Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!PRIME1.LEEDS.AC.UK!ORG5NMC From: ORG5NMC@PRIME1.LEEDS.AC.UK.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: (none) Message-ID: <8709020126.AA04457@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: Tue, 1-Sep-87 21:26:29 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8709020126.AA04457 Posted: Tue Sep 1 21:26:29 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 3-Sep-87 02:48:21 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 38 Dear all, An annoying problem that we have just suffered and we have previously encountered at a commercial site demonstration but did not understand why at the time, is the following documentation error/misunderstanding in the VMS system routines manual 8B: The use of SYS$GETJPI with JPI$_IMAGNAME returns as a character string, the name of the current image file. It specifies in the documentation that the name of the image file can include up to 39 characters, the buffer length field in the item descriptor should specify 39 bytes. So a module written in August 1986 using this was written and incorporated as an integral part of our commercial software. About two months ago, demonstrating our software to a potential customer, we installed the software only to have it fail running up. It took us about an hour to work out that it was due to the length of the file specification of the image name. We could not investigate this further at the time and so it was recorded as a programming error for further investigation. When the problem again occurred just recently, it was immediately given to the programmers who spotted the problem straight away due to one of them having recent experience with it in a FINGER program he had just written. The system routine actually returns the fully translated file specification of the image and not just its name. So the simple fix was increasing this buffer length field. No other site had reported this error to us, probably as they install our software according to our written guidelines and this would very rarely produce a file specification for the image over 39 characters. So having not noticed this before, is this an original documentation error or has the system service changed? Just of interest, his FINGER program turns off privileges before opening a file! A program that needs installing with privileges should never open a file that is under user specification with its privileges on. All privileges that the image has in excess of the user should be disabled at entry and only enabled when that privilege is required, not like some VMS software I know. Kevin.