In article <1995May22.114201.45512@miavx1>, [log in to unmask]
(Clayton L. Hines) writes:
> In article <1995May22.110422.45509@miavx1>, [log in to unmask]
> (Jim McFadden) writes:
>> How do I create and delete directories in my VAX account?
>> And how do I move text files between those directories?
>
> Type
>
> SWING
>
> at your DCL prompt.  Swing is a pretty nice directory maintenance program,
> similar in function to the MS Windows file manager or the Mac Finder.
 
Actually, SWING is part of the MCUG libraries.  It's not part of a
standard account.  You need to execute the MCUG login program to gain
access to it.
 
> The commands you would use to accomplish these tasks are:
>
> CREATE /DIRECTORY [dir.name.here]
> MOVE filename.ext [dir.name.here]
>
> where [dir.name.here] is replaced by the full path of the directory you want
to
> create.  For example, you may want to make a public directory:
>
> CREATE /DIRECTORY [eng.jmcfadden.public]
 
Actually, you don't have to use a full path, you can also specify a
relative path.  For example, if you're current directory is
[eng.jmcfadden], then you can create a subdirectory with the command:
    $ CREATE/DIRECTORY [.PUBLIC]
 
To delete a directory, you must first give yourself permissions to delete
the directory.  The following commands will delete the directory created
above:
 
    $ CD                    ! to make sure we're in the login directory
    $ SET PROT PUBLIC.DIR   ! to give yourself delete permissions to the dir
    $ DELETE PUBLIC.DIR;1   ! delete the directory
 
I finally found out why directories are created without delete permission
(it's hardcoded into the OS).  Apparently, under VMS 1.0, the OS didn't
check to see if a directory was empty before deleting it.  Therefore, the
authors of VMS decided to turn off delete permissions on directories by
default so that you couldn't "accidentally" delete them (which could cause
big problems).  Unfortunately, DEC never removed this "fix", even after the
problem was resolved in the second version of VMS (Version 1.5, I believe).
 
> To move files, you can either CD to the directory that contains the file you
> want to move, and MOVE it, or you can specify the full source and destination
> paths.  Say you want to move the file junk.txt from your default directory to
> your public directory.  You could use either of the following syntaxes:
>
> CD
> MOVE junk.txt [eng.jmcfadden.public]
>
> -or-
>
> MOVE [eng.jmcfadden]junk.txt [eng.jmcfadden.public]
 
Again, you could use a relative path.  For example,
    $ CD         ! to get to your login directory
    $ MOVE junk.txt [.public]
 
BTW, it's interesting how people find things.  MOVE was a command I created
to help with some system-related things.  I didn't really expect other
people to find it.  It's okay to use, though.  Assuming you're moving a file
to a location on the same disk, MOVE just issues a RENAME command.  If
they're on different disks, it issues a BACKUP/DELETE command.
 
> If you don't want to mess with pathnames and memorization, I recommend you
use
> Swing.  I don't think Swing's a standard package, though, so don't expect to
> find it on every VMS system.  Am I about right, Kent?
 
Right.  In fact, it's not even standard on our system.  See my comment
above.
 
--
                                     Kent Covert, Software Coordinator
                                     Miami Computing and Information Services
                                     Miami University, Oxford, OH
                                     [log in to unmask]  (internet)
                                     kacovert@miavx1                 (bitnet)