Where can I find freeware/shareware software for OpenVMS?

  http://www.partner.compaq.com/www-catalog/

• http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/
• ftp://ftp.montagar.com/
• ftp://mvb.saic.com/freewarev40/
• http://freeware.acornsw.com/

Submissions to the OpenVMS Freeware can be made via:

        http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/freeware/

  QA-6KZAA-H8

The UUENCODE and UUDECODE tools and various other tools are also available as part of TCP/IP Services package. (Use the DCL command procedure SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$DEFINE_COMMANDS.COM available on V5.0 and later to set up the necessary DCL foreign command symbols used for these and for various other tools provided by TCP/IP Services.)

Compaq also has a separate area containing various OpenVMS software tools located at:

        http://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/

Western Kentucky University (and madgoat) OpenVMS archives:

  http://www2.wku.edu/fileserv/fileserv.html
  http://www.madgoat.com/

                                           [Hunter Goatley]

• ftp.wku.edu, under [.VMS.FILESERV].
• ftp.process.com, under [.WKU.VMS.FILESERV].
• ftp.spc.edu, under [.MACRO32.SAVESETS] and [.MX].
• ftp.vms.stacken.kth.se, under [.MIRRORS.WKU.VMS.FILESERV].
• ftp.ctrl-c.liu.se, under [.WKU.VMS.FILESERV].
• ftp.riken.go.jp
• ftp.vsm.com.au, under kits and kits/decwindows.
• ftp.vsm.com.au, via the WWW instead of FTP.

If you get the packages via WWW or FTP, they're in ZIP format which requires the UNZIP (note: this is not Gnu gunzip!) tool to unpack. You can get ZIP and UNZIP from the following areas:

        ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/unzip.exe      for VAX
        ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/unzip.alpha_exe     for Alpha
        ftp://ftp.wku.edu/vms/fileserv/UNZIP.ZIP
        http://www.decus.de:8080/www/vms/sw/zip.htmlx
        http://www.djesys.com/zip.html
        http://www.djesys.com/unzip.html

[Beware: The [000TOOLS...] pre-built versions of ZIP on the OpenVMS Freeware V4 CD-ROM will erroneously return BILF errors on OpenVMS V7.2 and later. Use of the source on the Freeware V4 to rebuild the ZIP image(s), or acquiring a pre-built ZIP image from one of the above areas can avoid this. The pre-built version of ZIP on the Freeware V4 kit is older than the included ZIP sources, and it contains a latent bug.]

Another source of free software is the vmsnet.sources newsgroup (and the corresponding vmsnet.sources.d discussion group). See the monthly posting "vmsnet.sources archives" for a list of sites which archive submissions to vmsnet.sources.

Arne Vajhøj runs an OpenVMS WWW page, with software and other pointers, at:

  http://www.levitte.org/~ava/

Kermit is available at:

    http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ or
    ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/

    ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/zmodem

 
                                       [Steve Lionel]

  gopher://gopher.decus.org/

  ftp://ftp.decus.org/

  http://www.decus.org/

    http://www.acornsw.com/www/acorn/cdrom-via-www.html or
    gopher://gopher.acornsw.com/

                                [munroe@dmc.com]

                                [Everhart@Arisia.gce.com]

    http://axp616.gsi.de:8080/www/vms/sw.html

    http://csvax1.ucc.ie/www/vms_sw_list/sw_list.html

    ftp://mvb.saic.com 

    http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html

                                            [goathunter@WKUVX1.WKU.EDU]

     http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/~JONESD/ssh/DOC/

     http://www.free.lp.se/fish/

     http://www.free.lp.se/openssl/

                                            [Leo Demers]

      http://www.levitte.org/~byerra


                                            [Robert Alan Byer]

  ftp://wvnvms.wvnet.edu/mosaic/

  ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/lynx

                                            [Steve Lionel]

  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/index.html
  http://www.mozilla.org/

     http://www.pgpi.com/.
     http://zone.pspt.fi/pgp/platforms/vms/.
     http://www.yrl.co.uk/~phil/pds/pds.html.

An archive of the CENA DECwindows, X Windows, and VMS software packages can be found at the following sites:

     http://decwarch.free.fr/
     http://www2.cenaath.cena.dgac.fr/ftp/decwindows/
     ftp://ftp2.cnam.fr/decwindows/
     ftp://ftp.ctrl-c.liu.se/decwindows/
     ftp://ftp.vms.stacken.kth.se/mirrors/decwindows/
     http://www.multimania.com/pmoreau/decw/
     http://www2.cenaath.cena.dgac.fr/ftp/vms/
     http://www.imagemagick.org/

  
                                            [Patrick Moreau]

  ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/vms/ImageMagick/ImageMagick-3.3.zip

                                           [cristy@dupont.com]

  ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/xv
  ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/graphics/xv
  http://www.sanface.com/

GHOSTSCRIPT and GHOSTVIEW are available from:

  ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/VMS/ghostview

  ftp://iphthf.physik.uni-mainz.de/pub/vms/

                            [plass@dipmza.physik.uni-mainz.de]

  http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/

                                            [Ki Suk Hahn]

A Java-based PDF viewer is available from Adobe, and is known to operate on recent OpenVMS Alpha releases:

  http://www.adobe.com/

  http://www.sanface.com/

  ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/vms/mpeglib-11-vms.readme
  ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/vms/mpeglib-11-vms.zip

                                            [Patrick Moreau]

• AXP.PSL.KU.DK (Multinet) Mirror of CENA DECW archive
• FTP.ET.TUDELFT.NL (MadGoat) Mirror of CENA DECW archive
• FTP2.CNAM.FR (MadGoat) Mirror of CENA DECW archive

List of HTTP Mirror Sites for the DECWINDOWS archive:

  http://axp616.gsi.de:8080/wwwar/cena/decwindows/cena.html

                                            [Patrick Moreau]

                                       [stfp@roipb.cs.ipb.ro]

    http://www.levitte.org/
    http://www.levitte.org/~ava/

    http://www.ourservers.net/

                                          [Robert Alan Byer]

    http://seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu/pub/SOFTWARE/AAA_CONTENTS.TXT

    http://www.djesys.com/freeware/vms/

         http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/csws.html
         http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/apache/
         http://www.er6.eng.ohio-state.edu/~jonesd/apache/1_3_9/

      http://www.er6.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html
      http://www.kjsl.com/archives/
      email list: VMS-WEB-daemon-Request@KJSL.COM

CD-R (CD-Recordable) media tools:

    please see FILE7

    http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/

    http://www.lp.se/~byerra/povray/povray_contents.html

                                          [Peter Langstoeger]

    http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/majordomo/

    ftp://ftp2.kcl.ac.uk/pub/vms/pine-vms/
    http://www.agh.cc.kcl.ac.uk/files/vms/pine-vms/

Also see the mmencode base64 encode and decode available at:

    http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/htbin/software_list.cgi

   http://www.itre.com/mf/download.html
   http://www.itre.com/menufinder/ 

tcgmsg, pvm, mpi, linda:

  http://v36.chemie.uni-konstanz.de/tcgmsg_vms/tcgmsg_vms.zip

    http://seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu/pub/SOFTWARE/TCONTROL.ZIP

                                            [David Mathog]

    http://www.powerware.com/2products/software/onlisafe/onlisafe.htm

                                            [Janis Cooper]

    http://www.tmesis.com/apc/beta.htmlx

                                            [Brian Shenkenberger]

  http://www.hhs.dk/anonymous/pub/vms/collection/foreignmail.zip
  http://www.hhs.dk/anonymous/pub/vms/nbl/nbl.zip

                                            [Arne Vajhoej]

   http://www2.wku.edu/scripts/fileserv/fileserv.com?MLSEARCH


                                            [Phillip Helbig]

    http://www.jafsoft.com/asctohtm/index.html
    http://www.jafsoft.com/asctotab/index.html

                                            [Jaf]

  http://ifn03.ifn.ing.tu-bs.de/ifn/sonst/samba-vms.html
  http://www.samba.org/

 subscribe samba-vms Your Full Name

  http://lists.samba.org/

    http://www.python.org/sigs/xml-sig/

GTK+: (The GIMP GUI Tookit) for OpenVMS:

  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/gtk.html

  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/porting.html

  ftp://hogranch.com/pub/mayer/README.html


                               [Robert Deininger]

  http://www.networkingdynamics.com/
  http://www.raxco.com/

  http://www.python.org/
  http://decus.decus.de/~zessin/python/

Where can I find the UNIX [whatever] tool for OpenVMS?

• lex
• yacc
• grep
• tar
• uuencode
• uudecode
• rcs
• man
• cpio
• make
• awk
• ar
• mail
• the POSIX shell
• the POSIX C programming interface
• etc.

POSIX is a separately-installed package, and is licensed with OpenVMS V5.5 later. The POSIX installation kit is included on the consolidated distribution CD-ROM kit, and installation kits are also available separately.

The POSIX package is no longer supported on OpenVMS, components of the POSIX standard such as parts of the POSIX API are being added into OpenVMS. Versions of POSIX generally do not operate on V7.x OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS Alpha releases.

C:
Common C system and library routines are present in the DEC C run-time library, which is available for V5.5 and later, and is shipped in V6.1 and later. DEC C is the upgrade for VAX C, DEC C and VAX C can coexist on the same system OpenVMS VAX system, and both compilers can be enabled via the "C" license PAK.

Also see SYS$EXAMPLES:, and (if either is installed) the DECW$EXAMPLES: and UCX$EXAMPLES: areas.

X Windows:
Various Compaq X Windows utilities:

• xwd
• xev
• mosaic WWW browser
• xrdb
• bmtoa and atobm
• xpr
• ico
• etc.

Miscellaneous tools and examples:
Various unsupported OpenVMS tools and code examples:

• DWAUTH (X Windows SYSUAF authorize-like tool)
• various versions of grep
• fgrep
• yacc
• vmstar
• uuencode
• gawk
• html tools
• the mx SMTP mail exchange package
• X windows flight simulator
• the mxrn X windows news reader
• the OSU HTTPD WWW server
• a WWW gopher browser
• etc.

IP tools:
DEC TCP/IP (UCX) contains tools such as:

• ping
• uuencode
• smtp
• snmp
• rcp
• nfs
• tnfs
• etc.

Also see the various C examples in UCX$EXAMPLES:

                                      [Stephen Hoffman]

The current version of vile is 7.1
It's available at

        http://www.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile/vile.html
        ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile
        ftp://id.wing.net/pub/pgf/vile

                                      [Thomas Dickey]

        http://www.polarfox.com/vim/

                                        [Zoltan Arpadffy]

    http://vms.gnu.ai.mit.edu/
    ftp://vms.gnu.ai.mit.edu/gnu-vms/

    http://vms.gnu.ai.mit.edu/software/

    ftp://vms.gnu.ai.mit.edu/gnu-vms/software/

  http://gnv.sourceforge.net/

    ftp://vms.gnu.org/progis_mirror/gcc

    ftp://ftp.caltech.edu/pub/rankin/

                                         [Jason Armistead]

• http://www.robomon.com/robocentral.htm (Heroix)
• http://www.ki.com/products/clim/ (KI Products)
• http://www.globalmt.com/ (Global Maintech)
• http://www.tditx.com/ (TechSys)
• http://www.cai.com/products/commandit.htm (CA)

                                       [Kerry Main]

  SET FILE/PROTECT=(current_protection_mask) [...]*.*

  http://deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=581596523.1&CONTEXT=953337549.952369155

Where can I get the Netscape Navigator Mozilla.org Web Browser?

OpenVMS Engineering is currently porting Mozilla.org's web browser to OpenVMS - OpenVMS baselevels of the browser are currently available for download.

The mozilla.org browser schedule is available at:

  http://www.mozilla.org/project/

  http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/products/ips/

See section SOFT9 for information on various certificates for V3.003 Netscape Navigator; certificates that have presently expired.

                                        [Sue Denham]
                                        [Stephen Hoffman]

Where can I get Java for OpenVMS

Java is not available on OpenVMS VAX. As for why: the Java language definition requires a floating point format (IEEE) that is not native to VAX, and this would require the emulation of all floating point operations within Java applications. Further, the C source code used to implement for Java itself is heavily dependent on passing IEEE floating point values around among the many internal subroutines, and adding support for VAX would entail changes to the Compaq C compiler for OpenVMS VAX - and specifically to the VAX VCG code generator that is used by Compaq C on OpenVMS VAX systems - in order to add support for passing IEEE-format floating point doubles around. Alternatively, extensive changes to the Java source code to remove the assumption that the double is an IEEE floating point value.

There are currently no plans to make a version of Java available for OpenVMS VAX. (A prototype version of Java was created for OpenVMS VAX, and performance was found to be inadequate at best.)

If Java2 or other environment lifts the requirements for IEEE floating point as part of the language definition, this decision may be revisited.

For additional information on Java for Alpha systems, please see the OpenVMS documentation (V7.2 and later), and the following site:

    http://www.compaq.com/java/alpha/index.html

VAX C and DEC C, and other OpenVMS C Programming Considerations

Both compilers can be installed at the same time on the same OpenVMS VAX system, allowing a migration from VAX C to DEC C, and allowing the same DEC C code to be used on OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS Alpha. In 1999, the C compiler version is Compaq C V6.0.

The system manager can choose the system default C compiler when Compaq C is installed on a system with VAX C, and a C programmer can explicitly select the required compiler for a any particular compilation.

A current "C" license PAK allows access to both VAX C and Compaq C on the same OpenVMS VAX system.

Various Compaq C versions can be installed on OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2 and later. OpenVMS VAX releases such as V5.5-2 and V6.0 will require the installation of a Compaq C RTL kit, a kit that is included with the Compaq C compiler. OpenVMS VAX versions V6.1 and later do not require a seperate RTL kit, but Compaq C RTL ECO kits are available to resolve problems found with the C RTL on various OpenVMS releases.

With Compaq C, for automatic resolution of the standard C library routines by the LINKER utility, use the /PREFIX qualifier, such as PREFIX=ALL_ENTRIES. If a particular application program replaces an existing C library routine, use /PREFIX=(ALL_ENTRIES,EXCEPT=(...)). VAX C required explicit specification of an RTL shareable image or C object library during the link.)

When the /PREFIX is requested, the compiler generates a "decc$" prefix on the specified symbols. This prefix allows the LINKER to resolve the external symbols against the symbols present in the DECC$SHR library. The DECC$SHR library is included in the IMAGELIB.OLB shareable image library, and IMAGELIB is searched by default when any program (written in any language) is LINKed. Because the standard C library routine names are very likely to match application routines written in other languages, a prefix "decc$" is added to the C symbol names to assure their uniqueness; to prevent symbol naming conflicts. C programs, however, can sometimes have private libraries for various purposes, and the external routines share the same names as the library routines. This is not recommended, but there are applications around that use this technique.) Thus the need to explicity specify whether or not the "decc$" prefix should be prepended to the external symbol names by the compiler.

The qualifiers, and most (all?) with associated pragmas, that may be of interest when migrating VAX C code to Compaq C include:

PREFIX=ALL_ENTRIES

As mentioned above. Failure to specificy this qualifier can cause the compiler to not add the prefixes for the names of the C library routines into the references placed in the object module, which can in turn cause problems resolving the external symbols in the library when the object code is linked.

/ASSUME=WRITABLE_STRING_LITERALS

Some VAX C programs erroneously write to the string literals. By default, Compaq C does not allow the constants to change.

/SHARE_GLOBALS

Enables sharing ("shr") of globals and of extern variables. Compaq C sets externs as non-shareable ("noshr"), VAX C as "shr".

/EXTERN_MODE=COMMON_BLOCK

VAX C assumes common block model for external linkages.

/[NO]MEMBER_ALIGNMENT

Refers to the padding placed between member elements within a struct. Disabling member alignment packs the data more tightly into memory, but this packaging has performance implications, both on OpenVMS VAX and particularly on OpenVMS Alpha systems.

Permit structure members to be naturally aligned whenever possible, and avoid using /NOMEMBER_ALIGNMENT. If you need to disable member alignment, use the equivilent #pragma to designate the specific structures. The alignment of structure members normally only comes into play with specific unaligned data structures - such as the sys$creprc quota itemlist - and with data structures that are using data that was organized by a system using byte or other non-member alignment.

Versions of Compaq C such as V6.0 include the capability to extract the contents of the standard header libraries into directories such as SYS$SYSROOT:[DECC$LIB...], and provide various logical names that can be defined to control library searches. With Compaq C versions such as V6.0, the default operations of the compiler match the expectations of most OpenVMS programmers, without requiring any definitions of site-specific library-related logical names. (And logical names left from older DEC C versions can sometimes cause the compiler troubles locating header files.)

Compaq C V5.6 and later include a backport library, a mechanism by which Compaq C running on older OpenVMS releases can gain access to newer RTL routines added to the RTL in later OpenVMS releases - the language RTLs ship with OpenVMS itself, and not with the compilers.

Example C code is available in SYS$EXAMPLES:, in DECW$EXAMPLES (when the DECwindows examples are installed), in UCX$EXAMPLES (when Compaq TCP/IP Services is installed), on the Freeware CD-ROMs, and at web sites such as

    http://www.openvms.compaq.com/wizard/

The C epoch typically uses a longword (known as time_t) to contain the number of seconds since midnight on 1-Jan-1970. At the current rate of consumption of seconds, this longword is expected to overflow (when interpreted as a signed longword) circa 03:14:07 on 19-Jan-2038 (GMT), as this time is circa 0x7FFFFFFF seconds since the C base date. (The most common solution is to ensure that time_t is an unsigned.)

If C does not correctly handle the display of the local system time, then check the UTC configuration on OpenVMS -- the most common symptom of this is a skew of one hour (or whatever the local daylight savings time change might be). This skew can be caused by incorrect handling of the "is_dst" setting in the application program, or by an incorrect OpenVMS UTC configuration on the local system. (See section TIME4.)

Other common C++ issues:
Compaq C++ (a separate compiler from Compaq C) provides both symbol mangling and symbol decoration. Some of the details of working with longer symbol names and the resulting symbol name mangling in mixed language environments are listed in the shareable image cookbook, and in the C++ documentation. Symbol name decoration permits the overloading of functions (by adding characters to the external symbol for the function to indicate the function return type and the argument data types involved), and mixed-language external references can and often do need to disable this decoration via the extern "C" declaration mechanism:

      extern "C"
        {
        extern int ExternSymbol(void *);
        extern int OtherExternSymbol(void *);
        }

Obtaining user input in DCL CGI script?

If you use the POST method, then you need to read the form data from stdin. For a DCL CGI script running under the Netscape FastTrack web server, you can read the data using the following READ command:

  $ READ SYS$COMMAND postdata

                                                [Colin Blake]

  http://www.levitte.org/~ava/cgiscripts_other.htmlx

                                                [Leif Jansson]

How do I get my own batch entry number?

  $ Entry = F$GETQUI("DISPLAY_ENTRY", -
      "entry_number","display_entry","this_job")

 

                                                [Peter Weaver]

How do I convert to new CMS libraries?

To perform the "conversion", issue the following commands for each CMS library present:

    $ RENAME disk:[directory]00CMS.* 01CMS.*
    $ COPY NLA0: disk:[directory]00CMS.CMS

Where can I get new certificates for Netscape Navigator?

• http://www.entrust.net/customer/generalinfo/import.htm entrust
• http://www.equifaxsecure.com/servercert/rollover.html thawte
• https://www.verisign.com/server/prg/browser/root.html verisign

                                          [Ken Chaney]

Thawte Server certificate which expired in 1998:

1. Under the Options Menu choose "Security Preferences..."
2. Select the "Site Certificates" tab
3. Select "Thawte Server CA" in the list of certificates
4. Select "Delete Certificate" and then "OK"
5. Go to http://www.thawte.com/serverbasic.crt Follow the instructions on the popup dialog box to accept the certificate This mostly involves hitting the "Next" button and clicking an accept button and then naming the resulting certificate. I named it the same name as the original.

VeriSign/RSA Server certificate which expired Dec 31, 1999:

1. Under the Options Menu choose "Security Preferences..."
2. Select the "Site Certificates" tab
3. Select "Verisign/RSA Secure Server CA" in the list of certificates
4. Select "Delete Certificate" and then "OK"
5. Go to https://www.verisign.com/server/prg/browser/root.html
6. Follow the instructions on the popup dialog box to accept the certificate This mostly involves hitting the "Next" button and clicking an accept button and then naming the resulting certificate. Verisign suggests using the name "VeriSign CA".

                                          [Vance Haemmerle]

Why doesn't DCL symbol substitution work?

In this case, use of a file containing nolinemode commands or other techniques might be useful - you will want to ensure that the text editor you use does not attempt to use screen mode or similar, as this is not generally considered adventageous within a command procedure.

Tools such as FTP have alternatives: COPY/FTP.

DCL symbol substitution occurs in two passes, using the ampersand and the apostrophe. In most cases, only the apostrophe is necessary. In a few cases - such as the DCL PIPE command - you will may need to use the ampersand to get the substitution to work. The following example uses ampersand substitution to transfer the contents of the header into a logical name:

  $ PIPE CC/VERSION | (READ SYS$PIPE hdr ; DEFINE/JOB/NOLOG hdr &hdr )

Where can I get Perl for OpenVMS?

A website useful for getting started with Perl on OpenVMS - where you will find such things as download links, instructions, auxiliary tools, and sample scripts - is available at:

     http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl

     http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/stable.tar.gz

Binary distributions for most Alpha and VAX environments are available on the OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM and from various websites, including the following:

     http://www.sidhe.org/vmsperl/prebuilt.html
     http://www.openvms.compaq.com/freeware/perl5/

     ftp://perl.newman.upenn.edu/perl5/
     ftp://ftp.sidhe.org/

Charles Lane maintains pages on how to write CGI scripts in Perl for the OSU HTTP server, as well as more general tips, tricks, and patches for building and running Perl on OpenVMS:

     http://www.crinoid.com/crinoid.htmlx

     http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/VMS

    vmsperl-subscribe@perl.org

    http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/vmsperl

                                              [Craig Berry]

Where can I get DECmigrate (VEST and TIE)?

     http://www.support.compaq.com/amt/decmigrate/index.html

See UTIL4.