EPIC4 Version 1.2.0 (VMS Edition) Release Notes
and Installation Instructions
-------------------------------------------
Preview Release #1: 02-DEC-2003
--------------------------
0. Preamble and copyright notice.
0.0. Revision history.
This is the second revision of the release notes for PR #1. This revision
changes the MD5 and CHECKSUM for the distribution file which was changed
to fix an error.
0.1. Copyright and license information.
The release notes and INSTALL.COM command procedure, and DESCRIP.MMS build
description file distributed with the VMS edition of EPIC are
Copyright 2001-2003, Edward Brocklesby. Permission is given to redistribute
unmodified copies of these release notes in any form. The INSTALL.COM and
DESCRIP.MMS files may be distributed under the same terms as other EPIC source
code, as described below.
All other files (including source code, documentation, but excluding VMS
specific changes to the EPIC source code) is:
Copyright (c) 1990 Michael Sandroff.
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992 Troy Rollo.
Copyright (c) 1992-1996 Matthew Green.
Copyright (c) 1993, 1997 Jeremy Nelson.
Copyright (c) 1994 Jake Khuon.
Copyright (c) 1995, 2000 Jeremy Nelson and others ("EPIC Software Labs").
All rights reserved.
VMS specific modifications to the source code and other files are
Copyright 2001-2003, Edward Brocklesby. Redistribution and use of these files in
source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the
following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notices, the above paragraph (the one permitting redistribution),
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. The names of the author(s) may not be used to endorse or promote
products derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED
AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.
Some files, (notably, glob.c, and compat.c) may contain some source that
is covered by the original BSD 3-clause license, rather than the above
license. Please refer to those files for more specific information.
1. Installation.
1.1. Distribution.
This release of EPIC4 consists of one file:
Name: EPIC4-1_2_0-VMS-PR1-02-DEC-2003.AXP_EXE
Size: 1311232 bytes, 2561 blocks
MD5: 38a552310044a67cf6023f01b6eb12f8
CHECKSUM: 2307434347
This file may be downloaded from:
<http://www.2mbit.com/~larne/>
1.1. Installation requirements.
Compilation of EPIC4 from source code requires a C compiler and either the
MMK or MMS build systems. This release of EPIC4 has been tested using MMK
with DEC C V6.5-001 on OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-1. The installation requires
approximately 2,300 blocks of free disk space SYSTEM access is desirable
but not required for the installation.
1.2. Installation procedure.
1) Run the self-extracting archive:
$ RUN EPIC4-1_2_0-VMS-PR1-02-DEC-2003.AXP_EXE
The file EPIC4-1_2_0-VMS-PR1-02-DEC-2003.BCK will be created.
3) Execute the following command to extract the source archive:
$ SET FILE/ATTRIBUTES=LRL=32256 EPIC4-1_2_0-VMS-PR1-02-DEC-2003.BCK
$ BACKUP/LOG EPIC4-1_2_0-VMS-PR1-02-DEC-2003.BCK/SAVE_SET [...]*.*;
The directory [.EPIC4-1_2_0] will be created.
4) Change the default directory to the top-level EPIC directory:
$ SET DEFAULT [.EPIC4-1_2_0]
5) Execute the following command to begin the installation:
$ @INSTALL
The installation procedure will ask you the following questions
during the build:
* Continue with build [Y/n] ?
Enter 'y' to build and install EPIC, or 'n' to abort the installation
procedure.
* Build system [MMS/MMK] ?
Enter the name of the build system (either MMS or MMK) that should be
used to build the EPIC binary.
* Location for installed file?
Enter the full path to the top-level directory into which EPIC
should be installed; for example DISK$SOFTWARE:[EPIC]. This
directory does not have to exist.
Any %CREATE-I-EXISTS messages during this part of the installation
may be ignored.
* Install CLD into system DCLTABLES [Y/n]?
If EPIC is being installed as the SYSTEM user, it is preferable
to install EPIC's Command Definition files into the system
DCL tables, to enable all users to run the EPIC program without
any per-user configuration. If this is the case, answer 'y'
to this question. If EPIC is not being installed as the SYSTEM
user, or installing EPIC's Command Defintions into the system DCL
tables is not desired, answer 'n' to this question. The installation
will then ask the following question:
* Add these lines to SYS$LOGIN:LOGIN.COM now [Y/n]?
(This question is only prompted if the previous question was answered
with 'n')
If EPIC should add commands required to run to the user's LOGIN.COM
file, so that they will be executed on login, answer 'y' to this
question.
Installation of the EPIC4 client should now be complete.
2. Support.
2.1. Mailing List
A mailing list for discussion of EPIC on VMS systems exists; to subscribe,
visit <http://epicsol.org/mailman/listinfo/vms-epic>. It is recommended
that all users of EPIC subscribe to this list; it is a low traffic list,
and announcements of new versions and updates are posted to it.
2.2. Author.
Support for the EPIC4 client may be obtained from the author, either via
email to <ejb@goth.net>, or via IRC (nick "larne"). It is, however,
normally preferable to address questions to the mailing list, unless
it is a sensitive issue (such as a security problem).
2.3. Online help.
A brief summary of options may be obtained by running "EPIC/HELP".
PLEASE NOTE: The VMS release of the EPIC4 IRC client is NOT supported
by the epicsol group, and requests for support should NOT be directed to
them.
3. Known bugs, missing features and miscellaneous notes.
3.1. Unix and VMS pathnames.
As of 1.0.1 PR5, EPIC for VMS includes a new configuration option, /set VMS_PATH_SYNTAX.
When this is set to ON, EPIC will use VMS-style paths for all filesystem operations.
When it is set to OFF, EPIC will use Unix-style paths; for example, DISK:[DIR]FILE
becomes "/disk/dir/file". Many scripts designed for Unix systems will require
VMS_PATH_SYNTAX to be set OFF to function correctly. Note that expansion of "~/" paths
and the /HELP command currently do not work when this is set to ON.
VMS_PATH_SYNTAX defaults to OFF.
3.1. /LOAD
The /SET LOAD_PATH variable has been changed to use "," as a delimiter, instead
of ":" as on Unix (observe that ":" is a possible character in a VMS pathname).
This is true regardless of the value of VMS_PATH_SYNTAX.
3.3. Other filesystem functions.
No other built-in functions relating to filenames have been modified in this release
of EPIC. It is likely that some will not function correctly without further
modification, particularly when using VMS-style paths; any such problems should
be reported to the author.
3.4. Command line arguments.
EPIC has been modified to use VMS-style command line arguments in favour of Unix
"getopt()"-style flags. Note that because of this, EPIC may not be invoke as
a DCL foreign command; its CLD *must* be installed into DCL.
4. Modification history.
EPIC4 1.2.0 PR1:
- Update to latest upstream EPIC beta version.
- No other changes.
EPIC4 1.0.1 PR5:
- Possibly fix a panic when reading input under certain conditions.
- Add /set VMS_PATH_SYNTAX.
- Fix /HELP and add help files to distribution.
- No other changes.
EPIC4 1.0.1 PR4:
- Fix compile on DEC C V6.5.
- Redo input handling code (which was broken in all previous releases,
though in different ways) to work. This has not received a large
amount of testing but is believed to be functional.
- No other changes.
EPIC4 1.0.1 PR3:
- Fix the build on DEC C V6.4 (and possibly others) which changed the
meaning of the PTRMISMATCH warning. Thanks to Craig Berry of
hp OpenVMS forums for a clean solution to this.
- No other changes.
EPIC4 1.0.1 PR2:
- Apply a fix from upstream EPIC for a security vulnerability
relating to CTCP handling.
- Add "Known bugs" section to release notes.
- No other changes.
EPIC4 1.0.1 PR1:
Initial release.
Edward Brocklesby,
02 Dec 2003.