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From: m1b%rayssd.ray%com.UUCP@RELAY.CS.NET ("M. Joseph Barone")
Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax
Subject: Submission for mod-computers-vax
Message-ID: <8611181848.AA14527@rayssd.RAY.COM>
Date: Tue, 18-Nov-86 13:48:46 EST
Article-I.D.: rayssd.8611181848.AA14527
Posted: Tue Nov 18 13:48:46 1986
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Path: rayssd!m1b
From: m1b@rayssd.RAY.COM (M. Joseph Barone)
Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax
Subject: VAX C chdir is defective with VMS V4.4
Keywords: chdir, VAXCRTL.OLB
Message-ID: <399@rayssd.RAY.COM>
Date: 18 Nov 86 18:48:27 GMT
Sender: m1b@rayssd.RAY.COM (M. Joseph Barone @ Raytheon Company, Portsmouth RI)
Organization: Raytheon Company, Portsmouth RI
Lines: 39


This may be old news to some people but I thought I'd inform those
who didn't know about this problem.  The VAX C routine, chdir, doesn't
seem to work properly under VMS V4.4.  (Incidentally, the compiler
is VAXC V2.2.)  The following program, compiled with /DEBUG, will
illustrate the point:

main()
{
	static char resstr[100];

	strcpy (resstr,"dra0:[sys0.sysexe]");
	if (chdir (resstr) == -1)
		printf ("Destination directory '%s'\n",resstr);
	strcpy (resstr,"sys$sysdevice:[sys0.sysexe]");		/* A */
	if (chdir (resstr) == -1)
		printf ("Destination directory '%s'\n",resstr);
}								/* B */

If you step through the program to the line commented as /* A */, and
then spawn a DIR, you get the expected output.  If you step to /* B */,
and spawn a DIR, the following errors are printed:

DIRECT-E-OPENIN, error opening SYS$SYSDEVICE:[SYS0.SYSEXE] as input
-RMS-F-DEV, error in device name inappropriate device type for operation

When I contacted DEC, the person I spoke to seemed aware of the problem.
He suggested using SYS$SETDIR, but this precludes portability and also
doesn't work quite the same (it leaves you in the new directory while
chdir returns you to the original directory after program termination).
Our solution was to get backup copies of VMS V4.2 VAXCRTL.OLB,
VAXCCURSE.OLB, and VAXCRTLG.OLB.  I haven't SPRed this yet but I'll
get around to it!  Hope this helps someone.

Joe Barone
{allegra, cci632, gatech, ihnp4, linus, mirror, raybed2, umcp-cs}!rayssd!m1b
m1b@rayssd.RAY.COM
Raytheon Co, Submarine Signal Div., 1847 West Main Rd, Portsmouth, RI 02871