proofread! VAX/L&T SIGs Spring 1997 Tapes Initial Documentation -------------------------------------------------- ** NOTICE ** NOTICE ** NOTICE ** NOTICE ** NOTICE ** NOTICE ** NOTICE ** Due to publicity about Trojan horse programs, computer viruses, and similar hazards, there may be increased risk that such code may have been submitted for the symposium tapes. Neither your librarian, DECUS, nor DEC has detailed knowledge of the programs herein. The risk of using code here is YOURS and you should consider yourself WARNED that you should test programs yourself to determine what risks they may pose. The cataloging process consists of assembling documentation and files into usable formats, but does NOT involve testing the programs. Your librarian makes use of many programs from symposium tapes, however, and none of this code contains any known problems. We ask that if you notice something suspicious about any DECUS program you attempt to help by reporting the problem to the DECUS office immediately and by diagnosing it as well as you can. In using this code, please be aware that privileged code may contain operating system version dependencies whose effects should be assessed before running it. The system crashes you avoid may be your own. The DECUS library may be contacted at (508) 952-3410. Please ask that Ann Foley and Glenn Everhart (your librarian) be informed of the problems. (If possible, leave a phone number.) You can reach your librarians (Glenn Everhart and Ted Nieland) at the addresses given at the end of this document, if you wish faster contact or have questions. Thank you. Our greatest security against this kind of nonsense is watching out for each other. ________________________________________________________________________ Directory [97AVMSLT] contains general documentation for this and previous tapes and an index. It is intended to replace previous distributions of [*VAXLT...] but there may be some older files you want to keep. The tapes are combined VAX SIG and L&T SIG tapes, to reduce duplication between the two collections. The [97AVMSLT] directory is the master index directory for the entire set. The top level description summary to the Spring '97 VMS/LT SIG tapes is contained in ABSTRACT.TXT and VMSLT97ATPE.DOC in this directory. For a longer description see AAAREADME.*, the concatenated AAAREADME.TXT files from all submissions. AAAREADME.TXTs back through Spring 1979 are in subdirectory [.OLD_AAAREADME]. Page 2 The tapes are in VMS Backup format in four savesets -- one for each directory structure [97AVMSLT...], [DECUSLIB...], and [VMSLT97A...]. The index saveset 97AVMSLT contains around 18500 blocks. The machine-readable DECUS Library catalog DECUSLIB contains about 9000 blocks. The VMS and L&T collections for Fall 1996 contain around 690,000 blocks. Some files have been compressed. Tools for decompressing files are found in [97AVMSLT.TOOLS...]; the AAAREADME files in that area tell how to use them. Compression was done using Gnu COMPRESS, ZIP, ZOO, and LHARC, all of which function also on other machines than VAXen (including Unix boxes, PCs, and Amigas). Where VMS Backup savesets were compressed, the filenames encode the block sizes so that a file xx.BCK_8192_Z needs to be decompressed via $ COMPRESS -D xx.BCK_8192 and subsequently be turned into fixed record length 8192 bytes per record with a command to the FILE utility like: $ FILE /TYPE=FIXED /RECORD=8192 /ATTR=NOIMPLIEDCC xx.BCK_8192 At this point, xx.BCK_8192 is a normal VMS Backup saveset. See the files COMPRESSIONS.TXT and DECOMPRESS_ALL.COM for further information on decompressing files. Some files are given extensions like .TAR_LZW or .TAR_Z or .TAZ. These are gen- erally images of compressed TAR savesets from Unix systems. (That is, WE don't make these; they are made on unix systems.) Use the COMPRESS utility to convert to tar files, then use TARREAD23A to pull the tar files apart. The commands are something like $ COMPRESS -D xx.TAR ! where filename must originally be xx.TAR_Z; ! rename it to this if necessary. $ ASSIGN xx.TAR TAPE: $ TARREAD23A XV to extract everything into the CURRENT directory, Define the TARREAD23A verb to run that image as a foreign command (e.g. $ tarread23a:==$tarread23a if TARREAD23A.EXE is in SYS$SYSTEM.) You will run accross .ZIP, .ARC or .ZOO or .LZH files on some directories. For those of you not familiar with these, they are excellent file compression and archiving programs that are widely used in the microcomputer world for distributing programs via floppy and bulletin boards. You can use [.TOOLS]VMSSWEEP (or ARC in the same directory) to read ARC files on a VAX, or ZOO to read ZOO files on a VAX. ZOO files MUST be in STREAM_LF format to be read by VMS ZOO, but should be converted to fixed 512 bytes, no carriage control to transfer to a PC. Your librarians leave the ZOO files in format suitable for extraction on VMS. The .LZH files are produced and decoded by the LHARC utility, which is similar to ZOO but does a better job of compression. LHARC files produced on VMS are left in a suitable form for decompression on VMS; like ZOO files, they need to be in STREAM_LF format for this to be done. In the Fall 1991 time, a "high performance" compression was added to ZOO, so that it again has better compression than LHARC. The Spring 1997 tape contains sources and executables for the new ZOO. Note that most compression is done either with ZIP Page 3 or with GZIP these days. Unzip and GUNZIP are present in the tools area to uncompress them. All areas have ONE AAAREADME.TXT (and possibly many *.DOC or *.1ST or *.MEM or *.TXT or *READ*.*). The AAAREADME.TXT's are usually short enough to help you find a program without being cluttered up with how to install or how to use the software. If you are making up a submission for the next tape you can make it easier for us to put the tape together if you follow this convention. Most compressed files are in ZIP format, and you use the UNZIP image to decompress them. This will restore file attributes correctly as well as decompress. A REQUEST: We have gone to considerable effort to put this software collection together and to have its indices refer to the collection. Partial copies or added-to copies create confusion and extra work for us when we get calls asking about a part of the tape, and they diminish the integrity of the path of the collection from the submitters to the ultimate users. Therefore we ask that you distribute the collection whole and not split it up in ways that would encourage partial copies. This will make our lives easier and preserve the value of these software collections. Thank you. The librarians responsible for the creation of this tape are: Glenn C. Everhart VMS SIG librarian [ Preferred mailing address: Glenn Everhart Everhart@Arisia.GCE.Com 18 Colburn Ln Hollis, NH 03049 (603)465-9517 and Ted Nieland L&T SIG Librarian HCST, INC. NIELAND@TED.HCST.COM PO BOX 31767 (513) 476-4639 (work) (513) 426-3235 (home) Dayton, Ohio 45431-0767