Help with RT-11 'Split' Utility

From: Jerome H. Fine <jhfinexgs2_at_compsys.to>
Date: Thu Jul 31 08:49:00 2003

>Barry Skidmore wrote:

> I am having problems with the unsupported 'split' utility on a
> PDP-11/23+ running RT-11 5.03
> I am trying to split a 35000 block file into 3 files of similar sizes.
> I understand that you use octal values for block boundaries. Here is
> the command line that I have been using unsuccessfully:
> The octal value of 35000 is 104270.
> .split bak1.dsk,bak2.dsk,bak3.dsk=jul28.dsk/b:34757:69513
> (where 69513 = 104270-34757)
> However, I receive the following error:
> ?SPLIT-E-Invalid command
> I need some help on how to specify the block boundaries.
> Thanks,
> Barry
> Barry Skidmore <skidmore_at_worldvenue.org>

Jerome Fine replies:

I looked at the arguments for SPLIT and you are correct, but
unfortunately, the octal arithmetic:
47311 = 104270 - 34757
seems to be the problem, aside from the fact that an octal value
can not include the digits 8 or 9.

When you posed this question on alt.sys.pdp11, I noticed
that you also received the error message:
?Split-E-Input error
This would probably be due to a bad block somewhere in
the last portion of the "JUL28.DSK" file. Finding that block
will not be impossible, but when you do so, there are methods
to copy the bad block it can be recovered by repeated attempts
to read it ONE block at a time. That attempt can sometimes
be accomplished by:

MOUNT LD0: JUL28.DSK/NOWRITE
COPY/DEVICE/IGNORE LD0: DU1:

Finding the actual block that is bad is not trivial, but BINCOM
can help if you then do a binary search when comparing the
portions of LD0: which can be read. If you don't understand,
please ask!

I presume that you have more than ONE RT-11 partition to
work with although your sample syntax does not demonstrate
that possibility. I presume that since every RT-11 partition
has a MAXIMUM of 65536 blocks and placing all 3 portions
of a 35000 block file on the same RT-11 partition would
require 70000 blocks - which exceeds that capacity of the
RT-11 partition. Thus, even if you had not encountered
a bad block in the "JUL28.DSK" file, there would have been
insufficient space to output the last portion.

If you have any other RT-11 questions or require more
help, please ask.

Sincerely yours,

Jerome Fine
--
If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail
address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk
e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be
obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the
'at' with the four digits of the current year.
Received on Thu Jul 31 2003 - 08:49:00 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:36:06 BST