Hi Folks,
I don't want to stir things up any more, and I think that everyone
has come to the following conclusion: If you want to be an unauthorized
program and look at some UCB-related control blocks without changing
them, and you don't mind that you may get an erroneous result once in a
blue moon, because an IODF change happens to be running right now, then
fine. We are not talking about changing any control blocks where we
seriously have to serialize. I guess that says it in a nutshell.
Now for a new one. I just wrote another program, called UCBTAPE,
that I also put on File 731 on the Updates page of www.cbttape.org. It
was written using the same method of reading the UCB's. This one is a
TSO command to display all your online tape drives, and to tell you all
the outstanding tape mounts. I think it'll be useful for both
application programmers who use tapes, and for operators, as well as for
systems programmers. It's not authorized, it doesn't change things, and
it hopefully doesn't hurt anything. I tested it as best I could, and my
question is, if this program will ACCURATELY report WHEN, and ONLY WHEN,
a tape needs to be mounted. As written so far, it displays the
addresses of several control blocks, and while this might have been
helpful in writing the program, I don't know whether I have to keep that
part of the display.
BUT I NEED A FEW PEOPLE TO TEST IF UCBTAPE WILL RELIABLY TELL YOU
WHEN A TAPE HAS TO BE MOUNTED, AND WHEN IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE MOUNTED.
Please feel free to download UCBTAPE from File 731 of the Updates page
of www.cbttape.org. Assemble it and see how it shows your online tape
drives, and whether it will accurately show when you need to mount a
tape, and when you don't. A HELP member is included. Thanks MUCH, in
advance.
All the best of everything to all of you......
Sincerely, Sam
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