OpenVMS Undocumented Features
This is the most complete collection of undocumented features we can find for OpenVMS. Some of these have been around since the time when it was called VMS while others are more current and have been added to OpenVMS V8.n. These features:
- Are NOT documented (if they were, they wouldn't belong here)
- Are NOT supported by PARSEC Group or HP
- Are NOT guaranteed to work
- May NOT exist in all versions of OpenVMS; past, present and future
- Are subject to change, removal, enhancement or being documented at the whim of OpenVMS engineering
- May be fun to know the next time you play OpenVMS trivial pursuit
- May help you get your job done easier and faster
- May help you impress your boss with your knowledge of the obscure
/PAGE /HIGHLIGHT Qualfiiers
The commands that support the /PAGE and /HIGHLIGHT qualifiers allow combining multiple highlighting characteristics by enclosing them in parentheses and separating with a comma. For example:
$ SHOW SYSTEM/PAGE/SEARCH=TCPIP/HIGHLIGHT=(BOLD,UNDERLINE)
Pid Process Name State Pri I/O CPU Page flts Pages
OpenVMS V8.3 on node PAUL 29-OCT-2008 16:32:58.32 Uptime 0 08:11:40
Pid Process Name State Pri I/O CPU Page flts Pages
00000041 SWAPPER HIB 16 0 0 00:00:00.47 0 0
00000082 DFG$PAUL LEF 6 331 0 00:00:01.06 283 243
00000044 LANACP HIB 14 67 0 00:00:00.09 130 93
00000085 LATACP HIB 14 7 0 00:00:00.03 82 64
00000046 IPCACP HIB 10 9 0 00:00:00.02 37 50
00000047 ERRFMT HIB 8 545 0 00:00:00.80 124 112
00000049 OPCOM HIB 8 199 0 00:00:00.13 90 41
0000004A AUDIT_SERVER HIB 10 80 0 00:00:00.18 155 144
0000004B JOB_CONTROL HIB 10 88 0 00:00:00.07 62 90
0000008C TCPIP$NTP_1 LEF 10 30034 0 00:00:01.40 538 255 N
0000004D QUEUE_MANAGER HIB 10 145 0 00:00:00.23 141 182
0000004E SECURITY_SERVER HIB 10 875 0 00:00:07.03 626 323
00000090 MYSQL051_SERVER HIB 2 1308 0 00:04:08.17 9933 3072 M
00000091 WILLIAMS CUR 6 2795 0 00:00:04.26 2559 170
0000005A TCPIP$TNS1 HIB 4 57 0 00:00:00.14 240 148
0000005B NETACP HIB 10 43 0 00:00:00.14 65 91
0000005C EVL HIB 6 101 0 00:00:00.17 163 95 N
0000005D REMACP HIB 8 9 0 00:00:00.02 34 19
00000061 TCPIP$INETACP HIB 10 183 0 00:00:00.47 232 140
00000063 TCPIP$DHCP_CLNT LEF 10 788 0 00:00:00.83 440 222 N
00000066 TCPIP$BIND_1 HIB 10 10415 0 00:00:27.19 2147 660 MN
00000067 TCPIP$PORTM_1 LEF 10 182 0 00:00:00.45 361 213 N
00000068 TCPIP$FAILSAF_1 HIB 9 39588 0 00:00:00.80 662 271 N
0000006A TCPIP$FTP_1 LEF 10 220 0 00:00:00.91 900 256 N
0000006B TCPIP$IPSEC_1 LEF 9 156552 0 00:00:04.26 2555 537 N
0000006C LPD_IN_PAUL_1 HIB 5 142 0 00:00:00.21 262 133
0000006D TCPIP$NFS_1 HIB 10 200 0 00:00:00.50 601 371 N
0000006E TCPIP$MOUNTD_1 LEF 10 338 0 00:00:00.67 590 368 N
00000070 SMTP_PAUL_01 HIB 5 86 0 00:00:00.29 327 80
00000071 TNT_SERVER HIB 16 1654 0 00:00:06.49 63996 192
00000075 TNT171 LEF 2 92 0 00:00:00.39 561 432 S
00000076 ACME_SERVER HIB 10 454 0 00:00:02.02 1784 674 M
An additional feature for those who have terminals supporting the ANSI color sequences, you may specify colors for the /HIGHLIGHT qualifier. The terminal device type must be VT200 or higher. Valid colors are: RED, GREEN, BLUE, CYAN, MAGENTA and YELLOW. For example:
$ SHOW DEVICE D/SEARCH=DQ/PAGE/HIGHLIGHT=RED
Device Device Error Volume Free Trans Mnt
Name Status Count Label Blocks Count Cnt
$1$DGA200: (CLASS2) Mounted 0 DISK200 38527440 1 6
$5$DQA0: (JOKER) Mounted 0 (remote mount) 2
$5$DQB0: (JOKER) Online 0
$16$DKA0: (CLASS9) Mounted 0 CLASS9SYS 2650005 1 6
$16$DKA100: (CLASS9) Mounted 0 VAXKITS 554712 1 6
$16$DKA200: (CLASS9) Mounted 0 VAXPAGE 824478 1 6
$16$DKA300: (CLASS9) Online 0
$18$DKA400: (CLASS2) Online 0
$19$DQA0: (CLASS3) Offline 1
$19$DQA1: (CLASS3) Offline 1
$19$DQB0: (CLASS3) Offline 2
$19$DQB1: (CLASS3) Offline 2
DNFS0: (CLASS3) Online 0
$20$DQB0: (CLASS2) Online 0
$22$DKA300: (CLASS3) Mounted 1 ALPHA83CLS 5541655 736 6
$22$DKA307: (CLASS3) Online 1
$22$DKA506: (CLASS3) Mounted 0 STORAGE 23229698 1 6
$22$DKA507: (CLASS3) Mounted 0 PROD 7984275 1 6
$32$DKA0: (CLASS8) Mounted 0 I64SYS 25334688 1 6
$32$DKA100: (CLASS8) Mounted 0 I64SPARE 66029368 1 6
$32$DQA0: (CLASS8) Online 0
$82$DKA0: (YIPPIE) Mounted 0 YIPPIESYS 269724 1 6
$82$DKA400: (YIPPIE) Online 0
For those using a terminal emulator, PuTTY, TeraTerm and IVT support ANSI colors. PuTTY may default the device type to VT100; for these SET TERMINAL/DEVICE=VT200 to enable colors.
Thanks go to Joe Sewell for providing information about this feature.
F$TRNLOG Lexical Function
The once-documented F$TRNLOG lexical function is no longer documented. It has been replaced with the more robust lexical function F$TRNLNM. The previous lexical function includes the additional functionality provided by the new lexical function. In keeping with the tradition of OpenVMS engineering, the F$TRNLOG lexical function continues to work so command procedures which use it are not broken by changes and progress in OpenVMS.
PATCH Utility Command Output
The PATCH utility has always been around on the VAX for modifying the contents of files. OpenVMS V8.2 added support for this utility on Alpha and Integrity Servers. The /COMMAND=file-spec qualifier causes the PATCH utility to create a text file with the commands required to repeat the same patches on another, identical file. This may help in creating procedures for automatically patching files in a software update.
SET FILE /ACL Command
The SET FILE command includes the /ACL and related qualifiers that exist with the SET SECURITY command. However, since SET FILE only works with files, the syntax is a bit simplier than it is for the SET SECURITY command. For example, the following two commands may be used to copy the security from file WORKS.DAT to the file NEED.DAT.
$ SET SECURITY NEED.DAT /LIKE=OBJECT_NAME=WORKS.DAT
$ SET FILE /ACL NEED.DAT /LIKE=WORKS.DAT
Thanks to Dean McGorrill for providing some information about this feature.
Please enjoy these features at your own risk. If you are aware of other features in OpenVMS which are currently undocumented, you may use our inquiry form to inform us. We may then add it to our list.
