Article 174312 of comp.os.vms:
In article <1997Jul21.140332.1@eisner>, schenkenberg@eisner.decus.org (Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman-) writes:
>In article <33D38CD8.74DE@cisco.com>, Jim Mehlhop <jmehlhop@cisco.com> writes:
>> Petros Dafniotis, DuPont Central R & D wrote:
[....]
>
>On the alpha, the base images SYS$BASE_IMAGE and SYS$PUBLIC_IMAGES are
                                                  SYS$PUBLIC_VECTORS <---
>used by the linker to resolve references to the system services and to
>system vectors/routines.  Like on the VAX, the offset of entries in the
>base images are guaranteed to remain the same for newer versions of VMS.
>Unlike on the VAX, these images are not guaranteed to be loaded at any
>predefined, well-known system space address.  These images can be loaded
>at any arbitrary address.  The important factor is knowing the address 
>of the symbol vector in the loaded base image.  The linker uses the base
>image(s) to determine the offset in the symbol vector of the loaded base
>image.  
>
>When the image activator encounters an ISD for either of the two images,
>it performs differently than it would if the ISD described a shareable
>image such as LIBRTL.  The image activator locates the starting address
>of the symbol vector in the loaded base image and copies it to an IMCB.
>Fixups will then point to the address of the vector in system address 
>space where the base image was loaded.  
>
>-- 
>VAXman-                                                     VAXman@TMESIS.COM

Brian,

thank you for shading light on this. With all the respect to DEC they should
have documented this thing somewhere in the LINKER Manual!!! This is really
an exception of everything the LINKER manual says about Match control!
Sure it is something that concerns only people in system applications and most
casual users will hardly ever run into it. Is this anywhere documented in
the VMS manuals?

At any rate I have another question to whoever would like to help: if I have an
image that was compiled/linked under OpenVMS v6.2 against HOWEVER images from
OpenVMS v6.1 (i.e. forcing RTL shareables of v6.1) except for
SYS$PUBLIC_VECTORS and when trying to run it
under pure OpenVMS v6.1 I get an ident mismatch for
SYS$SHARE:SYS$PUBLIC_VECTORS.EXE, is there any way around it? [WAY := PATCHING
THE EXECUTABLES IN SOME WAY, NOT RELINKING.]

Thanks for any help/tips in advance. Posting/E-mailing is equally fine.

Petros
----------------------
Dr. Petros Dafniotis
DuPont de Nemours Intl. S.A. - Central Research & Development
dafniotis@gvcrd1.dnet.dupont.com
---
    DISCLAIMER: My employer, DuPont de Nemours, has nothing to do with
                the opinions and ideas expressed in this post / message.