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From: leichter@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU ("Jerry Leichter")
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: re: Thanx! (Last LOGIN date vs. file modification date)
Message-ID: <8709291030.AA13927@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Mon, 28-Sep-87 16:08:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8709291030.AA13927
Posted: Mon Sep 28 16:08:00 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Sep-87 06:44:50 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: "Jerry Leichter" <leichter@venus.ycc.yale.edu>
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 37


	...  Many thanx.  It may not be elegant or fast, but it's easy to
	understand and it works.  And that's all I was looking for.  In
	particular, Seldon had pretty much done exactly what I wanted and
	Claude explained it before I received Sheldon's message.  The final
	product below:
	----------------------------------------------------------------------
	$ IF F$SEARCH("SYS$MANAGER:NOTICE.TXT") .EQS. "" THEN GOTO NONEWS
	$ X = F$CVTIME(F$FILE_ATTRIBUTES("SYS$MANAGER:NOTICE.TXT","RDT"), -
		"COMPARISON")
	$ Y = F$CVTIME(F$FILE_ATTRIBUTES("SYS$LOGIN:LOGIN.COM","RDT"),     -
		"COMPARISON")
	$ IF X .LES. Y THEN GOTO NONEWS
	$ MORE SYS$MANAGER:NOTICE.TXT
	$!
	$ NONEWS:
	$ SET PROT=('F$FILE_ATTRIBUTES("SYS$LOGIN:LOGIN.COM","PRO")') -
	$   SYS$LOGIN:LOGIN.COM
	----------------------------------------------------------------------

There is one (significant) problem with this solution:  If a user decides
to edit his LOGIN.COM file, he will change its revision date, causing it to
appear that he last logged in later than he actually did.  He will then miss
messages.  That is:  Suppose I log in at 1:00.  At 2:00, NOTICE.TXT is up-
dated.  At 3:00 I update my LOGIN.COM file.  When I next log in, the 3:00
modification time on my LOGIN.COM file is compared to the 2:00 modification
time on NOTICE.TXT, and I am NOT shown the new notice.

You should instead use a file that the user is not likely to touch.  The
easiest thing to do is to create a 0-length file in the user's SYS$LOGIN
directory, with a name like "LAST.LOGIN".  Teach your users to leave this
file alone.  (If they screw around with it, they will only be hurting them-
selves...the system-wide login file would re-create LAST.LOGIN if it found
that it didn't exist, and of course display NOTICE.TXT.)

							-- Jerry
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