[Only monitoring vmsperl@perl.org for replies]
Michael G Schwern wrote:
On Sat, Mar 26, 2005 at 09:35:10AM -0600, Craig A. Berry wrote:
Really? I've yet to see a problem with .foo style on VMS. Where does it2.) Use '_author' instead of '.author' when on VMS since a dot in a directory name is usually invalid and always awkward.
go wrong?
It appears to go wrong in that the .foo/bar style of names is only supported on the ODS-5 filesystem and not ODS-2 and currently PERL on OpenVMS does not implement support for ODS-5.
.foo as not a directory file is allowed with ODS-2, so such code does not need to be changed.
The ODS-5 file system is only available on OpenVMS Alpha and I64.
The current code to translate from VMS to UNIX and back file specifications is translating the extra dots in directory and filenames into "_" characters, even when it should not, which is making some files on ODS-5 volumes invisible.
In the stuff that I am testing for symbolic link support, I have implemented changes so that when translating an VMS specification with the extra dots to a UNIX style path, it will translate it correctly.
It will also translate a UNIX style path with extra dots in it back to a VMS ODS-5 specification with out the dots being translated to "_" if the SET PROC/PARSE=EXTENDED is set.
I will not be implementing full ODS-5 support in this pass for VMS mode of filenames. If the mode is set to DECC$FILENAME_UNIX_ONLY after my changes, almost all UNIX file specifications should work on ODS-5 volumes.
If it is a bad thing on VMS, MI should use _foo everywhere rather than create Yet Another VMS Exception.
It will continue to be needed on directories for ODS-2 file system support.
ODS-2 only allows 1 dot in a file specification and only if that file is not a directory. It also does not allow a directory specification to begin with a "-" character for most versions of OpenVMS that are currently be in use.
Also with the stuff that I am doing for the symlink support, also the case sensitivity of perl on OpenVMS will reflect the state of the process setting, and not be hard coded to case insensitive. The resulting Perl on OpenVMS will properly pay attention to several of the DECC$ feature logicals as far as preserving case. The result should be that many Perl scripts that will not currently run on OpenVMS will run if the external mode controls are set appropriately.
I am still debugging the changes needed for symbolic link support.
-John [EMAIL PROTECTED] Personal Opinion Only
