From Doug.Woronuk@megasys.com

Platform : Compaq Alpha
OS : OpenVMS 7.2-1
Perl : 5.6.1

$ PERL -v

This is perl, v5.6.1 built for VMS_AXP

Copyright 1987-2001, Larry Wall

Perl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License or
the
GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5 source kit.

Complete documentation for Perl, including FAQ lists, should be found on
this system using `man perl' or `perldoc perl'. If you have access to the
Internet, point your browser at http​://www.perl.com/, the Perl Home Page.

The following perl script attempts to create a file on a remote node.

open (FH,'>MLB1​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;

The output is as follows​:

$ perl a.pl
Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at DKC0​:[PERLSRC5_6]VMS.C;1, line 5962 at a.pl
lin
e 1.
%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

The remote file (MLB1​::A.A) was in fact created, however it contains
nothing. There were no A.A files on the remote node prior to running the
test program. Changing the program to open the file for input fails with
the same error. This problem exists on perl 5.5.3 as well.

If this is in fact a bug, I can allow someone to connect into our system for
data-gathering or testing purposes.

I would appreciate any kind of feed back to let me know that this was in
fact received by someone.

Regards,

Doug Woronuk
Senior Software Analyst
Communications Protocols
MegaSys Computer Technologies

Doug.Woronuk@​megasys.com <mailto​:Doug.Woronuk@​megasys.com>
403.295.0511

From @craigberry

Doug,

I suggest reposting this to vmsperl@​perl.org. I frankly didn't think
DECNet operations were supported, but it looks like we may be closer
than I thought and might be able to track this down with your help.
--
________________________________________
Craig A. Berry
mailto​:craigberry@​mac.com

"... getting out of a sonnet is much more
difficult than getting in."
  Brad Leithauser

From [Unknown Contact. See original ticket]

This has always worked for me.

I suspect some sort of DECNET configuration problem. Perl and DECNET
play fine together, though in the past I've had problems with certain
file test operations on remote files. That was a long time ago, though,
and may have involved access through DEC's old DECNET SecurityGate product.

Brad

From @Hugmeir

On Tue Nov 06 08​:30​:19 2001, RT_System wrote​:

This has always worked for me.

I suspect some sort of DECNET configuration problem. Perl and DECNET
play fine together, though in the past I've had problems with certain
file test operations on remote files. That was a long time ago, though,
and may have involved access through DEC's old DECNET SecurityGate
product.

Brad

Can this ticket be closed then?

From @craigberry

On Sat, May 5, 2012 at 9​:09 AM, Brian Fraser via RT
<perlbug-followup@​perl.org> wrote​:

On Tue Nov 06 08​:30​:19 2001, RT_System wrote​:

This has always worked for me.

I suspect some sort of DECNET configuration problem.  Perl and DECNET
play fine together, though in the past I've had problems with certain
file test operations on remote files.  That was a long time ago, though,
and may have involved access through DEC's old DECNET SecurityGate
product.

Brad

Can this ticket be closed then?

I think so. During additional discussion on the vmsperl mailing list​:

http​://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.vmsperl/2001/11/msg9575.html

the OP did not respond to queries, and others with comparable platform
and configuration could not reproduce the problem. Plus the code
where the failure occurred has seen extensive rework since then and
will now set errno and return rather than croaking on the "no such
device" error​:

http​://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/blob/v5.15.9​:/vms/vms.c#l11735

@cpansprout - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'

From Doug.Woronuk@megasys.com

Hello Brad and others;

We are now using Perl 5.8.6 and the same problem exists. Here's my specifics​:

On OpenVMS MEG2​::

open(FH,'>ITN3​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;

Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706 at a.pl line 1.
Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706.
%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

Changed script to use DECnet to itself​:

open(FH,'>MEG2​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;

Works successfully.

Moved script to ITN3​::

open(FH,'>MEG2​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;

Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706 at a.pl line 1.
Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706.
%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

Changed script to use DECnet to itself​:

open(FH,'>ITN3​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;

Works successfully.

So it seems predictable that it will fail when it tries to connect to a remote server via DECnet, but works fine when connecting over DECnet to itself. There is a noticeable delay when the script is trying to open a file on its own server over DECnet, so it does seem that it is in fact connecting over DECnet instead of being smart and skipping the DECnet connection when it sees that the local server and the remote server are the same.

I'm not overly concerned about this issue. I initially opened this ticket coming up to 11 years ago and we have always worked around this issue. Now we're moving off OpenVMS to Linux, so it will definitely be a non-issue there. However, if you want to pursue it, I'd be happy to do what I can here on my OpenVMS servers.

Regards,

Doug Woronuk
Senior Software Analyst
Communications Protocols
MegaSys Computer Technologies

Doug.Woronuk@​megasys.com
403.295.0511

-----Original Message-----
From​: Father Chrysostomos via RT [mailto​:perlbug-followup@​perl.org]
Sent​: Monday, May 07, 2012 3​:50 PM
To​: Doug Woronuk
Subject​: [perl #7873] [RESOLVED] Accessing remote file on OpenVMS with perl 5.6.1 fails

According to our records, your request regarding
  "Accessing remote file on OpenVMS with perl 5.6.1 fails"
has been resolved.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please respond to this message.

For other topics, please create a new ticket.

<URL​: https://rt-archive.perl.org/perl5/Ticket/Display.html?id=7873 >

From @craigberry

On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 5​:15 PM, Doug Woronuk <doug.woronuk@​megasys.com> wrote​:

Hello Brad and others;

We are now using Perl 5.8.6 and the same problem exists.  Here's my
specifics​:

On OpenVMS MEG2​::

open(FH,'>ITN3​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;

Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706 at a.pl
line 1.
Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706.
%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

Thanks for the reply, Doug. Have you confirmed this works outside of
Perl, i.e.,

$ open/write remote itn3​::a.a
$ write remote "something something"
$ close remote
$ type remote itn3​::a.a

?

If it's only reproducible with Perl, then it would need to be verified
with a current version of Perl, i.e., 5.12.x or later. I haven't used
DECnet in a long time and I don't think I have anything set up to do
that verification myself.

From malmberg@Encompasserve.org

On 5/8/2012 10​:07 PM, Craig A. Berry wrote​:

On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 5​:15 PM, Doug Woronuk<doug.woronuk@​megasys.com> wrote​:

Hello Brad and others;

We are now using Perl 5.8.6 and the same problem exists. Here's my
specifics​:

On OpenVMS MEG2​::

open(FH,'>ITN3​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;

Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706 at a.pl
line 1.
Fatal VMS error (status=2312) at P_ROOT​:[000000]VMS.C;2, line 6706.
%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

Thanks for the reply, Doug. Have you confirmed this works outside of
Perl, i.e.,

$ open/write remote itn3​::a.a
$ write remote "something something"
$ close remote
$ type remote itn3​::a.a

If it's only reproducible with Perl, then it would need to be verified
with a current version of Perl, i.e., 5.12.x or later. I haven't used
DECnet in a long time and I don't think I have anything set up to do
that verification myself.

I can not reproduce this problem with the HP supplied Perl 5.8.6 or with
Perl v5.11.0. I do not have a later Perl built.

In general, if the xxx​::a.a syntax works on node xxx, and does not work
from a different node, then it indicates that something is wrong, like a
missing or incorrect proxy, or an error in the sylogin.com or login.com,
or something else is causing the problem.

EAGLE> perl decnet_test.pl
Got here
EAGLE> type decnet_test.pl
open(FH,'>LION​::A.A') or die "Failed to open file\n";
print "Got here\n";
print FH "test";
close FH;
EAGLE> dir lion​::a.a;

Directory LION​::USER_ROOT​:[MALMBERG]

A.A;2

Regards,
-John
Personal Opinion Only