[Info-vax] Error installing DECSet

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2018-12-21 02:13:24 +0000, Dave Froble said:

> On 12/20/2018 2:26 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>> There are more than a few other folks that have learned that BACKUP has 
>> some severe and long-standing issues with its RMS metadata 
>> expectations, and RMS metadata routinely gets stripped on other 
>> platforms.  BACKUP /REPAIR is helpful for the OpenVMS releases recent 
>> enough to have that and the 
>> [000TOOLS]RESET_BACKUP_SAVESET_ATTRIBUTES.COM on the Freeware and other 
>> similar metadata-related tools and commands are how we've all dealt 
>> with this issue.  And this will continue to trip new users.  This 
>> rather than, you know, fixing BACKUP.
>> 
>> On the plus side, a wholesale replacement is probably a better path now 
>> rather than further work on BACKUP, so there's that.
>> 
>> And ISO-9660 support on OpenVMS is ISO-9660:1988, and lacks more recent 
>> extensions and amendments; without support for the stuff that most 
>> folks use and expect. Joliet, Rock Ridge, HFS and UDF are not supported 
>> by OpenVMS.
>> 
> 
> I got no problem with BACKUP

It's a reliable tool, for what it can do.

BACKUP is however limited by its current I/O design, and effectively 
can't go (enough) faster within these design constraints.

There are other issues with BACKUP, as well. Not the least of which is its UI.

> Yes, it takes a bit of knowledge, but I have no problem with file 
> characteristics

Because you understand how the OpenVMS tools are fundamentally broken 
in heterogeneous environments, yes.

> If what is inside that ZIP file is an ISO image, then using LD to just 
> mount it is rather simple.

There are ISO disks that are disk images, and there are the particular 
and limited sorts of ISO-9660 volumes supported by OpenVMS.  
Nomenclature here varies.

All too often, somebody tries to mount an ISO-9660 recorded with one or 
more of the common extensions, and things don't work as planned.

And use of ISO-9660 also tends to clobber the RMS metadata, too.

Then there's the lack of FAT and exFAT support, but I digress.

I've found that "simple" can be a word that's deadly to new users when 
wielded by an experienced user, too.  It's often how we get into these 
UI and implementation messes, too.

> Maybe I'm just old school, but, I don't have a problem with needing a 
> bit of knowledge to work with a server OS.

I have no problems with that, either.

I do have a problem with the amount of *bad* tooling we put up with 
here and for how *little* we get.

> And yes, always room for improvement.
> 
> Note to Antonio, don't put anything in the MFD, dev:[0,0]
> 
> Create a directory or sub-directory for such stuff
> 
> Don't mix other files with the OS files.

Another area where OpenVMS needs work.  Sandboxing and bundles, etc.



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