--- Clayton Frank Helvey <msspcva_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> Christopher:
>
> It's been some time since I used an RSX11 Kermit,
> however...
And I never did, but I used VMS Kermit a lot 10-15 years ago, and
the problems/issues are similar (due to the filesystem)
> I believe there's another option on the RSX11 side
> called "fixed" as in "binary file fixed record length
> of 512 bytes".
Yes. Same as VMS. RMS (Record Management Services), a library
that has no equivalent that I know of in UNIX or Windows, understands
record-oriented files, not just sequences of bytes. Text files,
object libraries and tasks/executables are all different.
> You may be ending up with variable record length
> binary file or a fixed length record size of 128 bytes
> or something like that.
Exactly. We used to run into this problem all the time when I was
working customer support at SRC. With many of our customers, it was
faster and simpler to mail them a 9-track tape than talk them through
how to use Kermit (since we typically had to send binary files).
Programs are somewhat easy - as Larry said, 'set file type fixed' on
the RSX end (or both, if appropriate) will tell RSX (or VMS) Kermit
to open the file via RMS to the correct type for a runnable program.
What will give you fits will be .OLB (Object Library) files or any other
kind of file that has a complex record structure (VMS Backup files?)
We resorted to a program called BACKPACK.EXE for VMS. Think of it like
a UUENCODE for RMS files. It converts a binary file to printable ASCII,
including RMS record metadata.
ISTR, BACKPACK.EXE was written in FORTRAN, in case anyone wants to
port it anywhere. Given that it only really helps when moving things
from VMS<->VMS, etc., it probably won't help you with your problem,
but I wanted to mention it as a period solution to the worst-case
file transfer problem with complex files on a DEC machine.
> --- Christopher McNabb <NOcmcnabbSPAM_at_4mcnabb.net>
> wrote:
> > Which kermit mode should be used when transfering
> > files to an RSX-11 system using kermit, ASCII or BINARY?
> > I realize this is normally based on the type
> > of the file, but when I xfer task files using BINARY
> > I get this silly "not a valid task" message when I try to
> > install or run the file.
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo!
http://sbc.yahoo.com
Received on Mon Sep 23 2002 - 10:44:00 BST