Which Open-Source Packages can be Ported to VOS or OpenVOS?
I am often asked whether a particular open-source package can be ported to some release of VOS or OpenVOS (“VOS”, for short). My general answer is that most open-source packages that perform only...
View ArticleMixing VOS and POSIX Commands in Bash
If you have used the POSIX shell (“bash”) on VOS, then you know that you can run various POSIX commands and use all of the nifty tricks that bash provides, such as input and output redirection. But...
View ArticleIs Your Pre-production Testing Effective?
I wrote the following remarks about conducting effective pre-production testing for my “VOS Corner” column in the Stratus User Group newsletter for December, 1996. They are still relevant today,...
View ArticleWhat’s Next for OpenVOS?
I enjoy meeting our VOS and OpenVOS customers. Customers ask me where we are headed with VOS/OpenVOS, and colleagues ask me where we should go with VOS/OpenVOS. I’ve often said that I get my best...
View ArticleWhy Can’t I Supply a Password to the sftp Command From Inside a Macro?
Recently a number of VOS and OpenVOS customers have switched from using the standard ftp client (ftp.pm) to the secure ftp client (sftp.pm). There are two primary reasons for using sftp over ftp....
View ArticleA Port of the GNU Indent Command
I have just uploaded a port of the GNU indent command to the VOS anonymous FTP site. This command adds or removes whitespace from a C program to make the appearance conform to a set of standards....
View ArticleXML, Expat, and Xerces
I’ve been doing some research into handling XML (Extensible Markup Language) data on VOS and OpenVOS, and I thought it would be useful to share what I learned with a wider audience. WHAT IS XML? The...
View ArticleHow to Influence Stratus (and Other Vendors)
Customers often ask me how to get Stratus to add a feature to an existing product, or how to get Stratus interested in offering an additional product or service. Sometimes they just want to know how we...
View ArticleWhat’s New in OpenVOS Release 17.0?
I’ve been fielding questions from VOS customers who are considering upgrading to OpenVOS Release 17.0 and they are all asking the same question – what’s new, and why should I upgrade? My strong...
View ArticleAligning SVM Regions in POSIX and Non-POSIX Programs
I recently fielded a question from a VOS customer who wanted to know how to get his shared virtual memory regions to align between his legacy non-POSIX programs and his new, POSIX-based programs. This...
View ArticleDo You Have the Oldest or Longest-running Stratus Computer System?
Stratus will be celebrating its 30th birthday next month! It is hard for me to believe that we have been at the business of producing continuously available computer systems for 30 years, even though...
View ArticleWhy you should rebuild and retest with each new release of the OS
In the 1971 movie “Dirty Harry”, Clint Eastwood plays a tough, street-smart cop. In the opening scene, he coolly stops a bank robbery by gunning down the bank robbers with his enormous, long-barreled,...
View ArticleThe Lazy Way to Edit a Lot of Files
While implementing a change to the OpenVOS kernel, I found myself faced with the task of modifying about 150 files. This meant reserving them in the source control system, updating the copyright,...
View ArticleMonitoring Network Adapter Status
The other day during a discussion with some users it became clear to me that they did not understand under what conditions a Stratus VSeries system would call home regarding a network adapter. This...
View ArticleServices file not just for server processes
With the trend away from running telnetd and FTPD and toward running SSHD many system administrators are removing the “telnet” and “FTP” service lines from the >system>stcp>services file....
View ArticleAccessing the ftStorage array’s GUI interface from your workstation
When the ftStorage array was originally conceived the thinking was that when it was necessary to configure something on the array administrators would use either the command line interface from an...
View ArticleSDLMUX Revisited
The SDLMUX software combines two network adapters into one IP interface, providing a fail over capability if the link on the active adapter goes down or the adapter fails. Once set up it requires...
View ArticleTCP is a stream of bytes not messages
“The application has been running fine for years, last week the network was upgraded and we moved from 100 mbps to gigabit. Now the last half of the data in some messages is garbage. The network people...
View ArticleVOS/OpenVOS user address space basics
You can accomplish many programming tasks in VOS and OpenVOS without knowing the details of how the operating system manages the user address space. But it is fun to know the details, and sometimes to...
View ArticleBogus analyze_system metering values on long-running modules
After your VOS or OpenVOS module has been up for a while (a few months or more), you may notice that some of the metering values displayed by various analyze_system requests have gone negative, or some...
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