Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!tank!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: VMS: logicals  UNIX: links, but...
Message-ID: <17255@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 89 08:17:38 GMT
References: <475@caldwr.UUCP> <810047@hpsemc.HP.COM>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 37

In article <810047@hpsemc.HP.COM> gph@hpsemc.HP.COM (Paul Houtz) writes:
>  Yes.  Now you are getting to the jist of the problem.
[You mean `gist'.  Normally I skip over these, but this one has been
jrating :-) on me lately.]

>But you are now offloading the functionality I want in unix to the compiler.   

Well, actually, `runtime system'.  File name interpolation has to be done
at run time, not compile time (obviously).

>  Don't get me wrong.  That may be OK.   But on VMS if I have developed
>a large application system and expected all the gl data files to be in 
>the directory "gld" and all the executables to be in "gle"  and all the
>parameters (startup, user customization, etc.) in "glp", I can simply
>set up logicals for those files:  gle: disk1:gl/mysoft/executables,
>gld: disk1:gl/mysoft/data, glp: disk1:gl/mysoft/parms.   By modifying 
>the logicals file, the software is portable around the directory 
>structure WITHOUT re-compiling.   Now, I won't really be able to port
>that "portability" to unix.  

No problem:

	$ PATH=/gl/mysoft/bin:$PATH; export PATH
	$ F77LIBINPUTPATH=.:/gl/mysoft/parms; export F77LIBINPUTPATH
	$ cd /gl/mysoft/data; prog &
	1234
	$ cd ../data2; prog &
	1235
	$ cd ../data3; prog &
	1236

or similar.  The PATH and F77LIBINPUTPATH (or COBOL_RUNTIME_INPUT_FILE_PATH
[such a name seems appropriate for COBOL :-) ]) commands can be in a
script, for convenience.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris