[Info-vax] Indexed file read question

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2020-11-19 22:06:43 +0000, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply said:

> In article <rp6mg4$fct$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman 
> <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
> 
>> In addition to macOS Mail and its saved searches, here's how to 
>> configure  saved searches on Microsoft Office on Mac and on Windows:
> 
> Interesting.  But HELP DIR is probably quicker as far as learning how 
> to set it up goes.

For you and given your experience with OpenVMS and given your 
preferences for OpenVMS, no doubt.

For others not sharing that? Doubtful.

With macOS Mail or macOS Finder, when you type a search in the search 
box you're offered to Save, and when you Save you're then presented 
with a dialog that lets you build or modify the saved search. Or you 
can request the dialog to build the search directly; Mail offers a 
dialog item for a Smart Mailbox, and Finder offers a dialog item for a 
Smart Folder; each is a saved search.

> I have no experience with macOS Mail.  I do have an iPad, and my wife  
> has a MacBook Air, but neither of us use any mail tools on those  
> platforms (yet).

Assuming the use of VSI or HPE TCP/IP Services, you'll have some 
difficulty connecting to OpenVMS mail from the macOS and iPadOS Mail 
client tools due to the lack of connection security on OpenVMS; you're 
limited to plaintext.

macOS will allow that connection, but will be cranky about the lack of 
security. I haven't needed to configure an insecure connection from 
either in some years, though. macOS and iPadOS connections to mail 
servers with TLS support are entirely feasible.

Process Multinet is better at connection security, though VSI TCP/IP 
seems to have dropped that stack from the roadmap. The current roadmap 
shows updates (seemingly) to the existing HPE-derived TCP/IP Services 
stack, omitting mention of the VSI fork of Process Multinet.

I usually configure the OpenVMS TCP/IP Services mail server to gateway 
outbound messages through another local or hosted server—to the local 
Exchange Server or Postfix server or or Azure or otherwise—as that 
avoids various connectivity issues, and easier with the mail stored on 
Exchange Server or Postfix or suchlike. The recipient server does need 
to be configured to allow insecure relay access, as otherwise the 
OpenVMS connections will be rejected.

>> Spotlight and searching capabilities are among the features that I miss 
>>  the most when working with OpenVMS. The SEARCH-related commands and  
>> DIRECTORY-based search commands are just... so... slow...
> 
> Don't forget MLSEARCH, which is a command-line utility (i.e. it runs an 
>  executable) written in BLISS and Fortran and adds stuff such as  
> wildcards.

More recent search designs use caching; a combination of file system 
change notifications—closest analog for that on OpenVMS is a file 
access ACL, and there's no means to trigger an AST from that short of 
an obscure and seldom-used security mailbox operation—and build up a 
cache of the search data. This data then makes searches massively 
quicker than any search that traverses and performs the collection from 
the search target in response to the search command; faster than 
DIRECTORY, SEARCH, find, or such, as the tool has its metadata already 
available, without having to synchronously traverse the target storage.


-- 
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC