[Info-vax] Logging systartup_vms.com progress to operator.log VMS 7.3-2

[geze...@rlgsc.com]

On Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 8:56:29 AM UTC-4, David Jones wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 14, 2020 at 10:55:23 PM UTC-4, geze... at rlgsc.com wrote: 
> > Being able to automatically spawn several tasks in parallel has been a great benefit on more than a few occasions.
> I wasn't aware the startup driver spawned its procedure invocations. Good to know, buy systartup_vms is still the 
> supported way for sysadmins to modify startup. 
> 
David,

Au contraire. The use of the STARTUP database is completely supported, if not well-documented. The commands to manipulate database entries are in the manual for SYSMAN and the HELP text. 

The "modify SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM" way of doing things was the ONLY way to do things pre-V5, when STARTUP.COM was re-written as database driven and SYSMAN was added to manage things including the STARTUP database. The problem is that the change was not emphasized. The STARTUP database is a far better alternative, although far from perfect.

At various times, I considered writing a replacement with improvements, but could never justify the time.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com