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Conference mvblab::alphaserver_4100

Title:AlphaServer 4100
Moderator:MOVMON::DAVISS
Created:Tue Apr 16 1996
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:648
Total number of notes:3158

644.0. "Redirecting output" by NNTPD::"[email protected]" (Pedro Torres) Mon Jun 02 1997 15:51

Hello again

The manual of a Rawhide course I took states that if I do something
like this at the SRM prompt:

>>>test -t 36000 > output

the system will end up crashing.

What is the limit?
How much can a file grow (how many test hours)?

Thank you very much

Pedro Torres
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
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644.1HARMNY::CUMMINSMon Jun 02 1997 17:5621
    A created file, e.g. "output" in your example is carved out of our
    heap.. The heap, when in diagnostic mode (TEST command) is 8MBs. This
    same heap is used for DMA buffers, stacks and other data structures,
    etc. Even for console overlays..
    
    If your goal is to capture TEST command output, and this appears to be
    the case, you should know that TEST accepts a -Q qualifier for quiet
    mode. In this mode, you'll get a small amount of output at the beginning
    of TEST execution and then *zero* output thereafter unless an error is
    encountered (includes both write/read/compare type errors as well as
    unexpected interrupt/exception type errors).
    
    Finally, much of the error output goes into a FIFO console event log
    by default. Said info can be displayed via "CAT EL". Unfortunately,
    unexpected exception and interrupt dumps do not go to EL (would take
    much more typing to explain why this is the case)..
    
    In summary, I would recommend not redirecting STDOUT to a file.
    Rather, I would recommend using TEST -Q. And if you're interested in
    capturing large amounts of console output, I'd use a serial connection
    with logging enabled (e.g. VMS' set host/dte/log=output.log tta1).
644.2Can I send it to a floppy?NNTPD::"[email protected]"Pedro TorresTue Jun 03 1997 06:1513
Hi

Can I send the output to a floppy?

This questions is due to a system hang that I experienced after a couple
of hours of testing on a RawHide. This way I ended up with no "el" and 
only the output that was on screen at the time. As I was trying to show off 
to the customer I wasn't using -Q :-)

thank for your time 

Pedro Torres
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
644.3HARMNY::CUMMINSTue Jun 03 1997 10:3418
    Not really. The way TEST was architected/written, it does not allow for
    all output to be re-directed to a file (RAM-based file, floppy, memory,
    EEROM, etc.) Some is re-directed, but not all.
    
    I would say your only two reasonable alternatives are:
    
      P00>>>test -q          # cat el for certain error types, if lots of
                             # errors and scrolling off screen
    
    or
    
      P00>>>test             # with serial connection and logging enabled
                             # via your host terminal connection
    
    I agree with you that, ideally, one would be able to redirect all TEST
    output to a file that could be reviewed later. This would solve the
    case where a given site may not be able to use set host/dte/log type
    logging for whatever reason.