RDOS RELEASE NOTICE REVISION 7.60 MODEL NUMBER(S) 3181, 3359, 3556, 3618 MARCH 1989 085-000022-19 ****************************************************************** ** ** ** FAILURE TO READ THE NOTES AND WARNINGS SECTION BEFORE YOU ** ** INSTALL THIS REVISION COULD RESULT IN THE LOSS OF DATA. ** ** ** ****************************************************************** NOVA AND ECLIPSE ARE U.S. REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF DATA GENERAL CORPORATION. RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND USE, DUPLICATION, OR DISCLOSURE BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS SUBJECT TO RESTRICTIONS AS SET FORTH IN SUBPARAGRAPH (C)(1)(II) OF THE RIGHTS IN TECHNICAL DATA AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE CLAUSE AT [FAR]52.227-7013 (MAY 1987) DATA GENERAL CORPORATION 4400 COMPUTER DRIVE WESTBORO, MA 01580 UNPUBLISHED -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNDER THE COPYRIGHT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. COPYRIGHT (C) DATA GENERAL CORPORATION, 1972-1985 INCLUSIVE, 1989 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LICENSED MATERIAL -- PROPERTY OF DATA GENERAL CORPORATION THIS SOFTWARE IS MADE AVAILABLE SOLELY PURSUANT TO THE TERMS OF A DGC LICENSE AGREEMENT WHICH GOVERNS ITS USE. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. ENVIRONMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. ENHANCEMENTS AND CHANGES. . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.1 CLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.2 DDUMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.3 DKINIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.4 DLOAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.5 DSKED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.6 EDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.7 FDUMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.8 FLOAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.9 MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.10 MBOOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.11 MCABOOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.12 OPERATING SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.13 PATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.14 RLDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.15 SPEED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.16 SYSGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.17 TBOOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.18 USER DEBUGGER . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5. NOTES AND WARNINGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6. DOCUMENTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A. MANUALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 B. DOCUMENTATION-CHANGES FILES . . . . . . . . 14 7. SOFTWARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 A. MEDIA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 B. MAGNETIC TAPE MEDIUM ORGANIZATION . . . . . . 17 C. DISKETTE MEDIUM ORGANIZATION . . . . . . . . 18 D. FILES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 8. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . 20 A. SPECIAL INIT/F CONSIDERATIONS . . . . . . . 20 B. INSTALLING FROM MAGNETIC TAPE . . . . . . . 21 C. INSTALLING FROM DISKETTE . . . . . . . . . 21 9. PREPARING A SOFTWARE TROUBLE REPORT . . . . . . . 22 RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 2 1. INTRODUCTION THE PURPOSE OF THIS RELEASE NOTICE IS TO PROVIDE YOU WITH INFORMATION ABOUT REVISION 7.60 OF RDOS THAT IS NOT AVAILABLE IN THE RDOS DOCUMENTATION. THIS PRODUCT CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING PARTS: PART DESCRIPTION PART NUMBER ---------------- ---------- 1. RDOS REVISION 7.60 RELEASE NOTICE 085-000022-19 2. RDOS REVISION 7.60 RELEASE MEDIA LISTED IN SECTION 7 OF THIS RELEASE NOTICE THIS PRINTED RELEASE NOTICE ALWAYS ACCOMPANIES THE SOFTWARE. AFTER YOU HAVE INSTALLED THE PRODUCT, YOU CAN PRINT ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS NOTICE. ITS FILENAME IS 085000022.19. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 3 2. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION RDOS IS A PROPRIETARY OPERATING SYSTEM DEVELOPED BY DATA GENERAL FOR ITS NOVA AND ECLIPSE COMPUTER EQUIPMENT. RDOS PROVIDES A DUAL PROCESS, MULTITASKING ENVIRONMENT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXECUTION OF APPLICATIONS PROGRAMS. RDOS PROVIDES A SET OF PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT TOOLS AS A STANDARD FEATURE, ALONG WITH BACKUP/FILE TRANSFER, COMMAND LINE INTERPRETER, AND SYSTEM CUSTOMIZATION UTILITIES. HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGES, COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE, AND A SORT/MERGE UTILITY ARE OFFERED BY DATA GENERAL AS SEPARATE PRODUCTS. MANY APPLICATION PACKAGES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIRD PARTIES. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 4 3. ENVIRONMENT RDOS REVISION 7.60 RUNS ON THE FOLLOWING DATA GENERAL CPUS: 1) UNMAPPED NOVA 2) MAPPED NOVA 3/4 3) MAPPED ECLIPSE IN ADDITION TO THE PROCESSOR, A DISK DRIVE AND MASTER CONSOLE ARE REQUIRED. SINCE SOFTWARE IS ONLY DISTRIBUTED ON MAGNETIC TAPE OR DISKETTE, A DRIVE OF THE APPROPRIATE TYPE WILL ALSO BE NECESSARY TO LOAD THE SOFTWARE FROM THE DISTRIBUTION MEDIA. SINCE RDOS IS BASE LEVEL SOFTWARE, THERE ARE NO SOFTWARE PREREQUISITES. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 5 4. ENHANCEMENTS AND CHANGES THE FOLLOWING SUBSECTIONS CONTAIN SUMMARIES OF ENHANCEMENTS TO RELEASE 7.50 OR SUMMARIES OF CORRECTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE TO ELIMINATE PROBLEMS FOUND IN RELEASE 7.50. 4.1) CLI 1) DUMP - STR 28216. WHEN THE UTILITY WAS DUMPING TO A DISK FILE, IF THE INPUT DATA EXCEEDED THE 33 MEGABYTE FILE SIZE LIMIT, DUMP WOULD WRAP AROUND AND START WRITING THE NEW DATA OVER THE BEGINNING OF THE DUMP FILE. STARTING WITH REVISION 7.60, WHEN THE 33 MEGABYTE FILE SIZE LIMIT IS EXCEEDED, THE USER WILL GET AN END OF FILE ERROR AND THE DUMP FILE WILL BE DELETED. 2) TYPE - STR 30807. THE CLI WOULD HANG IF YOU TRIED TO TYPE A FILE WITH A FILENAME LONGER THAN 40 CHARACTERS. FILENAMES THAT LONG ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY RDOS, BUT THE CLI WAS MODIFIED TO PREVENT A HANG. 3) THE VERSION OF CLI SHIPPED WITH THIS RELEASE WILL ONLY PRODUCE CORRECT RESULTS WHEN USED WITH OPERATING SYSTEMS WITH REVISION NUMBERS OF 7.60 OR ABOVE. OPERATIONS INVOLVING THE CREATION OF CONTIGUOUS FILES HAVE BEEN IMPROVED TO PROVIDE BETTER OVERALL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE. THESE OPERATIONS USE NEW FEATURES OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM THAT DO NOT EXIST IN EARLIER REVISIONS. 4.2) DDUMP STR RTP0-365. WHEN DDUMP ATTEMPTED TO DUMP A LINK RESOLUTION FILE IN A SUBDIRECTORY, IT WOULD RETURN THE ERROR MESSAGE "THE FILE XXX HAS NO RESOLUTION FILE" EVEN IF THE RESOLUTION FILE EXISTED. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN CORRECTED. THE DUMPED FILE WILL HAVE THE NAME OF THE LINK FILE AND THE CONTENTS OF THE LINK RESOLUTION FILE. 4.3) DKINIT THE ORDER AND FORMAT OF THE HELP MESSAGES IN DKINIT HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO MAKE IT EASIER TO LOCATE A SPECIFIC DISK. SUPPORT FOR THE MODEL 6357 DISK DRIVE HAS BEEN ADDED. 4.4) DLOAD 1) STR 28145. WHEN LOADING ICOBOL .XD FILES, DLOAD WOULD NOT LOAD TRAILING BLOCKS THAT CONTAINED NULLS. 2) STR 123102. DLOAD CONTAINED AN INTERNAL ERROR THAT WOULD PREVENT A RESTORE OPERATION. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 6 4.5) DSKED DSKED NOW ACCEPTS A NEW LINE (NL) AS WELL AS A CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) AS A VALID TERMINATOR FOR YOUR RESPONSE TO THE DISK-MODEL-NUMBER AND DISK-SPECIFIER QUESTIONS. THE SINGLE QUOTE OPERATOR NOW DISPLAYS LOWERCASE CHARACTERS AS ASCII INSTEAD OF ENCLOSING THE OCTAL VALUE IN <>. THE DOUBLE QUOTE OPERATOR NOW ACCEPTS LOWERCASE CHARACTERS AS INPUT TO MODIFY OPENED LOCATIONS. SUPPORT FOR THE MODEL 6357 DISK DRIVE HAS BEEN ADDED. 4.6) EDIT 1) STR 28683. EDIT NOW ACCEPTS 8-BIT CHARACTERS. 2) STR 29056. THE EDIT UTILITY WOULD NOT ALLOW AN ESCAPE CHARACTER TO BE SUPPLIED AS INPUT. 4.7) FDUMP STR 30160. FDUMP WOULD NOT ALWAYS DUMP ALL FILES. 4.8) FLOAD 1) STR 132835. FLOAD WOULD TRAP IF THE OPERATOR ENTERED AN INVALID TAPE FILE NAME. FLOAD HAS BEEN CHANGED TO RETURN AN ERROR IN THIS SITUATION. 2) SPR SQA-9506. TWO PROGRAM BANNERS WOULD BE DISPLAYED WHEN USING THE COMMAND FLOAD/N. 3) BUFFERED I/O SYSTEM CALLS (LIKE .RDS AND .WRS) RETURN AN END OF FILE ERROR WHEN THEY ACCESS THE LAST BYTE OF THE LARGEST POSSIBLE RANDOM OR SEQUENTIAL FILE, RATHER THAN WHEN THEY TRY TO GO BEYOND THE LAST BYTE. THE LARGEST POSSIBLE RANDOM OR SEQUENTIAL FILE CONTAINS 65536 BLOCKS. IN A RANDOM FILE, EACH OF THESE BLOCKS CONTAINS 512 BYTES OF DATA. IN A SEQUENTIAL FILE, EACH OF THESE BLOCKS CONTAINS 510 OR 508 BYTES OF DATA. FLOAD NO LONGER RETURNS AN END OF FILE ERROR WHEN LOADING THE LARGEST POSSIBLE RANDOM FILE. 4.9) MAC 1) STRS 26201, 29182, 113478, 113965, 122178. SEVERAL PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN REPORTED WHEN USERS ATTEMPT TO USE NREL LITERALS. THE LITERAL HANDLING CODE IN MAC HAS BEEN CLEANED UP AND BOTH NREL AND ZREL LITERALS ARE NOW OPTIMIZED BY MAC. 2) STR 28548. MAC WOULD HANG WHEN AN .EXTD WAS USED INCORRECTLY IN A NREL LITERAL. 3) AN ERROR IN THE .EXTN PROCESSING CODE WOULD, AT TIMES, CAUSE THE ASSEMBLER TO WRITE TO LOCATION 3. 4) A PC OVERFLOW ERROR WAS DETECTED AND CORRECTED. 5) STR 34525. WHEN USED WITH .LPOOLS, THE /T SWITCH WOULD CAUSE 'U' ERRORS IN MAC. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 7 6) STR RTP0-269. WHEN A LARGE NUMBER OF LONG MACRO DEFINITIONS WERE USED WITH MAC, THE DEFINITIONS WERE NOT INCLUDED IN THE MAC.PS FILE CREATED FROM THIS TYPE OF INPUT. THE USER DID NOT GET ANY INDICATION THAT MAC HAD DROPPED THESE DEFINITIONS. 7) STR RTP0-308. A .BLK PSEUDO OPERATION NEAR THE END OF MAC'S 64KB ADDRESS SPACE WOULD CAUSE MAC TO GENERATE AN INCORRECT RB. 4.10) MBOOT STRS 27515, 29993. THE MESSAGE "PARTITION IN USE - TYPE C TO CONTINUE" WAS ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR USE IN DUAL PORTED APPLICATIONS TO INFORM THE USER THAT A PARTITION WAS BEING USED BY ANOTHER CPU. SINCE DUAL PORTED SYSTEMS MUST BOOT FROM UNIQUE PARTITIONS, IT WAS IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHEN A PARTITION WAS IN USE. THROUGH TIME, CUSTOMERS HAVE USED THE MESSAGE TO MEAN THAT THEIR SYSTEM WAS NOT SHUT DOWN PROPERLY AND AS AN INDICATOR THAT THEIR FILE SYSTEM MIGHT BE CORRUPT. ALTHOUGH THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY ACCURATE, IT MAY INDICATE THAT THE FILE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT. THE MESSAGE HAS BEEN RESTORED FOR REVISION 7.60. 4.11) MCABOOT STR 28783. MCABOOT WOULD GET A NON-FATAL ERROR WHEN IT WAS INVOKED USING THE GLOBAL /F SWITCH. WHEN BOOT WAS SPLIT INTO SEVERAL PROGRAMS, MCABOOT WAS NOT CHANGED TO TRANSFER THE APPROPRIATE FILES. MCABOOT WILL NOW TRANSFER BOTH EBOOT.SV AND ABOOT.SV WHEN THE GLOBAL /F SWITCH IS SPECIFIED. 4.12) OPERATING SYSTEM 1) STRS 25962, 28675. CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) AND LINE FEED (NL) CHARACTERS ALWAYS HAD EVEN PARITY SET. THESE CHARACTERS SHOULD HAVE PARITY SET ACCORDING TO THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE QTY LINE THAT THEY PASS THROUGH. THE OPERATING SYSTEM HAS BEEN CHANGED TO USE PARITY ACCORDING TO THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SERIAL PORT THAT THE CHARACTERS PASS THROUGH. 2) STR 27786. RDOS RUNNING DUAL PORTED ON DAN TYPE DISK DRIVES WOULD CAUSE THE CPU TO HANG. THE MECHANISM USED BY THE DISK CONTROLLER TO RESERVE A DAN DISK DRIVE FOR ONE OF THE DUAL PORTING CPUS WOULD NOT ALWAYS RELEASE THE DRIVE WHEN THE RESERVING CPU COMPLETED ITS DISK OPERATION. SEVERAL OTHER DUAL PORTING PROBLEMS WITH DAN TYPE DISK DRIVES WERE ALSO DISCOVERED AND FIXED. 3) STRS 28330, 31314. CORE DUMPS ON RDOS WERE LIMITED TO THE FIRST 0.5 MB OF MEMORY. THE OPERATING SYSTEM HAS BEEN CHANGED TO MAKE THE CORE DUMP ROUTINE DUMP THE AMOUNT OF MEMORY SPECIFIED WHEN THE SYSGEN PROGRAM WAS RUN. 4) STR 28671. SPURIOUS INTERRUPTS ON DEVICE CODES RESERVED FOR TAPE UNITS WOULD CAUSE RDOS TO HAVE A FATAL ERROR. THE DEVICE DRIVER FOR TAPE UNITS HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO DISMISS INTERRUPTS FROM TAPE DEVICE CODES IF A CURRENT REQUEST IS NOT PRESENT FOR A TAPE OPERATION. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 8 5) STR 28672. USING A .EXBG SYSTEM CALL COULD CAUSE AN UNEXPECTED FATAL RDOS ERROR OR SYSTEM HANG. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN CORRECTED. 6) STR 28673. IF RDOS RAN OUT OF DISK SPACE DURING A SWAP OPERATION, THE DISK ID BLOCK (BLOCK 3) WOULD BE CORRUPTED. THE OPERATING SYSTEM HAS BEEN CHANGED TO CORRECT THIS PROBLEM. 7) STR 28674. ON UNMAPPED SYSTEMS, THE .GCHN SYSTEM CALL WOULD LET A USER OBTAIN MORE CHANNELS THAN WERE ALLOWED BY THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CHANNELS FIELD IN THE UST. THE OPERATING SYSTEM HAS BEEN CORRECTED TO PREVENT THIS SITUATION. 8) STR 28677. THE OPERATING SYSTEM HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO KEEP THE RLDR OPERATION STARTED BY SYSGEN FROM HAVING UNDEFINED SYMBOL ERRORS WHEN LINKING TRDOS. 9) STR 28678. WHEN MEMORY RESIDENT OVERLAYS WERE USED AND THE OPERATING SYSTEM HAD A SMALL NUMBER OF STACKS, CELLS, AND BUFFERS GENERATED, RDOS COULD PANIC OR HANG. 10) STR 28784. MOVING OR DELETING THE FILE BOOTSYS.OL RETURNED THE BLOCKS RESERVED FOR THE OVERLAY FILE TO THE OPERATING SYSTEM FOR REUSE. IF YOU INSTALL A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM FROM TAPE OR MCA, DATA MAY BE OVERWRITTEN. IN ORDER TO PREVENT THIS SITUATION, RDOS REVISION 7.60 CREATES BOOTSYS.OL AS PERMANENT AND ATTRIBUTE PROTECTED WHEN IT DOES A FULL INITIALIZATION. FOR MORE INFORMATION, REFER TO THE NOTES AND WARNINGS SECTION OF THIS RELEASE NOTICE. 11) STRS 30682, 32268. AN ERROR IN THE DJN DISKETTE DRIVER WAS CAUSING SYS.DR TO BE CORRUPTED. 12) STR 31443. AN ATTEMPTED RECOVERY FROM A BAD TAPE WRITE COULD WRITE OVER GOOD RECORDS DURING A TAPE BACKUP. 13) STRS 31702, 32047, 121355. MASTER CONSOLE SUPPORT FOR 8 BIT CHARACTERS DID NOT WORK. 14) STR 31979. IF YOU CREATED A SUBDIRECTORY IN A PARTITION OR DISK THAT WAS ALMOST OUT OF DISK SPACE, A DIRECTORY ENTRY COULD BE CREATED THAT COULD NOT BE DELETED. 15) STR 119971. AN ERROR IN THE .IDEF SYSTEM CALL CODE WOULD CAUSE THE .STMAP SYSTEM CALL TO PRODUCE INCORRECT RESULTS. 16) STR 123963. AN ERROR IN THE DZN DISK DRIVER CAUSED THE OPERATING SYSTEM TO HANG IF THE SYSTEM OR OVERLAY FILES WERE LOCATED TOO FAR OUT ON THE DISK. 17) THE OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPORT FOR THE CLI BOOT COMMAND HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO PASS THE CORRECTLY FORMATTED UNIT NUMBER TO ABOOT. THIS CORRECTS A PROBLEM THAT OCCURED WHEN YOU TRIED TO BOOT DAN DISKS OTHER THAN UNIT ZERO. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 9 18) STR RTP0-172. DELETION OF FILES FROM A DISK WOULD LEAVE AN INTERNAL OPERATING SYSTEM POINTER IN A STATE THAT WOULD ENCOURAGE DISK FRAGMENTATION. THE PROCEDURE FOR UPDATING THIS POINTER HAS BEEN CHANGED SO THAT THE NORMAL MODE OF OPERATION WILL TEND TO CAUSE UNUSED BLOCKS AT THE BEGINNING OF A DISK TO BE ALLOCATED AS NEW BLOCKS ARE REQUIRED. THIS CHANGE WILL AID IN KEEPING THE DISK PACKED SO THAT MORE SPACE WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR CONTIGUOUS FILES. 19) STR RTP0-275. ONE OF THE MEMORY PAGES USED BY THE INITIALIZATION PHASE OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM WAS NOT RETURNED TO THE FREE LIST WHEN INITIALIZATION WAS COMPLETE. RDOS WOULD REQUIRE ONE MORE PAGE IN A GROUND TO RUN ICOBOL THAN THE FLEXSTATS UTILITY INDICATED. 20) STR 31231. POWER FAIL/AUTO-RESTART HAS BEEN IMPROVED FOR REVISION 7.60. MULTIPLE FAILURES OCCURING IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME WOULD CAUSE RDOS 7.50 TO HANG WHEN TRYING TO RESTART AFTER THE RESTORATION OF POWER. 21) THE VERSION OF CLI SHIPPED WITH THIS RELEASE WILL ONLY PRODUCE CORRECT RESULTS WHEN USED WITH OPERATING SYSTEMS WITH REVISION NUMBERS OF 7.60 OR ABOVE. OPERATIONS INVOLVING THE CREATION OF CONTIGUOUS FILES HAVE BEEN IMPROVED TO PROVIDE BETTER OVERALL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE. THESE OPERATIONS USE NEW FEATURES OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM THAT DO NOT EXIST IN EARLIER REVISIONS. 22) SUPPORT HAS BEEN ADDED FOR THE MODEL 6357 DISK DRIVE. 23) A PROBLEM IN THE OPERATING SYSTEM'S BUFFER MANAGEMENT SUBSYSTEM HAS BEEN FIXED. IN THE PAST, A MODIFICATION TO A DISK FILE COULD BE LOST. THE PROBLEM ONLY OCCURRED ON CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF CPU AND DISK WHEN THE BUFFER MANAGEMENT ROUTINES WERE HEAVILY STRESSED - FOR EXAMPLE, WITH SEVERAL TASKS USING .WRS TO EXTEND RANDOM FILES AND OTHER TASKS OPENING AND CLOSING FILES ON THE SAME DISK. WHILE FIXING THIS PROBLEM, VARIOUS PARTS OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM WERE MADE TO RELEASE SYSTEM BUFFERS PROPERLY WHILE HANDLING ERRORS: -- WHEN .RDS, .WRS, .RDR, .WRR, OR .WRL ACCESS THE LAST BYTE OF THE LARGEST POSSIBLE RANDOM OR SEQUENTIAL FILE -- WHEN DISK SPACE IS EXHAUSTED JUST BEFORE .EXEC FINISHES ALLOCATING SWAP SPACE -- WHEN ERRORS OCCUR WHILE .OVRP IS READING THE SECOND AND LATER BLOCKS OF AN OVERLAY REPLACEMENT FILE -- IF .TUOFF CANNOT FIND THE SYS.DR ENTRY FOR THE TUNING FILE -- WHEN ERRORS OCCUR WHILE FLUSHING A DISK BLOCK THAT IS ABOUT TO BE DEALLOCATED -- WHEN ERRORS OCCUR WHILE .SPKL IS FINDING AND DEALLOCATING BLOCKS THAT WERE BEING USED FOR SPOOL SPACE RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 10 4.13) PATCH THE PATCH UTILITY EXPECTS ITS INPUT LINES TO END WITH A SPACE. SOME EDITORS STRIP BLANK CHARACTERS FROM THE END OF A LINE. IF PATCH FINDS A LINE WITHOUT THE SPACE, IT WILL NOW REPORT "ERROR: UNEXPECTED END OF LINE ENCOUNTERED." 4.14) RLDR 1) STR 27707. RLDR WOULD NOT PROCESS PROPERLY MODULES THAT CONTAINED FORTRAN NAMED COMMON AREAS. ALL MODULES THAT CONTAINED A NAMED COMMON AREA OF THE SAME NAME WOULD BE LOADED BY RLDR EVEN THOUGH ONLY ONE OF THE MODULES MAY HAVE BEEN REFERENCED IN THE SOURCE CODE. 2) STR 115571. RLDR TRAPPED WHEN ATTEMPTING A /X OR /W SYSTEM LOAD WITH OVERLAYS IN A LIBRARY. 3) STR 117741. RLDR GAVE THE ERROR MESSAGE "ATTEMPT TO READ INTO SYSTEM SPACE" WHILE PROCESSING A SET OF MODULES THAT AN EARLIER REVISION OF RLDR WAS ABLE TO HANDLE SUCCESSFULLY. 4) AN ERROR IN THE HASHING ALGORITHM FOR THE SYMBOL TABLE PRODUCED BY RLDR HAS BEEN CORRECTED. 4.15) SPEED (NSPEED) STR 28680. SPEED NOW ACCEPTS 8-BIT CHARACTERS. 4.16) SYSGEN SUPPORT HAS BEEN ADDED FOR THE MODEL 6357 DISK DRIVE. 4.17) TBOOT STRS 121447, 121813. THE SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION CARTRIDGE TAPE WOULD NOT BOOT WHEN USED ON A NOVA. THE CARTRIDGE TAPE BOOT PROGRAM DISTRIBUTED WITH RELEASE 7.50 OF RDOS CONTAINED AN ERROR. 4.18) USER DEBUGGER THE USER DEBUGGER HAS BEEN UPGRADED FOR THE A, Z, AND T VERSIONS OF RDOS. PLEASE REFER TO THE DOCUMENTATION UPDATE FILES TO USE ITS NEW FEATURES. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 11 5. NOTES AND WARNINGS BEFORE INSTALLING RDOS REVISION 7.60, YOU SHOULD READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. NOVA AND S/20 USERS SHOULD NOTE THAT THIS IS THE CATEGORY C RELEASE OF RDOS FOR THEIR MACHINES. THIS IS THE LAST RELEASE THAT WILL BE MADE FOR THOSE MACHINES. THE ONLY VERSIONS OF RDOS THAT WILL BE FULLY SUPPORTED AFTER REVISION 7.60 ARE MAPPED ECLIPSE RDOS ("A" AND "Z" LIBRARIES). INSTALLATION NOTES: A) IF YOU INSTALL YOUR SYSTEM BY BOOTING FROM THE RELEASE TAPE OR BY USING MCABOOT, YOU SHOULD READ THIS WARNING CAREFULLY, AS FAILURE TO DO SO COULD RESULT IN THE LOSS OF DATA. IN ORDER FOR THE INSTALLATION PROCESS TO WORK PROPERLY WHEN YOU ARE INSTALLING RDOS FROM TAPE OR WHEN YOU ARE USING MCABOOT, THE FILE BOOTSYS.OL MUST BE IN A SPECIFIC LOCATION ON THE DISK. THIS LOCATION IS DIFFERENT FOR DIFFERENT DISKS. IN ADDITION TO HAVING A FIXED LOCATION, BOOTSYS.OL MUST HAVE ENOUGH BLOCKS ALLOCATED TO IT TO HOLD ALL OF THE OVERLAYS FOR THE SYSTEM BEING INSTALLED. FOR ALL HARD DISKS, BOOTSYS.OL IS PLACED IN THE CORRECT LOCATION AND IS CREATED WITH SUFFICIENT SIZE BY A FULL INITIALIZATION OF THE DISK. REVISION 7.40 AND 7.50 CONTAINED A CHANGE THAT DID NOT ATTRIBUTE PROTECT BOOTSYS.OL. THE CHANGE ALLOWED BOOTSYS.OL TO BE MOVED TO OTHER LOCATIONS ON THE DISK OR TO BE DELETED ENTIRELY. WHEN YOU ARE INSTALLING RDOS FROM TAPE OR USING MCABOOT, THE PARTIAL AND RESTORE OPTIONS WRITE THE SYSTEM OVERLAY FILE TO THE LOCATION ON THE DISK WHERE BOOTSYS.OL IS EXPECTED TO BE. THE INSTALLATION PROCESS DOES NOT USE THE FILE SYSTEM. IF BOOTSYS.OL HAS BEEN DELETED OR MOVED, THEN THE BLOCKS THAT WERE ALLOCATED TO BOOTSYS.OL IN THE OLD LOCATION ARE RELEASED TO THE SYSTEM FOR REUSE. IF THE RELEASED BLOCKS WERE ALLOCATED TO OTHER FILES, THEN THE DATA THAT IS STORED IN THOSE BLOCKS WILL BE OVERWRITTEN DURING THE INSTALLATION PROCESS. THE INSTALLATION SECTION OF THIS DOCUMENT PROVIDES A PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING WHETHER OR NOT YOU NEED TO FULLY INITIALIZE YOUR DISKS BEFORE INSTALLING REVISION 7.60. REVISION 7.60 OF RDOS HAS BEEN MODIFIED SO THAT A FULL INITIALIZATION WILL MAKE BOOTSYS.OL PERMANENT AND ATTRIBUTE PROTECTED. THE OVERLAY AREA WILL BE RESERVED FOR THE INSTALLATION PROCESS. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 12 B) THE INITIALIZE PROGRAM, WHICH IS USED TO INSTALL RDOS FROM DISKETTE, HAS BEEN MODIFIED SO THAT IT WILL FUNCTION WHEN YOU ARE INSTALLING ON A DISK THAT HAS BOOTSYS.OL PERMANENT AND ATTRIBUTE PROTECTED. DISKS THAT WERE INITIALIZED BY RDOS REVISION 7.40 OR 7.50 MAY NOT COMPLETE THE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE FOR REVISION 7.60 UNLESS BOOTSYS.OL HAS NOT BEEN DELETED AND HAS NOT BEEN MOVED FROM ITS ORIGINAL LOCATION. INSTALLATION FROM DISKETTE FOR REVISIONS 7.40 AND 7.50 WOULD MOVE BOOTSYS.OL FROM THE LOCATION IT SHOULD OCCUPY. THIS MEANS THAT TO INSTALL REVISION 7.60 FROM DISKETTE, YOU WILL HAVE TO INIT/F YOUR DISK. BE SURE TO PERFORM A LOGICAL BACKUP AND VERIFY THE BACKUP BEFORE YOU PERFORM THE INIT/F. A BURST BACKUP WILL NOT WORK FOR THIS PROCEDURE. C) THE VERSION OF CLI SHIPPED WITH THIS RELEASE WILL ONLY PRODUCE CORRECT RESULTS WHEN USED WITH OPERATING SYSTEMS WITH REVISION NUMBERS OF 7.60 OR ABOVE. OPERATIONS INVOLVING THE CREATION OF CONTIGUOUS FILES HAVE BEEN IMPROVED TO PROVIDE BETTER OVERALL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE. THESE OPERATIONS USE NEW FEATURES OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM THAT DO NOT EXIST IN EARLIER REVISIONS. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 13 6. DOCUMENTATION A. MANUALS THE FOLLOWING TABLE LISTS, BY PART NUMBER, THE DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE FROM DATA GENERAL THAT WILL PROVIDE INFORMATION ON HOW TO INSTALL, BUILD, AND RUN RDOS REVISION 7.60. NOTICE THAT MANUAL 069-400015-01, "RDOS, DOS, AND DG/RDOS COMMAND LINE INTERPRETER," HAS AN ADDENDUM (086-000098-00). PART NUMBER NAME ----------- ---- 069-400011-00 INTRODUCTION TO RDOS 069-400012-01 GUIDE TO RDOS DOCUMENTATION 069-400013-00 HOW TO LOAD AND GENERATE RDOS 069-400015-01 RDOS, DOS, AND DG/RDOS COMMAND LINE INTER- PRETER 069-400016-00 RDOS/DOS TEXT EDITOR 069-400017-01 RDOS/DOS SUPEREDIT TEXT EDITOR 069-400019-01 RDOS/DOS ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE AND PROGRAM UTILITIES 069-400020-01 RDOS/DOS DEBUGGING UTILITIES 069-400021-01 RDOS/DOS SORT/MERGE AND VERTICAL FORMAT UNIT UTILITIES 069-400022-01 RDOS, DOS, DG/RDOS BACKUP AND MOVE UTILITIES 086-000098-00 ADDENDUM: RDOS, DOS, AND DG/RDOS COMMAND LINE INTERPRETER 093-000019-04 FLOATING POINT INTERPRETER 093-000084-02 OCTAL EDITOR 093-000105-04 RDOS/DOS USER'S HANDBOOK 093-400027-01 RDOS SYSTEM REFERENCE RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 14 B. DOCUMENTATION-CHANGES FILES PRINT THE DOCUMENTATION-CHANGES FILES LISTED BELOW AFTER INSTALLING YOUR SOFTWARE. THESE FILES ARE LOCATED IN THE MASTER DIRECTORY. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE FIRST PAGE OF EACH FILE. THE DOCUMENTATION IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT THEM. THE DOCUMENTATION CHANGES ARE DISTRIBUTED AS SEVERAL SEPARATE FILES. EACH FILE CONTAINS THE CHANGES TO BE MADE TO ONE OF THE MANUALS IN THE RDOS DOCUMENT SET. THE FILENAMES ARE THE PART NUMBERS OF THE MANUALS THAT SHOULD BE CHANGED. FOR EXAMPLE, THE FILE 069400013.00 CONTAINS THE CHANGES FOR THE "HOW TO LOAD AND GENERATE RDOS" MANUAL. ALL DOCUMENTATION CHANGES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN PUBLISHED IN THE PAST ARE INDICATED BY THE PRESENCE OF REVISION BARS IN THE LEFT MARGIN. FILENAME FOR MANUAL -------- ---------- 069400013.00 HOW TO LOAD AND GENERATE RDOS 069400015.01 RDOS, DOS, AND DG/RDOS COMMAND LINE INTER- PRETER 069400016.00 RDOS/DOS TEXT EDITOR 069400019.01 RDOS/DOS ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE AND PROGRAM UTILITIES 069400020.01 RDOS/DOS DEBUGGING UTILITIES 069400022.01 RDOS, DOS, DG/RDOS BACKUP AND MOVE UTILITIES 085000022.19 RDOS REVISION 7.60 RELEASE NOTICE 093400027.01 RDOS SYSTEM REFERENCE RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 15 7. SOFTWARE A. MEDIA THE FOLLOWING TABLE PROVIDES ORDERING INFORMATION FOR RDOS REVISION 7.60 AS DISTRIBUTED ON MAGNETIC TAPE: MODEL # PART NUMBER DESCRIPTION -------- ------------- -------------------------------- 3181 M 071-000005-22 UNMAPPED NOVA - 800 BPI TAPE 3181 H UNMAPPED NOVA - 1600 BPI TAPE 3181 C UNMAPPED NOVA - CARTRIDGE TAPE 3359 M 071-000041-17 MAPPED ECLIPSE - 800 BPI TAPE 3359 H MAPPED ECLIPSE - 1600 BPI TAPE 3359 C MAPPED ECLIPSE - CARTRIDGE TAPE 3556 M 071-000087-15 MAPPED NOVA 3/4 - 800 BPI TAPE 3556 H MAPPED NOVA 3/4 - 1600 BPI TAPE 3556 C MAPPED NOVA 3/4 - CARTRIDGE TAPE 3618 M 071-000606-07 MAPPED S/20 - 800 BPI TAPE 3618 H MAPPED S/20 - 1600 BPI TAPE 3618 C MAPPED S/20 - CARTRIDGE TAPE RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 16 THE FOLLOWING TABLE PROVIDES ORDERING INFORMATION FOR RDOS REVISION 7.60 AS DISTRIBUTED ON DISKETTE: MODEL # PART NUMBER DESCRIPTION ------- ------------ ---------------------------------------- 3181 F 072-000101-13 1 OF 6 UNMAPPED NOVA - 8 INCH DISKETTE 072-000102-13 2 OF 6 072-000103-13 3 OF 6 072-000544-09 4 OF 6 072-000670-07 5 OF 6 072-000854-03 6 OF 6 3181 Q 062-000023-08 1 OF 2 UNMAPPED NOVA - 8 INCH QUAD DISKETTE 062-000204-07 2 OF 2 3359 F 072-000075-13 1 OF 7 MAPPED ECLIPSE - 8 INCH DISKETTE 072-000076-13 2 OF 7 072-000077-13 3 OF 7 072-000082-13 4 OF 7 072-000540-10 5 OF 7 072-000643-07 6 OF 7 072-000914-01 7 OF 7 3359 Q 062-000020-08 1 OF 2 MAPPED ECLIPSE - 8 INCH QUAD DISKETTE 062-000037-08 2 OF 2 3556 F 072-000098-14 1 OF 6 MAPPED NOVA 3/4 - 8 INCH DISKETTE 072-000099-14 2 OF 6 072-000100-14 3 OF 6 072-000543-10 4 OF 6 072-000669-08 5 OF 6 072-000856-04 6 OF 6 3556 Q 062-000022-08 1 OF 2 MAPPED NOVA 3/4 - 8 INCH QUAD DISKETTE 062-000203-07 2 OF 2 3618 Q 062-000241-08 1 OF 2 MAPPED S/20 - 8 INCH QUAD DISKETTE 062-000242-07 2 OF 2 RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 17 B. MAGNETIC TAPE MEDIUM ORGANIZATION THE FOLLOWING TABLE DESCRIBES THE FORMAT OF THE RDOS REVISION 7.60 RELEASE TAPE: FILE FORMAT CONTENTS ---- ------ --------------------------------------------- 0 XFER TBOOT.SV 1 DUMP CLI.SV, CLI.OL, CLI.ER, RCLI.SV, BOOTSYS.SV, ABOOT.SV, EBOOT.SV (MBOOT.SV FOR S/20 ONLY) 2 XFER BOOTSYS.SV 3 DUMP BOOTSYS.OL 4 XFER DKINIT.SV 5 XFER EBOOT.SV (MBOOT.SV FOR S/20 ONLY) 6 DUMP UTILITIES, SYS.LB, MISCELLANEOUS 7 DUMP RDOS LIBRARIES, BACKUP, ALMSPD.SR, ALMSPD.RB, DOCUMENTATION UPDATE FILES, RDOS0760.FL 8 XFER ABOOT.SV RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 18 C. DISKETTE MEDIUM ORGANIZATION THE BASIC FORMAT OF DISKETTE RELEASE MEDIA IS THE SAME FOR ALL VERSIONS OF RDOS. THE FIRST DISKETTE IS BOOTABLE AND CONTAINS THE FILES NEEDED TO INSTALL RDOS. THE UTILITIES, LIBRARIES, OBJECT MODULES, AND SOURCE FILES ARE CONTAINED ON THE RELEASE DISKETTES IN DUMP FILES THAT YOU MUST LOAD ONTO YOUR TARGET DISK. EACH DISKETTE HAS A FILE WITH A NUMERIC NAME THAT CORRESPONDS TO THE NUMBER OF THE RELEASE DISKETTE. FOR EXAMPLE, DISKETTE ONE CONTAINS A FILE WITH THE NAME 1. THESE FILES SHOULD BE LOADED ONTO YOUR TARGET DISK AS DESCRIBED IN THE "HOW TO LOAD AND GENERATE RDOS" MANUAL. FIRST RELEASE DISKETTE: SINGLE DENSITY QUAD DENSITY -------------- ------------- FOR A, Z, BOOTSYS.SV, BOOTSYS.OL, BOOTSYS.SV, BOOTSYS.OL, U, N EBOOT.SV, ABOOT.SV EBOOT.SV, ABOOT.SV FOR T TBOOTSYS.SV, TBOOTSYS.OL, TBOOTSYS.SV, TBOOTSYS.OL, MBOOT.SV MBOOT.SV RCLI.SV, CLI.SV, CLI.OL, RCLI.SV, CLI.SV, CLI.OL CLI.ER, INSTALL.MC, DKINIT.SV, CLI.ER, INSTALL.MC, DKINIT.SV, INITIALIZE.SV, SYS.SV, 1 INITIALIZE.SV, SYS.SV, 1 DUMP FILES ON THE RELEASE DISKETTES: DISKETTE FILE FORMAT -------- ---- ------ 1 1 DUMP ADDITIONAL RELEASE FILES 2 2 DUMP ADDITIONAL RELEASE FILES 3 3 DUMP ADDITIONAL RELEASE FILES 4 4 DUMP ADDITIONAL RELEASE FILES 5 5 DUMP ADDITIONAL RELEASE FILES 6 6 DUMP ADDITIONAL RELEASE FILES 7 7 DUMP ADDITIONAL RELEASE FILES NOTE: ONLY CERTAIN VERSIONS AND MEDIA TYPES REQUIRE SEVEN DISKETTES. THE REMAINING VERSIONS HAVE THE SAME RELEASE FILES PACKED INTO FEWER DUMP FILES. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 19 D. FILES THE FILE RDOS0760.FL CONTAINS A LIST OF THE FILENAMES THAT MAKE UP THE RDOS REVISION 7.60 RELEASE. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 20 8. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS FOR INSTALLING RDOS REVISION 7.60 ARE CONTAINED IN THE MANUAL "HOW TO LOAD AND GENERATE RDOS." THIS SECTION CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT INSTALLING RDOS THAT IS NOT CONTAINED IN THE MANUAL AND/OR INFORMATION THAT IS SPECIFIC TO THIS REVISION. A) SPECIAL INIT/F CONSIDERATIONS THIS SECTION MAY BE SKIPPED IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING SITUATIONS: 1) YOU INSTALL RDOS FROM DISKETTES. 2) YOU ARE USING A DISK THAT HAS NEVER BEEN USED FOR A RDOS FILE SYSTEM. THIS SHOULD BE A DISK THAT HAS JUST BEEN SOFTWARE FORMATTED BY USING THE FULL COMMAND IN DKINIT. 3) YOU HAVE DONE AN INIT/F USING THE REVISION 7.60 OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPLIED ON THE RELEASE MEDIA OR YOU ARE GOING TO DO A FULL INITIALIZAION OF THE TARGET DISK DURING THE REVISION 7.60 INSTALLATION PROCEDURES DESCRIBED IN "HOW TO LOAD AND GENERATE RDOS." 4) IF YOU ARE A CUSTOMER WHO HAS PURCHASED RDOS FOR THE FIRST TIME, YOU SHOULD BE IN THE CATEGORY OF THOSE THAT WILL BE DOING A FULL INITIALIZATION OF THE TARGET DISK. IF YOU INSTALL RDOS FROM MAGNETIC TAPE OR OVER THE MCA AND YOU DO NOT FALL INTO ONE OF THE CATEGORIES ABOVE, YOU SHOULD CONTINUE WITH THIS SECTION AND PERFORM THE FOLLOWING TEST. BEFORE YOU INSTALL RDOS REVISION 7.60 ON YOUR DISK, YOU SHOULD DETERMINE IF YOU NEED TO INIT/F YOUR DISK. YOU CAN USE THE INI- TIALIZE PROGRAM FROM YOUR RELEASE MEDIA (TAPE FILE 6 OR DISKETTE 1) TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT YOU NEED TO INIT/F THE DISK. EACH DISK THAT YOU PLAN TO USE AS A SYSTEM DISK (BOOTABLE) SHOULD BE TESTED WITH THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURE: 1) TRANSFER THE PROGRAM INITIALIZE.SV FROM YOUR RELEASE MEDIA TO YOUR SYSTEM DISK. PREVIOUS REVISIONS OF INITIALIZE WILL NOT CHECK YOUR DISK TO SEE IF AN INIT/F IS NECESSARY. 2) START THE PROGRAM BY ENTERING ITS NAME (INITIALIZE) IN RESPONSE TO THE "R" PROMPT. 3) THE PROGRAM WILL ASK YOU WHICH DISK YOU ARE GOING TO INITIALIZE. ENTER THE DEVICE MNEMONIC OF THE DISK WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO INSTALL THE NEW REVISION (I.E. DE0, DZ0, DA0, ETC.) NOTE: YOU SHOULD NOT INSTALL RDOS ON A DISK THAT IS RUNNING AN OPERATING SYSTEM THAT IS USING DISK BASED OVERLAYS. THE INSTALLATION PROCESS OVERWRITES BOOTSYS.OL, WHICH WILL, IN EFFECT, CHANGE THE OVERLAY FILE WHILE YOU ARE USING IT. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 21 4) NEXT THE PROGRAM TELLS YOU THAT THE DEFAULT SYSTEM IS BOOTSYS.SV (TBOOTSYS.SV FOR S/20 USERS) AND ASKS IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE IT. YOU SHOULD ANSWER NO. 5) INITIALIZE WILL THEN TELL YOU THAT IT IS INSPECTING THE DISK. YOU WILL GET ONE OF TWO RESPONSES. A) IF INITIALIZE TELLS YOU TO INIT/F YOUR DISK, PERFORM A LOGICAL BACKUP AND VERIFY THE BACKUP BEFORE YOU INIT/F YOUR DISK. A BURST BACKUP WILL NOT WORK FOR THIS PROCEDURE. B) IF INITIALIZE DOESN'T TELL YOU TO DO A FULL INITIALIZATION, YOU SHOULD REQUEST A PARTIAL OPERATION. INITIALIZE WILL THEN CHECK AND/OR MODIFY YOUR DISK TO ACCEPT REVISION 7.60 OF RDOS. THIS OPERATION WILL OVERWRITE FILE BOOTSYS.OL ON THE TARGET DISK. THIS OPERATION WILL FAIL IF BOOTSYS.OL DOES NOT EXIST ON THE DISK FROM WHICH YOU STARTED INITIALIZE. B) INSTALLING FROM MAGNETIC TAPE AFTER YOU HAVE PERFORMED THE PROCEDURE IN "SPECIAL INIT/F CONSIDERATIONS," THE INSTALLATION PROCESS FOLLOWS THE DESCRIPTION IN THE MANUAL "HOW TO LOAD AND GENERATE RDOS." C) INSTALLING FROM DISKETTE THE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE FOR INSTALLING RDOS REVISION 7.60 FROM DISKETTE HAS NOT CHANGED. THERE HAVE BEEN SEVERAL CORRECTIONS TO THE INITIALIZE PROGRAM. THE ONLY FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENCE IS THAT INITIALIZE WILL NOW TEST THE DISK TO DETERMINE IF AN INIT/F SHOULD BE PERFORMED BEFORE YOU INSTALL REVISION 7.60. RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 22 9. PREPARING A SOFTWARE TROUBLE REPORT (STR) NOTE: MAPPED ECLIPSE RDOS (MODEL NUMBER 3359) IS THE ONLY SUPPORTED VERSION OF RDOS AFTER THIS RELEASE. STRS WILL ONLY BE ACCEPTED BY DATA GENERAL ON MAPPED ECLIPSE RDOS. GATHERING STR INFORMATION IF YOU FIND AN ERROR IN THE SOFTWARE OR ITS DOCUMENTATION, OR IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR ENHANCING THE PRODUCT, PLEASE FILL OUT AND RETURN A DATA GENERAL SOFTWARE TROUBLE REPORT (STR). (IF YOUR CONTRACT PERMITS, YOU MAY REPORT THE INFORMATION CALLED FOR IN THIS SECTION TO YOUR DATA GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE.) TO HELP EXPEDITE STR PROCESSING, INCLUDE ONLY ONE PROBLEM OR SUGGESTION ON EACH STR FORM. PLEASE FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES WHEN FILLING OUT YOUR SOFTWARE TROUBLE REPORT. 1. LIST THE NAME OF THE PRODUCT AS "RDOS REVISION 7.60" ON THE STR. ANY OTHER NAME MAY LEAD TO MISFILED OR DELAYED STRS. 2. DECIDE WHAT KIND OF STR YOU ARE WRITING: ENHANCEMENT -- DESCRIBE THE PROPOSED ENHANCEMENT CLEARLY AND TELL WHY YOU WANT IT. THE BETTER WE UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU WANT, THE EASIER IT IS FOR US TO EVALUATE YOUR REQUEST. DOCUMENTATION ERROR -- GIVE THE PAGE AND SECTION OR PARAGRAPH, AND TELL WHY YOU THINK THERE IS AN ERROR. SOFTWARE PROBLEM -- CLEARLY AND SPECIFICALLY STATE THE PROBLEM SO THAT SUPPORT PERSONNEL CAN TRY TO REPRODUCE IT. AVOID PHRASES LIKE "THE PROGRAM DOES NOT WORK" OR "FAILS." 3. ON THE STR FORM PROVIDE ALL OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION: O DATE O REVISION OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM O NAMES AND REVISIONS OF OTHER SOFTWARE RUNNING AT THE TIME THE PROBLEM OCCURS O THE CPU TYPE O TERMINAL AND PRINTER TYPES, IF RELEVANT O THE COMMAND LINE, COMPLETE INSTRUCTION, OR PROGRAM NAME THAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM O HOW OFTEN THE PROBLEM OCCURS AND HOW SERIOUS IT IS O THE ACTION(S) NECESSARY TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM RDOS RELEASE NOTICE PAGE 23 4. YOU CAN SHORTEN THE TIME IT TAKES TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BY ISOLATING THE PROBLEM TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. 5. IF THE PROBLEM OCCURRED SOON AFTER YOU INSTALLED A NEW REVISION OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM, NEW HARDWARE, OR OTHER SOFTWARE, NOTE THIS. 6. IF YOU RECEIVED AN ERROR MESSAGE, PLEASE WRITE DOWN THE TEXT (AND NUMBER, IF THERE WAS ONE) OF THE MESSAGE. ALSO, WRITE ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT YOU THINK WOULD HELP TO ISOLATE THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM. 7. FOR PROBLEMS WITH DEVICES SUCH AS TERMINALS OR PRINTERS, SEND THE DEVICE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE HARDWARE SETTINGS. SENDING MEDIA IF WE CANNOT REPRODUCE A PROBLEM BECAUSE YOU DID NOT SEND NECESSARY SOFTWARE (PROGRAM MODULE, BREAK FILE, MACRO, OR OTHER CRUCIAL FILE), WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ANSWER THE STR QUICKLY. SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO CLOSE THE STR WITH THE ANSWER "NOT REPRODUCIBLE" OR "INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION." TO AVOID THIS, PLEASE 1. INCLUDE THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE APPLICATION THAT DEMONSTRATES THE PROBLEM. THIS CAN BE A SHORTENED VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL APPLICATION. MAKE SURE YOU SEND ANY NECESSARY MACROS OR OTHER FILES NEEDED TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM. IF YOU SEND EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS, MAKE SURE THEY ARE RUNNABLE PROGRAMS, NOT LISTING FILES. 2. ALSO SEND THE SYSGEN CONFIGURATION FILE (USUALLY .SG) AND THE OPERATING SYSTEM LOAD MAP FILE (USUALLY .LM). 3. INCLUDE A TEXT FILE ON THE MEDIA DESCRIBING THE APPLICATION SENT, THE CALLING HIERARCHY (IF ONE EXISTS), AND WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO TRACK DOWN THE PROBLEM. YOU CAN SEND HARD COPY, BUT A TEXT FILE IS PREFERABLE. 4. CLEARLY LABEL THE MEDIA, GIVING FORMAT, CONTENTS, DENSITY, BUFFER SIZE, AND DATE. VERIFY THAT THE MEDIA IS READABLE. --END OF RELEASE NOTICE--