Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

2781.0. "DECterm creation problem with vms v5.3" by SWTHOM::TISSERAND (Jean-Marc TISSERAND TSC FRANCE) Thu May 17 1990 10:09

	Hi,

	One of my customer has a strange problem. The login.com contains the
	following lines : 

		...
		$vxnews
		dir              | vxnews commands
		exit             |
		$exit

	When he logs in on his station under vms v5.2, there is no problem.
	Under vms v5.3, he can't create a decterm. We see a process called
	username_sm#, but no twa# process is created after.
	A sh proc/cont for the username_sm# process shows a strange thing.
	The image being executed is vxnews.exe, then nothing, then vxnews.exe
	again, then nothing, etc...
	It seems the process username_sm# is looping.
	If you do not call vxnews, everything works fine.
	If you call the above commands in a command procedure with @, there is
	no problem.

	How is the decterm started in vms v5.3 ?
	What is the purpose of the username_sm# process ?
	Why is this process looping ?

Thanks for your help

	Jean-Marc.
	

Re: .0

I think the solution is to conditionalize the call to vxnews:

		$ if .not. f$getdvi( "sys$output:", "trm" ) then goto skip_news
		...
		$vxnews
		dir              | vxnews commands
		exit             |
		$ skip_news:
		$exit

That way vxnews won't be run on a mailbox.

>	How is the decterm started in vms v5.3 ?

The session manager creates a process (username_sm#) on a mailbox and writes
a create/term/detached command to the mailbox.

>	What is the purpose of the username_sm# process ?

To run the (possibly user-defined) command to start an application from
the session manager.

>	Why is this process looping ?

I don't know.  I think vxnews is reading the create/term/detached command and
treating it as a command to vxnews, but after that I don't know what's
happening.

				-- Bob