[Info-vax] scp or sftp: file is "raw", needs to be parsed - possible to work around that?

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2021-05-20 05:25:32 +0000, Volker Halle said:

> exactly which information makes SFTP/SCP decide 'it is a VMS text file' ?

OpenVMS has occasionally had bad file-related size data returned via 
the C APIs. I've seen zero sizes and 32767 sizes returned for LRL too, 
which made the behavior of some dependent code that much more 
interesting. Kinda like the NaT or nil or not-a-valid-value return 
design here, as these old APIs just live for the burn-it-all-down 
in-band out-of-range values. But I digress. The C size-related calls 
could also be glacial, when they worked. Some of the previous 
discussions:

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.vms/c/3eu8HtNxgeM/m/ZrwK0GjHBwAJ

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.vms/c/dhUzZ7HifPo/m/QIVOhPuwAgAJ

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.vms/c/H8rDEgeKS2Q/m/ucVbJeTqw-MJ

That there are (were?) reportedly ~eight different stat() 
implementations/behaviors around was news to me, and sounds like a bug 
farm, too.

There's at least one C logical name DECC$DEFAULT_LRL involved here, 
too. This to ensure run-time confusion, and skewed test results.

And now I'm pondering what the eventual advent of 64-bit file sizes 
will do to existing apps and APIs...


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