The short answer is that VTERM devices have nothing whatsoever to do with
inbound Virtual Terminal.

Now for the long answer.

These VTERM devices are used for "Reverse Virtual Terminals" and are set up
by MPE on your behalf. You don't actually configure them. According to the
NS 3000/iX Network Services manual the definition of Reverse VT is as such:

"Reverse Virtual Terminal
The Reverse Virtual Terminal (Reverse VT) service allows an application
program to receive information from and send information to terminals
located on other systems. All the systems involved must be connected via NS
3000 connections (either NS 3000/V or NS 3000/iX). The Reverse VT service
must be initiated from the system on which the application resides."

It goes on to say:

"To gain access to a remote terminal via Reverse VT, you can specify the
VTERM option in the FILE command, which designates the terminal as a remote
device. Or the application program itself may include the VTERM option in
the  device  parameter of the FOPEN intrinsic which opens the connection to
the device. (For the syntax of the FILE command and the FOPEN intrinsic,
when used to access remote files and devices, see the Remote File Access
chapter of this manual.)"

I have never used this feature but it apparently is closely related to
Remote File Access but does not require logging on the other machine.
Perhaps someone who has actually used this service can shed more light on
its practical use.

In any event, the LDEV numbers 90-99 are automatically reserved when the
machine is started, and the numbers are not configurable. If you configure a
device in SYSGEN using the same LDEV number then the next available device
number after 99 will be used. However, if you try to use an LDEV in the 90
to 99 range in NMMGR that device configuration will fail because the DCC
startup occurs after the system has already reserved 90 through 99 for
Reverse VT, causing a device numbering conflict.

Doug.

Doug Werth                             Beechglen Development Inc.
[log in to unmask]                               Cincinnati, Ohio

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gavin Scott" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: VTERM configuration


> Larry asks:
> > Where does a system manager define the number of VTERM devices
configured?
> > If I  have 10 free how do I define what logical device these should be?
>
> Well, specifically regarding these things that show up when you do:
>
> :showdev vterm
>  LDEV     AVAIL         OWNERSHIP         VOLID         DEN   ASSOCIATION
>
>    90     AVAIL
>    91     AVAIL
>    92     AVAIL
>    93     AVAIL
>    94     AVAIL
>    95     AVAIL
>    96     AVAIL
>    97     AVAIL
>    98     AVAIL
>    99     AVAIL
>
> I have no clue.  Our 5.5/PP7 system does not have these, but all our 6.0,
> 6.5, and <mumble> systems seem to have exactly ten of these devices, the
> system seems to want to use LDEV 90-99 unless these are already in use,
they
> are unknown to NMMGR, SYSGEN, and IOCONFIG (though an attempt to add LDEV
95
> in IOCONFIG fails because the device exists even though an "ld 95" returns
> nothing).
>
> They do not appear to be accessed by a :DSLINE/:REMOTE, a PC based VT
> session, a PC based TELNET session, or a local outgoing TELNET session.
>
> The LDEVs appear to be owned to some degree by the VT Logical Device
> Manager.  They can be opened but writes to them then fail.
>
> They come into existence during the bootup sequence before SYSSTART gets
> executed, so they aren't created by a :NETCONTROL, :NSCONTROL, or starting
> INETD.
>
> So I give up.  Does anyone know what these goofy things are used for?
>
> G.