On Jan 6, 2016, at 4:00 PM, <simh-requ...@trailing-edge.com> 
<simh-requ...@trailing-edge.com> wrote:

>> 1. DECnet.  NFT will use the DAP protocol to do file transfer; if you have a 
>> compatible DAP implementation at the other end that would work.  
>> DECnet/Linux can do this, I believe.
>> 
> If you can find it DEC PATHWORKS apparently still works on Windows XP,
> of course you'll need to fire up a VM for it in most cases; and
> DECnet/Linux has basically become unsupported.


Don't dismiss DECnet/Linux as a viable solution.  It's true the DECnet/Linux 
community is small and the main players of long ago are gone.  But, that 
doesn't mean it does not work.

I have been a long time user of DECnet/Linux, mainly on CentOS.  We use it for 
backups over DECnet mostly, and file exchange.  Stand-alone backups work just 
fine.  When the disks on my last CentOS version went belly up, I decided 
instead of a dedicated DECnet NAS, it was a better idea to use our NFS disk 
farms for storage.  I built a couple DECnet/DAP-to-NFS gateways using a Marvell 
SheevaPlug "PlugPC" with a Kirkwood ARM SoC (no FPU).  I am at home at the 
moment, so I cannot tell you what Linux kernel I used.  I haven't checked on 
them in a long time.  As far as I know, they are working just fine.  One is 
used every day to export files from a VAX/VMS 5.5-2 data acquisition system to 
an iMac file server.  That VAX has been running that lab for over 20 years, I 
think—maybe 30.  We used to run Pathworks/Mac on the VAX until Apple removed 
support for their own network file protocol and forced us to come up with an 
alternative.  We run DECnet Phase IV, not Phase V, so we can't do DECnet remote 
file access over TCP/IP.  I've built other SoC appliances using PlugPCs, such 
as Ionics Nimbus.  My last few projects using SoCs have used BeagleBone Blacks. 
 Their processors have FPUs, which makes them more useful.  As I recall, 
Raspberry Pis either did not have an FPU, or priced out more expensive than the 
BeagleBone Black when I last looked at them.  I set them up to be self-hosting 
for development.  Cross-development is a royal pain.

Other discussions here have mentioned using ANSI-labeled tapes.  It is true 
they can be simple.  But, not if you start dealing with records instead of 
blocks.  I briefly looked at the ansitpc tool mentioned earlier in this thread 
at https://github.com/khandy21yo/emutools.  It writes blocks, not records.  It 
also does not properly write the ANSI labels.  Maybe that is what is upsetting 
VMS.  I assume VMS figures it out; if not, you definitely want to mount the 
tape /NOHDR3 on VMS.  The ANSI tape format is an ANSI standard.  I'll grab my 
copy at work tomorrow and send the number.  I assume the VMS documentation also 
cites the ANSI standard they implement.

I just stumbled upon a Unix utility that writes ANSI tapes at 
http://www.math.utah.edu/cgi-bin/man2html.cgi?/usr/local/man/man1/ansitape.1.  
It might be easy to modify it to write TPC format volumes instead of starting 
from scratch.

Larry Baker
US Geological Survey
650-329-5608
ba...@usgs.gov

_______________________________________________
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

Reply via email to