Lars,
Surely qedit doesn't rewrite back over original files and get EOF errors? It
purges and rebuilds doesn't it? So why should vi be so dumb, or is it purely
ux code compile for mpe, and assumes a ux file structure?
I can understand it not knowing about VA files and the implied record length
data in front, but the other stuff?
jp




-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Lars Appel
Sent: Tuesday, 6 September 2005 5:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] Use of vi in sh on txt files

Craig & John,

the write error in the "out of space" category most
probably happens when vi tries to write back to an
existing MPE file and the new EOF hits the LIMIT of
the file...

vi, being a Posix app, is not aware of any MPE-isms
like records or file limits (except for the 2GB file
size limit of bytestream files). The MPE file system
tries to "help" vi by emulating a bytestream view of
the MPE record file, but this cannot overcome issues
like LIMIT becoming to small.

When you keep to a new filename, vi can create its
"natural" file type, which is bytestream structure.

I guess, when you try to manipulate files with variable
record lenght, you can probably get in even more strange
situations. I believe, there was also a file system patch
where Posix apps writing to MPE files (I vaguely recall
spoolfiles, but those are also variable rec length) could
damage the file resulting in the bad variable block struct.

If you intend to work on files with Posix apps (vi or
Samba, for example), you should probably convert them
with /bin/tobyte -at and then make sure that you keep
them in this format (do not mix vi and editor, eg).

The MPE spooler, for examples, will probably not have any
problems reading its NPCONFIG settings from bytestream.

Lars.

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