From: MERC::"uunet!CRVAX.SRI.COM!RELAY-INFO-VAX" 23-FEB-1993 14:39:53.22 To: info-vax@kl.sri.com CC: udaa055@elm.cc.kcl.ac.uk Subj: VMS_SHARE release 8.3 announcement Dear All, The latest release of the VMS_SHARE package (8.3) is now available. Mostly, it contains bug fixes but two new features include - formal support for the alpha series, and a utility to assist in extracting the parts of a package from mail. The 8.3 release notes are enclosed below so you may determine if it is suitable for your needs. VMS_SHARE may be obtained as a 21 part package by sending the single command: SEND VMS_SHARE.PACKAGE to the mail server at VMSSERV @ OAK.CC.KCL.AC.UK Full docuemntationa and source code is included. I hope to post the package to VMSNET.SOURCES in the next few days as well. I would be pleased to receive feedback on this version and, of course, any bug reports which I'll try to act on. Regards, Andy Harper Kings College London V M S _ S H A R E R E L E A S E N O T E S Version 8.3 Feb 1993 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This software is copyright but may be freely distributed without charge to anyone. All copyright and ownership notices must remain intact. No warranties are offered as to the suitability of this software for any purpose; any errors arising from its use are entirely the responsibility of the user. (C) Andy Harper, Kings College London, England - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. INTRODUCTION Version 8.3 of VMS_SHARE is a major release which contains teo new features. The main intent however is to fix a number of bugs and errors in documentation. 2. NEW FEATURES 2.1 Alpha Support This release now supports the ALPHA series of machines. Previously, when packing or unpacking files, the current version of VMS was checked to see if it was consistent with the requirements of VMS_SHARE. This check is now bypassed on alpha systems as all required features exist on the OpenVMS supplied with Alpha. Generated share files will also now unpack on Alpha systems without error. [ Thanks to Earle Ake - Ake@dayvd.dayton.saic.com - For the checking code ] 2.2 New Utility - PAKEXTRACT An initial version of a utility called PAKEXTRACT is supplied with this release. It is designed to assist the recipient of a package in the task of extracting the parts from MAIL. Briefly: @PAKEXTRACT package number-of-parts [mail-folder] will scan the specified mail folder (default: NEWMAIL) looking for SUBJECT headers that begin: package.nnn-OF-mmm where: package is the name of the package nnn is the part number mmm is the total number of parts This is the format in which the current PAKMAIL utility generates the subject lines. However it should also recognize the format of subject lines generated by earlier versions of PAKMAIL, namely: package.n_OF_m or package n/m Once a part is found, it is written to an external file whose name is "package.nnn-OF-mmm". Documentation on this facility is included in the new PAKEXTRACT.HLP module, and in the user guide. The best place for technical details however is the source code. 3. BUG FIXES 3.1 VMS_SHARE HELP File The HELP file describing VMS_SHARE contained a formatting error under the description of the SHARE_EXCLUDE logical name. The word /EXCLUDE erroneously appeared in column 1 causing HELP to format the entry badly on subsequent display. This has been corrected. [Thanks go to Ken Fairfield - fairfield@scs.slac.stanford.edu - for this bugfix] 3.2. Erroneous Descriptions of old logical names Under the Old_logical_names section in the HELP file, the descriptions of the SHARE_EXCLUDE_xxx logicals mistakenly stated that the file exclusions specified by them were not overridden if the /EXCLUDE qualifier were used. In fact, use of the /EXCLUDE qualifier specifically overrides any exclusions specified by any logical names and the descriptions in help have been modified accordingly. 3.3 Handling of the [000000] Directory When the current directory was the top level [000000], file specifications containing "[000000" at the start of the directory part were handled erroneously, and resulted in a bad file specification. This has now been fixed. [Thanks go to Luke Brennan - Brennan@coco.cchs.su.oz.au - for this bug report] 3.4 PAKMAIL Reads end of file If an end of file (CTRL/Z) was entered at one of the PAKMAIL prompts, a jump to a non-existent label was attempted. The missing label has been added. 4. CHANGES IN OPERATION NONE 5. DOCUMENTATION CHANGES All documentation has been updated to reflect the addition of alpha support and to correct minor typing errors. 6. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 7. TESTING This version of VMS_SHARE has only been tested on VMS 5.5-2 but is believed to work on all versions from VMS 5.0 to OpenVMS 5.5-2 and on Alpha OpenVMS. However, it is not supported formally on any version of VMS other than the one on which it has been tested. The share files generated by VMS_SHARE are believed to unpack correctly on all versions of TPU from VMS 4.4 onwards unless the /LONGLINES option is selected, in which case VMS 5.4 is the minimum release needed. On Alpha, any version of OpenVMS is permitted.