HP OpenVMS Systems

DCL command buffer length?

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The Question is:

 
My question is if there is any possibility to extend the length of a DCL
 command-line-input to make it larger than 255 characters.
I guess this might not be a big thing.
But on every system i know it is this why.
I find this is antiquated.
But i cannot find any information about that
whether under the HP Pages nowhere else
in the internet.
Thanks for your attention
 
W.Kager
 

The Answer is :

 
  DCL symbols have limits on the token length and on the overall command
  length.  Specifically OpenVMS versions through V7.3-1 have these limits:
 
  1: A single command line segment can be up to 256 characters long
     before command continuation is required.
 
  2: A single command, consisting of several continued command lines,
     can be up to 1024 characters long.  Note that this includes any
     expanded symbols.
 
  3: A command can consist of a maximum of 128 distinct entities or
     tokens, each token having a maximum length of 255 characters.
 
  Note that a foreign command is treated as a single token and is
  therefore limited to 255 characters.
 
  Extensions to the DCL command buffer length and to various parts
  within the DCL syntax are presently planned for inclusion into a
  future OpenVMS release.  (This future OpenVMS Alpha release will
  potentially be as early as OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-2.)
 

  

     

     
answer written or last revised on ( 13-JAN-2003 )
     
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