than a few open source packages on
> OpenVMS.  And I use a mix of operating systems beyond OpenVMS and Windows.
>
> This is an excellent question!   That's something most folks arriving from
> competently-designed systems might wonder, too.
>
> Alas...
>
> That you even have to ask this question points to a hole in the available
> documentation and resources.
>
> Worse, OpenVMS itself has no idea how to do this and provides absolutely no
> guidance, and neither HPE nor VSI has stated any plans around draining this
> particular swamp.   VSI has come the closest here, with some very general
> discussions about maybe adding some support for containers in some future
> release.
>
> In short...  Have at.  It's a free-for-all.
>
> Stick it everywhere, stick it anywhere, however you want, in the system
> directories or in private directories, it's completely and utterly up to
> the administrator and to the folks that created the installation kits —
> even the kits and kitting software lacks any a particular recommended
> organization for the installed software — which means that you'll have a
> zillion opinions and absolutely no consistency, even with the vendor
> products.  Upgrades can be well handled and clear, or they can be a
> complete train-wreck.   There's no standard way to remove more than a
> little of the installed software, no auditing of what's installed, and
> removing installed software — PCSI does better than most here — is
> completely manually implemented by whoever created the kit or the
> install.   If they even provide a way to remove the software.   There's a
> little modular programming documentation that recommends using prefixes on
> file names and logical names and such — and facility prefixes registered
> with HPE and VSI, but I'm not sure there's any way to even get those
> registered these days — but OpenVMS itself *routinely* violates that
> recommendation, as do more than a few of the open source and commercial
> packages.
>
> TL;DR: Vendor app design recommendations?  Doesn't exist.  Application
> bundles or packages?  Doesn't exist.  App stacking or containers or such?
> Doesn't exist.  Sandboxes or jails or BSD pledge() or other forms of
> application security and isolation?  Doesn't exist.   Recommendations for
> embedded libraries or frameworks?  Doesn't exist.
>
> Integrating open source packages?  Always fun.   They all work
> differently.    Alas.   The (many) other replies here in the comp.os.vms
> newsgroup will have some examples of the various user recommendations.
>
>

Now, why was I expecting just that. Instead of some useful tips...