[Info-vax] Need to set up a special purpose account

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-10-10 20:26:34 +0000, David Froble said:

> Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> 
>> This OpenVMS system is old, and it was upgrade from a version of 
>> OpenVMS and a version of TCP/IP Services prior to V5.0, and the old 
>> bits and directories were never cleaned up.
>> 
>> Reinstalling once in a while helps clean these up.   But compatibility 
>> almost inherently leaves a trail of dreck like this.
> 
> Almost ALWAYS I do fresh installs.  It does several things.
> 
> As seen here, there can be old cruft.  Gone.
> 
> If I do a fresh install, then I have to know what's on my system(s).  
> Sort of a good thing, I think.  Not sure I want stuff I don't know 
> about.  Or have forgotten.  I forget much any more.

Some of the other systems I work with make this reinstall vastly easier 
than OpenVMS, too.   A complete OS reinstall — unless you choose to 
wipe the disk — does not disrupt installed applications and tools, nor 
user files, nor local setup such as users.  Downgrades don't work so 
well, but reinstalls and upgrades can use this path.   This approach 
can also tie into increasing the lowercase-i integrity of the operating 
system files, too.

OpenVMS tends to build up crap in the file system, and there's no good 
way to clean that up.   As happened here, old files are left around.   
As has happened in other cases, operating system installation and 
operating system upgrades have different results, too.   That's not 
supposed to happen of course, but sometimes does.   OpenVMS also lacks 
configuration lowercase-i integrity checks, unfortunately.   There's 
also the possibility that some deliberate crap in the file system — the 
;32767 files some of us create to shut off certain features — might not 
have the intended effect with VAFS / ODS-6, too.   All sorts of 
interesting cases lurking now, and going forward.



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