The original question:
I was just given a OpenVMS tape. Were running Tru64 Ver 4.0f.
1. Will I be able to extract the contents of the vmsdump file?
2. Will Tru64 be able to read the files?
My apologies for the late summary. Thanks to all who responded. Based on the
answers this didn't look like something I wanted to tackle. I pushed back on the
user looking for another method to source the data from the machine. This is
summarized in the archives fairly well however I received some good data and
this collection should be archived as well.
Thanks for all your help.
/mark
>From Jim Belonis
Look for the public-domain program 'vmsbackup' on the web
which will let you read text files from the VMS backup tape.
Due to the lack of corresponding filetypes, you probably can not do anything
reasonable on Unix with .EXE, .OBJ, indexed files, etc.
And 'vmsbackup' doesn't try.
If you need heavy-duty stuff with more capability, you can try commercial
versions (Boston Software ?)
or find a VMS computer still around with the right kind of tape drive.
Steve Smith
When you say vmsdump I presume you mean 'vms backup saveset'. I don't know
of any tools available on Tru64 to extract from vms backup savesets.
The infamous Dr Tom
If you have a VMS "backup" tape (VMS has no "dump" by that name), you
will need to find a special program to read it. Some are available,
either public domain software or from companies that sell tools that
help with UNIX and OpenVMS compatibility.
Whether you will be able to do anything useful with the files on the
tape depends on what is in them. OpenVMS has a wide variety of file
formats, most of which are managed by the RMS (record management svcs)
software that is part of the OpenVMS operating system and used by all
of the major languages and utilities. Only ONE of the formats has any
obvious relationship to standard UNIX file formatting, and that one is
rarely used on OpenVMS systems.
So, there is a HIGH probability that even if you can get the files
off the tape and onto a UNIX disk, you will not be able to read them
with any standard UNIX software (except, say, "od"). For what it's
worth, RMS files are only somewhat self-describing, and dealing with
the data in them may be really challenging.
Lyndon Handy
There are many options depending on your tape.
1) VMS can write many standard and proprietary formats. The tape you have
may be in "VMS Backup" format, or it could be a tar or a vms $copy. There
are tar tools on VMS for instance that could have been used to write your
tape... There is no such thing as vms dump. If it is in tar format, go
ahead and read the tape.
2) If the tape is in vmsbackup format, there is a utility that can read vms
backup formatted tapes, but I can't recall where I saw it. Freeware cd or
Compaq TRU64 web site? Otherwise restore it on a vms system, extracing the
files then ftp to unix. Most text files won't have a problem if they are
sequential format (flat files). I have shared files back and forth no
problem, however, use image ftp copy to transfer between systems.
Alan_at_nabeth
The phrase "vms dumpfile" is generally used to describe
the file that an OpenVMS system uses when it writes a
copy of memory during a crash. A copy of such a file
isn't especially interesting except on a VMS system,
since there aren't any utilities to read it.
If this isn't what you have, please clarify. If this
is what you have, find out how it was written to tape.
The usual methods for writing such a file to tape would
be:
1. Use the OpenVMS BACKUP command to write a saveset.
(analogous to a tar(1) archive). There is a program
around that can read this format. Look on the Freeware
CDROM.
2. Use the COPY command to write the file to tape. This
simply writes an ANSI label tape. The command ltf(1)
can read it.
3. Write the file directly using fixed length records of
some size. This is done by MOUNTing the tape with the
/FOREIGN option and using COPY or EXCHANGE to write it.
You can read such a file back with dd(1) if you know
the block size.
Bob Lang
Yes, get the utility called vmsbackup. It works great, although I haven't
had to use it for a while...
Do a websearch for the string vmsbackup. You'll get tons of "hits". I got
about 2100 on google.com
Received on Mon Dec 04 2000 - 23:47:51 NZDT