> Does anybody have a simple one-line definition as to what type of file
> system is used by MPE? This should exclude all reference to
> the Posix HFS.

Well, without spending an appropriate amount of time on docs.hp.com, or in
HELP, to see if hp has already provided such a terse definition, I would
have to say that, in addition to the POSIX HFS, MPE has AFAIK always used
file system:
- files are contained in groups, which are contained in accounts, separated
by periods.

Now, I think that some notions of capabilities is vital, and how they
capabilities are "inherited" from what their containers (there must be a
more elegant way of explaining this). Likewise, passwords and lockwords need
to be explained.

And so do filetypes / codes, as well as the other file attributes: record
and block size, max records, options (F, U, V, or B; binary or ascii; cctl
or no; temporary or permanent domain, and DISC parameters). A file is after
all a collection of bytes, but MPE likes to organize them into some kind of
record structure. Can you talk about a file system that includes record
structures without talking about record structures? The above one-line
definition should probably say something about that. And that is without
taking into account special file types, like KSAM, message, or spool files.
And the need for files to be "built" before they can be used. Maybe:
- files have record structure, and a file type.

I'm sure I can't say it all on one line, and still say anything meaningful
and useful, even while leaving out the POSIX HFS. A terse answer like HFS
seems to me to assume that the audience already has some notion of what HFS
is, or is like, by virtue of knowing one or more HFS systems. I think that
the "traditional" MPE file system is more like a mainframe's than like
UNIX's.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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