Supervisor Dnote Archives - Versions 450 - 470

If the NODEFAULTUSE attribute is reset on the Supervisor usercode, any ENTER command which had a 'FOR <usercode>' would fail if the <usercode> was that assigned to Supervisor. This restriction has now been lifted.

AFTERs will now be processed correctly from an AFTER file even if a HS+ command is in effect. Previously, all the AFTERS would have been rejected.

Lastly, if Supervisor was initiated on a system with invalid keys and was not declared as a MCS in the network, SUPERVISOR would continuously loop every 5 seconds displaying messages until DS-ed

The change discussed in Dnote 470.33 had the side-effect of disabling any COMS - Supervisor windows sessions after a config switch had taken place. Supervisor would continue to run normally but the stations would not respond; a ?CLOSE and ?ON SUPERVISOR for each affected terminal would resolve the problem. This fault has now been fixed.

A SAVE SCHEDULE AS command could fail with a 'SORT ERROR 5' on a schedule with more than 3700 defined Opals

This change has no effect on the performance of Supervisor. It is merely to aid future programming changes.

An internal change on MCP 47, in the way that 'NS' requests are handled, resulted in increased response times to some System Commands entered via a Supervisor Window - the most notable being the response to a 'PD' request.

To compensate for this change the mechanism within Supervisor to handle Next Page requests has been changed to improve response times which are now similar to those experienced on previous MCP levels.

Version 460.26 of Supervisor introduced protection against looping when log files were remove while being processed. This had the side effect that log files were only recognised if DL LOG was on DISK. This problem has been corrected

Implements a mechanism for displaying text associated with a file in a PDT directory.

The implementation discussed in Dnote 470.38 did not always correctly handle label notices produced by Copywrite generated CD volumes. This problem, which led to misreporting in a TP <CDvolsn> response, is now fixed.

This patch also supports the TAPEDB and TAPELABEL attribute FILECOUNT which denotes the original of file references on a Copywrite-generated CD volume, image or Disk Farm.

On a slow or busy system, when Supervisor re-runs itself as an independent task (e.g. after Install), the TRIM database is still being opened when OPALTAPELIB is delinked. This would cause a large programdump. Now OPALTAPELIB is not delinked until the TAPELIBUPDATER task is gone

The TRIM system now logs Tapelabel events into the METATAPELIB4 database for COPYWRITE-generated CDs, CD images and Disk Farm library maintenance COPYs. This will only occur if the original destination specified in the COPY has been assigned a serial number. However, TRIM will *NOT* over write an existing database entry if it is already tape.

For CR, CD Image and Disk Farm, TRIM maintains the TAPEDB and TAPELABEL KIND attribute (CD=CD,CD Image=CDR,Disk Farm=REMOTE). The response to a TP <serial> command and event logging to the TAPELOG have been changed accordingly.

The WAITINGFOR attribute in the PRINTS context will now return TRUE for PrintS request that appear in the PS SH W list; previously, WAITINGFOR would have returned FALSE for many requests, depending on the nature of the waiting state

The CC and REPLY mail headers were not being reset correctly after each email generation; these values would then persist in subsequent mail requests. This problem is now fixed

Previously, if the NAP system libraries were active but the NAP platform itself was not, then OPAL calls to the NSL library were returning error 5 (NAP unavailable). This error condition was not being handled correctly by the NAPINTERFACE library nor Supervisor such that it was possible for a NAP ODTSequence to continuously retry its code after a failure. Although this problem has now been rectified by changes in the NAPINTERFACE library, additional protection has been implemented in this change to inhibit any possibility of a CPU loop.

For some now, Supervisor has supported the new Metalogic MAIL library and the older Unisys MAILSUPPORT implementation. In light of the demise of the Unisys variant, Supervisor will now only support the Metalogic MAILLIB interface. This has simplified the way that MAILLIB can be initiated from Supervisor - the TT MAIL + command is now not necessary, any TT MAIL command or email request will make the library connection.

Also, various problems using the TT TM and TT TP commands from either an OPAL KEYIN statement or the TTINTERFACE Marc Directive have been resolved. In particular, TM commands from Marc always returned "OK" and TP commands via KEYIN would hang.

It has been found that after a Supervisor Grinder stack hang, in which circumstances Supervisor would kill and restart Grinder, no responses would be returned to Supervisor Window stations. This has now been corrected.

Supervisor change 470.26 was implemented to store the Usercode and Accesscode of a Station passed by COMS to a Supervisor Window. It has been found that in some circumstances an incorrect Accesscode was being displayed in response to a TT TERM command. This has now been corrected.

In addition Supervisor will now ensure that the Accesscode, if present, will be passed to any WHENs invoked via the Window and associated with any commands input via the Window in the same way as the Usercode is handled (see Note 470.26).

If a message destined for a DSI Silo, entered via the TT TM command, contained too many trailing blank characters then the DSIHANDLER task would fail with an invalid index. This problem has been corrected.

This change also fixes a rare problem where Supervisor could hang if terminating when the Grinder stack was hung

The internal SUPERVISOR file FPORT uses a port file connection to the LOGREADER program to receive tape notice information from SUPERVISOR during a SUPERVISOR restart. The interface may also be used by a port file program, running under the TT USE USER.. FOR TAPELIB usercode to pass commands directly to a local SUPERVISOR.

This patch extends this implementation to allow such programs to send commands and receive responses to a remote SUPERVISOR by specifying the destination hostname on the port file / subfile. However, customers must be aware that using the FPORT interface whilst SUPERVISOR is running the LOGREADER utility (usually after a restart) will probably cause LOGREADER to hang since SUPERVISOR may inadvertently route data to the wrong connection

It has been found that Supervisor could fail with an Invalid Index when running with an increased number of WHEN slots (typically 80). This problem has now been corrected.

For printable SUPERVISOR commands generated from any COMS window which has a TERM USER, SUPERVISOR will now automatically assign any PRINTDEFAULTS already associated with the usercode in the USERDATAFILE. Note that the TERM USER does not have to have been activated (TERM USER + is not needed).

This change means that SUPERVISOR commands, such as ENTER or any TT PRINT variant, issued from a COMS window will generate print requests with printing defaults inherited from the caller.

The response to the TERM command has been updated to reflect this change:

 TT TERM LINES 47 WIDTH 96 FIRST 2 TRUNCATE TRUE RESPONSE EXPANDED              
         MESSAGES TRUE FULLPAGE FALSE DCSTATION TRUE                            
         You are: IPP02/S/1 [231]                                               
         Log-On User: IPP Access:                                               
         PrintDefaults: destination="MAIL",NOTE="To:ian@metalog.com"

When handling the second tape creation notice (i.e. not "NEW VOL") for the TRIM database, it was possible for SUPERVISOR to incorrectly generate the tape creation date in the information passed to OPALTAPELIB. This corrupt date was then unfortunately used to generate, for expiration-based rules, the actual expiration date for the tape. The problem caused these dates to appear with 1900 instead of 2001 or later.

This problem would only occur if tapes had been previously created by jobs running under user codes with numbers built into the name and more than 9 characters.

Supervisor will now store the Usercode, and any Accesscode, passed by COMS when a Station is transferred to a Supervisor Window. They will now be displayed in the response to a TT TERM command.

Using a new variant of the TT TERM USER command a User can opt to associate the Usercode passed by COMS with any commands input via the Window i.e. all commands will act as if they have a FOR qualifier. This may be invoked using the command:-

TT TERM USER +

The 'TT TERM USER -' command will cause Supervisor to stop applying the Usercode to command input although the Usercode will remain stored.

This patch addresses another variant of the problem discussed in OPAL Dnote 470.14 where attributes, such as MIXNUMBER in the MX context, could become corrupted after a MAIL function had been processed. This problem, which would usually cause the calling OPAL program to fault with an INVALID INDEX at 97761000, is now fixed

The response to a TT WHEN ? command will now list any assigned URC filters previous allocated by the specification of NAPFILTER config items to any active NAPLOG WHEN. Where possible, the filter will be depicted as numeric ranges.

Previously, SUPERVISOR could die with a MSG SIZE ERROR if the response to a TT command, using the OPAL KEYIN function, was greater than 9200 characters. This problem is now fixed; very large Supervisor responses will now be correctly handled.

Previously, any SUPERVISOR LOG context EVAL command would fail to search any released SUMLOGS, if a user-specified time range did NOT cover the current *SYSTEM/SUMLOG. This problem, which would only occur on systems where the system option MORETASKS was RESET, was caused by a fault in the way that SUPERVISOR searched for Version 1 SUMLOGS (MORETASKS is SET) and Version 0 (MORETASK is RESET).

Please note that the fix for this problem was applied to the OBJECT/OPAL/BINDLIB library module (version 470.02) which is bound into the SUPERVISOR codefile.

If the Metalogic MAILLIB library is active and a Virtual Mail Server print device has been specified, the TT USE DESTINATION command can be used to assign both a default DESTINATION and email NOTE address(es).

If the MAILLIB virtual print server was called MAIL and the default email address for Supervisor-generated print was support@metalog.com, then the command would be:

TT USE DESTINATION MAIL:SUPPORT@METALOG.COM

The DESTINATION and NOTE must be separated by a ":".

The ":" part is optional but if assigned for non-virtual mail servers destinations, this string value will be used as for a normal NOTE assignment.

If the DESTINATION is compatible with the MAILLIB virtual server, all prints generated by Supervisor will be sent to the specified address as attachments. This will include ENTER listings, any TT PRINT command or diagnostics.

This change is to protect against possible problems caused by a bug in the DSI Slot_From_SN procedure.

MCP 46.189.8633 introduced a bug in the MCP Getstatus procedure. This change avoids hitting the same bug in late 45 MCPs

Later versions of 4.6 MCP (at least from 46.189.8646) introduced a bug in GetStatus which caused major problems in EVALs, counts and lookups on systems where the MORETASKS option was not set. This change detours the MCP bug.

Previously, if an ODTSequence was executed that performed a SHOW to an ODT or Supervisor window, the appearance of heading lines in multi page responses would, for some subsequent commands, be inadvertently suppressed. This problem has now been fixed.
Also, a TT HELP MAIL command is now synonymous with TT MAIL HELP.

If a small OPAL program was input in the form:-

TT DEF + SITU PKS(PER=PK):LABELLED

where the entire input was on one line, as above, the Opal program could not be re-entered after a SAVE because the saved version was corrupted.
This problem has now been corrected

This change detours an MCP Getstatus bug which could cause an error in lookup functions when the MORETASKS option was set.

This patch changes the way that SUPERVISOR handles TT MAIL commands. Previously, SUPERVISOR would handle the command syntax himself but this mechanism required both MAILLIB and SUPERVISOR to be updated simultaneously to incorporate new changes. This feature will mean that command-handling changes made to the MAILLIB library will, in future, be transparent to SUPERVISOR.

Some additional protection has been provided to protect SUPERVISOR calls on MAILLIB entrypoints when using TT MAIL and TT MAIL LOG commands. Also, MAILLIB now uses transaction numbers to identify emails which makes the audit of individual messages more practical.

On systems running with the MORETASKS options set, the RUNNING attribute could fail for 1 in 25 tasks. This has now been corrected.

This patch provides an operator interface from Supervisor into the Metalogic MAILLIB interface. This has been implemented through a new TT command, MAIL, which activates / deactivates the library interface to MAILLIB and supplies logging and run-time information.

Syntax of the command is shown below:

   ---- MAIL ---+-------------------------+------------------------! 
                +---  +  -----------------+ 
                +---  -  -----------------+ 
                +--- LOG ---+---------+---+ 
                            +-- RCV --+ 
                            +-- SND --+
                            +-- QD  --+
                            +-- MSG --+
                            +-- ALL --+
                            +-- ERR --+
                            +-- ATT --+
                            +-- INC --+

The '+' modifier will invoke the MAILHANDLER process to start communication with the MAILLIB library. This command must be used before any other MAIL commands can be used. The '-' modifier will initiate termination of the MAILLIB connection; the MAILLIB library will not itself be terminated.

The LOG command will return up to 500 messages generated by users of the MAILLIB library. Each message is prefixed by a 3-character mnemonic, indicating the nature of the message. This feature is explained in more detail in the Metalogic Mail Reference Manual.

Also included in this change is the re-naming of the LOG and DIR commands to SYSLOG and SYSDIR respectively. This is because the LOG command is to be replaced by a new Supervisor audit facility, allowing the retrieval of logged Supervisor commands messages and events. The online help has been altered to include the replacement commands.

If the MAILHANDLER task was programmatically or operator DS-ed, then SUPERVISOR would immediately die with a MSG SIZE ERROR if further mail messages were pending. This occurred because Supervisor was inserting a zero-length message into the internal queue for the new MAILHANDLER.

This problem is now fixed.

In certain circumstances, some ODTSequences using LOG contexts such as LOGEOJ or FILECLOSE could give INVALID SUBTYPE WARNING messages in the response displayed during the DEFINE compilation. This problem was exacerbated by patch 470.08.

The maximum numbers of minor types for each major types has been updated for MCP 47.1.

A DEF ? of a LOG context OPAL SITUation, which specified a major type with or without any minor types, would erroneously insert a minor type of 20 in the returned display. For example, DEF + SITU TEST(LOG=27,6) would return, on interrogation, DEF + SITU TEST(LOG=27,20,6).

This problem, which did not affect the SITU operation, is now fixed.

Also, invoking an EVAL command which invoked a DO or DISPLAY with a fixed number of entries (e.g. EV X DO Y [10]) would fail with an INVALID OP if the ODTSequence was entered and used a SHOW statement.

PER EVALs will now give the correct number of evaluations in the response. New SSR 47.1 LOG types are now recognised.

For files with a large number of users, a specific file HO command could have displayed a truncated response - this problem had now been fixed. Further, since the HO command is not able to display a list of users for a temporary file and this has been more clearly indicated in the response.

Also, a timing window existed where a second EVALREADER task was invoked, in the same WHEN slot, before the first had been allowed to terminate. This problem, which was typically caused by two COUNT or OBJECT calls in the TAPEDB context being processed very close together, did not cause any problems but has now been fixed.

Lastly, SUPERVISOR was not correctly quitting the DSIHANDLER process during a TT QUIT, causing the restart to be delayed by 15 seconds.

This problem is also fixed.

Previously, SUPERVISOR only supported the Unisys A-Series MAIL implementation, which is scheduled for future deimplementation. In the near future, Metalogic will be releasing its own mail handling library which will be available to all Metalogic software, including and especially SUPERVISOR, in 4Q2000.

SUPERVISOR will now, by default, attempt to link to a Metalogic SL-ed library function called MAILLIB for any MAIL requests. If this library is not available, linkage to the standard Unisys A-Series MAILSUPPORT library will be attempted. If this library is also unavailable, the MAIL requests will be rejected.

SUPERVISOR will now automatically invoke the RECORDER process after a restart or TT REC QUIT command. Previously, RECORDER would only be invoked when SUPERVISOR had received a RECORD message. SUPERVISOR will NOT automatically restart RECORDER if the previous invocation was abnormally terminated; in this case, RECORDER will be processed by the next RECORD or TT REC command.

This change allows a MSG type ODTSEQUENCE invoked via a CALL DO to be passed an optional Text parameter that is available to the called ODTS as Message Text. The extended syntax can be invoked as follows:-

       CALL DO MYODTS "Example Message Text"

or

       CALL DO MYODTS GETSTR("MYPARAM")

If the calling ODTS is of Type MESSAGE the original Message text is not altered and remains available on return from the called ODTS.

An ODTS of Type MESSAGE called from an ODTS of Type MESSAGE with no additional parameter will still access the callers Message.

In order to be able to use formed screens in Supervisor the where the first character is the 'FF' character (#[FF] in Opal) is a 'transparent' Show.

The characteristics of a 'transparent' Show are as Follows:

Term Truncate is set to false.
ADM is stopped until the next non 'transparent' write.
Term Response is set to None until the next non 'transparent' write.
   This suppresses the 'THE DO WILL BE DONE' message.
No 'TT NS' will be done, any text beyond the end of the screen will be lost.
The screen is put into forms mode.

This change is required to run Supervisor on MCP 4.7. Version 470.01 of Magus is required.

Due to changes applied by SUPERVISOR patch 460.30, the logging of tape purges and usage was not being detected or applied to the METATAPELIB database. Because of this problem and although new tape creations were still being correctly handled, the usercode determined from the first use of a tape was being retained indefinitely for subsequent tapes created on the same unit. This behaviour would then affect TRIM rule assignment.

This problem is now fixed.

This change provides the Supervisor support for the extended ODTSEQUENCE CASE STATEMENT which now allows a <String Expression> to be used in the <Case Head>. Further details can be found in OPAL Dnote 460.11.

A WHEN can now be used to run programs with the USER or PRINTS objects. USER and PRINTS Situations can now be defined with a TIME qualifier to force their WHENs to scan the USERDATAFILE or BACKUPLIST instead of waiting on LOG events.

The non-accounted overheads of running some LOG context WHENs have been reduced. The USE USER usercode is now reset once a day (was every 4 hrs.). The EV response message for the MX context has been abbreviated and MX EVs now act on the correct entry if the ODTS contains a WAIT. An Inline OPAL with no explicit object can now begin with the TIME intrinsic without getting an incorrect syntax error. DEF ? SITU:MX now works as expected. A LASTEVAL is now handled correctly for PRINTS EVALs. DEBUG +21 will no longer cause EVAL_READER to create a print file.

Two obsolete types (BOJ and SILO) have finally been removed. Code handling the obsolete TAPE KINDs TAPE7 and TAPE9 has been removed.

The EVAL command was inadvertently disabled by patch 460.28 unless the Supervisor option USERNOFOR was set. Also, the result count returned by EVAL would be incorrect if an accompanying DISP or DO was associated with the SITUation.

Both these problems have now been fixed.

The USER object is now available and corresponds to a usercode in the USERDATAFILE. The object can be invoked explicitly by giving a usercode parameter to a DO, PR, or DISP command.

To scan all the user codes in the USERDATAFILE, use an EV command, or the COUNT/OBJECTS functions in OPAL.

A SITUation with USER object is invalid in a WHEN or ONCE command, (to pick up changes in the USERDATAFILE use (LOG=6,9).)

The object has about 60 attributes, each having the same name as a Standard Node in the default USERSTRUCTURE. Other nodes can be accessed using the USERDATA attribute and omitting the optional first parameter. E.g.

TT EV (USER:PU) DISP (USER,,USERDATA(FAMILYLIST.FAMILYLIMIT,"PACK"))

A saved USERDATAFILE can be scanned in an EV command by using the TITLE modifier, e.g.

TT EV (USER:PU) [TITLE=SAVED/SYSTEM/USERDATAFILE ON SV] DISP (IDENTITY)

Because of the security ramifications of this object, a new SO option USERNOFOR, has been added. If reset (default), all OPALs using USER must be run under a FOR with the ODTSECURITY usercode. If the option is set, no FOR is needed. Setting the option also requires a FOR with the ODTSECURITY usercode.

This patch contains support for the USERDATA(RU) attributes. DISP or DISPLAY can now be used instead of / to run a Display. Some coding changes should reduce the Supervisor working set by about 10000 words.

This is an internal change consolidating code for the DSI TM command and silo attribute handling.

After a TT TL, SUPERVISOR will attempt to copy all resident SUMLOGS on the DL LOG family. If during this process, any of the SUMLOGs were then removed then it was possible for SUPERVISOR to continuously attempt to copy the log, even though it was not resident. This behaviour has been fixed and a warning message will now be generated.

Also, if an ENTER file contained any DEFINE statement with a TT prefix (which is not normally the case), then those defines would be automatically skipped if a wild card name specification was provided.

This problem is also fixed.

If a Site is running HARDCOPY SUPERVISOR will log certain input messages to the Hardcopy. Previously, SUPERVISOR would output the message text with no editing which resulted in Passwords, if they were present in the text, being output in 'clear'.

This has now been corrected and SUPERVISOR will attempt to locate embedded Passwords and write asterisks (*) in their place.

SUPERVISOR will now generate a response to a ???WRU command input on a Window Station.

The values for the OPAL attributes JOBNO and MIXNO were inadvertently swapped when used from any LOG context WHEN.

This problem, which did not affect EVALs, is now fixed.

The change to the TAPENAMESERIALS attribute, described in patch 460.13 could cause indeterminate results to be returned (usually a null string, depending on how the attribute was used in the OPAL program.

Further, DISPLAYs generated out of MX context ODTSequences will now appear on the actioned task instead of Supervisor. This feature was accidentally broken by recent changes supporting the MORETASKS system implementation.

Dnote 450.38 described a fix which addressed the use of the PRINTS context on 46.1 MCP. This patches addresses potential problems that were introduced by the above patch when PRINTS was used on either MCP 45 or 46.1.

When any TT REC command was issued, via the TTINTERFACE directive, from a MARC station, the response would be invariably lost, only "OK" would be returned.

This problem, which did not affect the usage of REC from other sources, is now fixed.

The initial implementation of Window Paging - see 460.17 did not handle Screen sizes in excess of 80 by 24 lines correctly.

This has now been corrected.

In addition Supervisor's Next Screen response on Window Stations has now been changed from TT NS to TT + such that it is now compatible with the Window Page forward command.

This is an internal Metalogic change to improve the handling of WAIT<Taskstate>.

This change allows users of Supervisor Windows to page through previous response screens.

This can be achieved by inputting 'TT +' or 'TT -' on a Window terminal. 'TT -' will return the previously displayed screen while 'TT +' enables the user to page forwards through the screens until the most recent screen is displayed.

In some circumstances it was possible for a 'SH UTIL' report to return erroneous timings.

This has now been corrected

SUPERVISOR will now use the time of a tape creation from the MCP generated notice information, instead of the time the event was received. This would have been noticeable in the situation where SUPERVISOR had been unable to process events for some external reason.

Previously, if the active SCHEDULE file was overloaded whilst SUPERVISOR was active and then a TT USE FAMILY FOR CONFIG was initiated, SUPERVISOR would invariably fault when re-loading the SCHEDULE. This occurred because SUPERVISOR would prematurely close the SCHEDULE during the switch and then re-open the file to write additional information. Unfortunately, this additional I/O would be written to the SCHEDULE replacement which is then corrupted.

Further, executing a DO or DISPLAY with more than 64 parameters could have caused SUPERVISOR to fault with an INVALID INDEX.

This problem, which only affected MX, PER, PRINTS or TAPEDB DOs, is now fixed

The OPAL system attribute TAPENAMESERIALS has been enhanced to permit a second optional parameter which allows the METATAPELIB tape library database to refine the search for tapes matching a particular cycle and version. For example:

  TAPENAMESERIALS("(META)METATAPELIB4","4:17") 

would return all serials (in reel number order) which matched the tape name provided and had a CYCLE of 4 and VERSION of 17. Representing cycle and version as a string in this way facilitates its use in the Metalogic TPDB_SILOW Opals because cycle and version is easily extracted in this form from a waiting entry:

   NO FILE METATAPELIB4 (MT) #1 4:17 

The TPDB_SILOW Opal has been amended to use this enhancement.

This patch to the SUPERVISOR supports the Unisys MORETASKS implementation allowing the provision of mixnumbers up to 65535. This is achieved by setting the system options MORETASKS (OP+MORETASKS), halt-loading and changing the MAX command.

Many areas of Supervisor have been changed by this patch including the operator command interface, WHEN maintenance and OPAL support.

Existing OPAL code maintained by SUPERVISOR will function correctly for Mix numbers up to 9999 BUT it is recommended that ALL Opals should be recompiled i.e. they should be re-entered as soon as the system has been Halt loaded after setting the MORETASKS option.

This can be achieved as follows:

1. Terminate any active WHENs (shown by a TT WHEN ? command).
2. Enter "TT SAVE SCHEDULE AS (USER)DECOMPILED/SCHEDULE ON USERPACK"
   (where (USERS) and OURPACK are chosen by the site).
3. Wait for the TT SAVE to complete.
4. Enter "TT ENTER FROM (USER)DECOMPILED/SCHEDULE ON USERPACK"

Any WHENs that were previously terminated will be reinstated by after the ENTER completes.

In particular circumstances Supervisor could Abort when running external utilities. (Ex. TT JAM ....). This would happen if Supervisor was not able to assign a session number to the task. Supervisor would terminate with a fault at sequence number 39208000.

If the system had run out of space on DLLOGS and had displayed that log records were now being discarded then Supervisor would not use the session number returned by MCP. This would cause Supervisor to fault on the next run of an external program.

Supervisor will now get a valid session number in the above circumstances but if, for any other reason, a session number is not obtained it will not attempt to start the utility, but return an error instead.

In rare circumstances it was possible for Supervisor to load the previous day's schedule instead of the current day's. This change protects against this.

Times displayed from Supervisor would sometimes show seconds of 60. This has been corrected.

Display a message when started by RUN instead of ??RUN. Previously Supervisor would quit and restart itself with no message indicating why.

Running more than 63 active When or Dos could cause Supervisor to fault with an invalid index. Supervisor will now correctly handle up to 120 active whens.

SUPERVISOR was incorrectly handling ENTER files of type ALGOL, SEQDATA causing individual OPAL programs in those files to fail with syntax. ENTER files with filekind of JOBSYMBOL (default) are NOT affected.

This problem is now fixed.

SYSTEM/BACKUP can be used to dump backupfiles directly to tape. Whilst the tape is on-ine and not in use, other jobs can also use the same tape for backup files. Once the tape has been manually rewound, the MCP generates a tape label notice which is then detected by SUPERVISOR. Prior to this, SUPERVISOR will have already written a tape entry to the TRIM database at the time the tape was opened and assigns the usercode of that task to the OWNER attribute. Unfortunately, by the time SUPERVISOR has processed the MCP-generated TAPELABEL second notice, the OWNER attribute is now marked as UNKNOWN because the creating task is long gone.

To address this problem, SUPERVISOR will now ensure that the original task usercode is preserved and that the MCP-generated label is ignored.

Previously, if SUPERVISOR restarted using a SCHEDULE file from another machine, the NODEFAULTUSE attribute was unconditionally being assigned to the SUPERVISOR usercode, even if the SCHEDULE version was current. This caused problems for those customers that had already disabled the attribute. Now, SUPERVISOR will only mark its usercode with NODEFAULTUSE during a restart under the following circumstances:

1. The SCHEDULE or SAVED/SCHEDULE files are not present (i.e. a new install).
2. The existing SCHEDULE file is pre-version 13.
3. The SCHEDULE is from a different system and the SUPERVISOR usercode is NOT present in the USERDATAFILE.

In case 3, if the usercode is present, the SCHEDULE version must be version 13 or later.

If a WHEN or DO was being terminated whilst an ENTER was trying to recompile the associated ODTSequence or DISPlay program, a timing window existed where Supervisor would allow the DEFINE to be recompiled whilst it was still active. Unfortuantely, this could cause serious SCHEDULE corruption at the time the WHEN slot was eventually terminated.

Also, any OPAL compile errors returned by an in-line OPAL used to overwrite the original Supervisor command from the terminal home position.

This problem is now fixed.

The Grinder stack is used by Supervisor to process DCKEYIN and START requests. On a few occasions DCKEYINs have hung in MCP code blocking all subsequent Starts and DCKEYINs. Now Supervisor will DS a Grinder stack which has not responded within five minutes.

This change extends the PDT IN syntax to work for wrapped containers on sites who do not have a Copywrite license.

Under some circumstances it was possible for a PDT IN <title> to fail with a CDIMAGE.TITLE attribute error.

The SUPERVISOR PRINTS context now supports MCP 46.1; previously, any PRINTS EVAL or DISPLAY would have failed with a library entrypoint error.

Minor changes to support PD atts using the FN VALUE mechanism

On cataloging systems which are using the Metalogic FLEX package, the OPALTAPELIB library will now be linked to FLEXLIB for additional tape purge protection. The DELINK FLEXLIB command will now force the OPALTAPELIB library to initiate a delink of FLEXLIB as well.

The major changes with GETSCRATCH and retrieval of silo information generated various problems which have now been fixed:

1. Stand-alone TAPELABEL OPALs run via a DO or / would return corrupt attribute information which would have spurious effects.
2. TP commands issued from MARC using the TTINTERFACE directive would always return "ok" instead of a good response.
3. Using the CARTINSILO attribute in an EVAL of a TAPEDB SITUation would usually fail if more than one tape was returned, causing indeterminate results.

Also, using the USE USER command to change the specified SUPERVISOR usercode will now set the usercode with the NODEFAULTUSE attribute set. The assignment of NODEFAULTUSE was previously only assigned when a new SCHEDULE file was created.

Lastly, defining an OPAL from a terminal with a term greater than 80x24 would fail with "Text overflow at line 0", if the DEFINE was only one line long and occupied only the top line e.g.

TT DEF + DISP TEST:SHOW("TEST")

SUPERVISOR will now correctly handle inline OPAL statements that exceed 80 characters on larger terminal configurations. Previously, the command would have failed with "Text overflow at line 1".

Also, the on-line help for the REC command has been updated to include the changes discussed in RECORDER note 450.08.

Previously, if certain TT USE commands were input from an ENTER file, and the main SUPERVISOR task was handling events, it was possible for the ENTER to fault with various errors, SEG ARRAY, INVALID INDEX.

This problem, only seen on multiple CPU systems, is now fixed.

When using the LASTEVAL attribute, it is important not to reference any attributes belonging to the context when the LASTEVAL code is invoked since the attributes will be invalid. However, SUPERVISOR was not correctly clearing the attribute environment and caused a variety of problems if attributes were referenced in such circumstances.

This situation is now resolved.

The GETSCRATCH attribute has been modified to allow the provision of a third optional parameter, INSILO, which enforces SUPERVISOR to check that the tape serial returned is physically present in a Unisys Storagetek or DSI silo.

Previously, GETSCRATCH returned the first available tape matching *any* user-provided criteria in the serial set. Now, due to customer requests, this behaviour has changed. The "best-fit" scratch tape will be one that matches the user criteria AND has been PGOK or scratch for the longest period of time. This is determined by checking the SENDDATE attribute, as seen in a TP <serial> response, the oldest being selected.

The following OPAL expressions are valid:

     GETSCRATCH("1250","")
     GETSCRATCH("DLT35","DLT35",INSILO)

As before, GETSCRATCH returns an error string, prefixed by "ERR:", if a match is not found or any of the parameters are illegal. The complete list of messages is shown below:

     ERR:ARRAY TOO SMALL 
     ERR:INVALID DENSITY 
     ERR:DB OFFLINE 
     ERR:DB OPENERR 
     ERR:NO POOL OR DENSITY SPECIFIED 
     ERR:INVALID DENSITY FOR SILO 
     ERR:NO SERIALS

The existing TPDB_SILOW Opals, which are examples of using Supervisor to handle automatic allocation of scratch tapes to waiting entries, has been changed to use the INSILO modifier. This ensures that assignments for tapes are not made if they are NOT in the silo.

Please note that the SILO option (TT SO+SILO) *must* be set and the TL_SILOKIND config variable *must* be valid if you wish to use GETSCRATCH with the INSILO modifier either from a TRIM master or slave system.

SUPERVISOR will now correctly handle larger terminal screens beyond 24x80, up to a maximum of 96 characters for line with and 47 for page lengths. This implementation primarily applies to SUPERVISOR COMS windows and is dependent on the emulator supplying the correct term data to COMS.

All SUPERVISOR and ODT commands, issued from such a configured COMS window, will respect the terminal settings with one exception. The DEFINE command is still currently fixed to 80 characters; any attempt to add text beyond offset 80 will give the CANDE-like error:

     Text overflow at line 5

To accommodate this change, a long-standing problem with DEFINEs has been addressed. Previously, if text was added on the first line of a DEFINE input from a SUPERVISOR window, the DEFINE would be compiled correctly and entered into the SCHEDULE. However, problems would occur when the OPAL program was saved in symbolic form to disk where the additional text caused the decompiled text to be severely corrupted by shifted text and wrap around. This made the DEFINE unreadable and would not re-ENTER successfully.

This behaviour has been now been changed. When text or comment is provided on the first line of a DEFINE which is then compiled successfully, a subsequent DEFINE ? will show the offending text moved to the next line down. This change in text layout is automatically preserved if the DEFINE is SAVEd out of the SCHEDULE.

For example:

TT DEF + ODTS TEST: % This is a comment line ODT("TT DO MYTEST");

A subsequent TT DEFINE ? would show:

     TT DEFINE + ODTSEQUENCE TEST: 
        % This is a comment line 
        ODT("TT DO MYTEST");

Note that the line will be automatically indented by 2 characters. Even with this recent change, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that code or text begins on the next line down after the DEFINE to aid clarity and avoid this behaviour.

This patch also supports the new MYSELF attributes, WIDTH and PAGESIZE, allowing the OPAL programmer knowledge of his terminal specifications.

Also, an artificial restriction on the size of a compiled SITUation to only 8192 bytes has been removed. Previously, the SITUation would compile fine but any attempt to use it with EVAL or WHEN would have failed with BAD CODE SIZE ERROR.

Previously, executing an ENTER file which had TT SAVE or specific TT USE (especially USE FAMILY FOR SCHEDULE) commands would fault the command with an INITIATE ACTIVE TASK. These commands, if present in an ENTER file, are now handled correctly.

Also, during a config switch initiated by a USE FAMILY FOR CONFIG command, Supervisor will now automatically terminate the NAPHANDLER task if active. Also, a timing problem where a NAP-based WHEN could have faulted immediately after invocation where the NAPINTERFACE library had failed to initialise because of a configuration issue.

Both of these problems are now fixed.

The setting of the NODEFAULTUSE usercode attribute, described in DNOTE 450.20, was not being set correctly if a new installation was performed on a system which already had a SCHEDULE file from another system.

This problem is now fixed.

Further, SUPERVISOR will now display the following message when the NODEFAULTUSE attribute is assigned to the SUPERVISOR usercode:

     SUPERVISOR:NODEFAULTUSE SET FOR SUPERVISOR USERCODE

Some NAP attributes available from the NAP Statistics library have been changed to return zero or empty string values, when their usage was invalid, instead of garbage. Also, a new DEBUG option, 19, has been added to supply run-time tracing for NAP Statistics Library calls. In addition, Supervisor will now display run-time error messages for invalid NSL calls ONLY if DEBUG 19 is on and, in such circumstances, the calling WHEN or DO will be aborted. This debug should only be used for problem investigation.

Also, the NAPINTERFACE library would cause a programdump on the NAPHANDLER task every time an invalid call was made to the NSL; this behaviour has now been removed.

When BACKTRACKing in VERIFY mode, additional messages have been added to clarify when BACKTRACK times out or an operator skips remaining activities.

Previously, it was possible for Supervisor to hang if the OPALTAPELIB was not SL-ed and a TAPEDB or TAPELABEL EVAL was executed. In these circumstances, Supervisor would go waiting, requiring the SL of OPALTAPELIB and would not respond to any commands.

This problem is now fixed.

Previous enhancements to Supervisor introduced caching of code used by ODTSequences invoked by a CALL DO. These changes also restricted the modification of ODTSequences while their code was held in Cache. It was therefore necessary to terminate the initiating ODTSEQUENCE before the 'Cached' ODTSEQUENCE could be modified.

This restriction has now been lifted. It will now be possible to modify an ODTSEQUENCE that has been invoked by a CALL DO - the new code being executed on the next occasion that the ODTSEQUENCE is CALLed. When such code is re-defined a message will be displayed indicating that the Cache for any Slots where the code is currently in-use will be purged.

In addition the error message indicating that an ODTSEQUENCE or DISPLAY is currently in-use and cannot be modified, i.e. it has been directly invoked by a WHEN or a DO, has been extended to show the Slots in which the code is currently being executed.

Supervisors RESTRICT implementation was inadvertently being marked as suspended after any restart of SUPERVISOR.

This problem is now fixed.

Also, the format of the response to a RESTRICT interrogation has been improved to aid legibility.

Previously, when Supervisor was backtracking with MODE set to VERIFY, some TT OK or TT SKIP commands issued from the ODT would not be processed correctly, requiring the operator to retry the command until it was accepted.

This problem, which could have occurred when the system was busy, is now fixed.

In addition, the on-line help section describing the backtrack process has been much improved and may be accessed via HELP USE MODE or HELP BACKTRACK. Further, Supervisor windows users will now be told that a Backtrack process is running, by displaying a message on the status line of the terminal. Note that these messages are only shown if USE MODE is set to VERIFY.

Previously if the identifier specified as the target for a CALL DO was in lower case e.g.

                         CALL DO "abc"; 

the Opal routine would not be found.

This change ensures that an identifier is always converted to upper case before the Schedule is searched for the routine.

Supervisor has now been enhanced to allow 'TT TP' requests to be entered via the Opal KEYIN function. See also Dnote 440.53. A typical example might be:-

                  STORE("A",KEYIN("TT TP VERSION")); 

which would result in the response to a Tape Library "VERSION" command being stored in the Variable "A".

By default, Supervisor requires any usage of the FOR modifier, for running WHENs or scheduling activities under a specific usercode, to be supplied with a valid password as specified in the USERDATAFILE. Once the password has been validated, it is always discarded.

Supervisor now has a new feature that allows the FOR modifier to be used *WITHOUT* supplying a password, but only under certain controlled conditions. After installing this release, the Supervisor usercode will have a new USERDATA attribute assigned, NODEFAULTUSE. This attribute is widely used by Unisys SYSTEM/ASSISTANT to control which user codes can be used, without knowing passwords, to invoke WFL jobs.

If NODEFAULTUSE remains assigned to the Supervisor usercode, the normal security enforcement of password validation remains in force. However, if the NODEFAULTUSE attribute is removed with the MAKEUSER utility, Supervisor will then permit the "locking" of activities under user codes, without password validation, as long as the locked usercode does NOT have the NODEFAULTUSE attribute set as well. It is not possible to lock an activity under the Supervisor usercode without a password at any time.

In such circumstances, commands such as:

     TT FOR META AFTER+1400:TT DO MY_ODTS 
     TT FOR META WHEN MSG DO MSG 

would be permitted from a Supervisor window, ODT or an active ODTSequence if the META usercode did not have the NODFAULTUSE attribute assigned. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that if NODEFAULTUSE is removed from the Supervisor usercode, all user codes that require the password to be validated with the FOR modifier MUST have the NODEFAULTUSE assigned by the Security Administrator.

The following table may help to clarify this feature; the Supervisor usercode is assumed to be SUPER:

If you decide to adopt this scheme, a status line appears in the response to a TT WS command, indicating that PASSWORD VALIDATION is NOT ACTIVE.

If a TT command was issued from the ODT during a SAVE SCHEDULE AS.... process, SUPERVISOR would occasionally die with a fatal "BUFFER IN USE" fault.

This problem is now fixed.

Previously during a configuration switch (established by TT USE FAMILY .. FOR CONFIG), the switch would not have completed successfully under the following circumstances:

1. Supervisor option NOWHENSRESTART is set.
2. An AFTER+RESTART is used to control WHEN invocation.
3. A controlling DO or WHEN, invoked by the AFTER, used the OPALINUSE attribute to detect if the required WHENs are active.

In the above case, the WHENs active before the switch did not have their names deallocated correctly by SUPERVISOR, fooling the OPALINUSE attribute into believing that they were active.

This problem is now fixed.

Any active WHENs deactivated by a config switch will now show their session as being DISCONNECTED. Previously, no log entries were created; note that when this schedule file is re-used, the WHENs will still be restored as normal.

Also after a config switch, SUPERVISOR will now make sure that the TAPELIBUPDATER task is invoked (if TAPELIB option is set) so that the METATAPELIB database is active as soon as possible. This only caused a problem when switching between configurations where the TAPELIB option changed from RESET->SET during the switch. This would only occur if the USE FAMILY for SCHEDULE was different in each configuration and each SCHEDULE had a different TAPELIB setting.

Previously, the TT USE FAMILY .. FOR SCHEDULE command would always over write any *SCHEDULE that was already resident on the destination family. Now, if a file called *SCHEDULE is already resident, the USE change will be rejected with:

     SCHEDULE COULD NOT BE MOVED

The on-line help for the SO command has now been updated to reflect the new variants, NOLOGREADER and AUTOFS.

Previously, if a TIME modifier was specified in an InLine WHEN e.g.

     TT WHEN(TIME,MX=A:PROCTIME > 3000) TEST(ODT(MIXNO,"DS"))

SUPERVISOR displayed LOGICAL ASSERTION Error and the WHEN would fail.

This has now been corrected.

SUPERVISOR will now automatically try to bring up the TAPELIBUPDATER task after the SO TAPELIB option has been set. Previously, the METATAPELIB database would not have been opened until the first TP interrogation or a tape event processed.

Also, using the assignment TT USE JOB NONE AFTER TL will cause SUPERVISOR to exclude the run of a pre-defined WFL after a TT TL to change the SUMLOG. Previously, this behaviour caused this USE setting to be deleted which, in turn, caused warning messages on SUPERVISOR restarts to be displayed.

The commands COMPILERTARGET, DO and SECOPT can now be restricted in ODTCONTROL. The response to a TT RESTRICT will no longer be truncated by the TERM specifications.

The system attributes TAPENAMESERIALS, TAPEFAMILYSERIALS and TAPEFAMILYNAME may now be used from OPAL programs running on TRIM slave systems. Previously, these attributes would have returned null values.

Also, TP commands that modify tape information were restricted from slave systems; this restriction has now been relaxed. Such commands will be permitted, subject to local TRIM security, and logged on both master and slave TAPELOGs.

PDT can now specify a CopyWrite Image file container by using the KEY word IN. For example:

     TT PDT IN (FLEX)CDBACKUP ON AUDITS (=)=/REFS

The family in the ON part can either be a PACK or an ISO CDROM. If the usercode or pack are omitted, the USE .. EXTERNAL ones are used.

This change corrects a problem where an ODTSEQUENCE held in cache was not locked and could therefore be modified while in use. This problem which could lead to indeterminate results has now been corrected.

In addition the Cache mechanism has now been enhanced so that the Supervisor Schedule dictionary is only read on the first invocation of a CALLed ODTSEQUENCE or DISPLAY and not on any subsequent CALLs when the code string is already held in the cache.

Previously Supervisor could confuse input from TTINTERFACE with a low SOURCESTATION for ODT input. This would sometimes result in responses not being returned to TTINTERFACE.

The problem has now been corrected.

TRIM-only sites are now allowed to run one MX=WAITING based WHEN. This feature, previously only permitted to full Supervisor users, can assist sites that need to capture tape requests for processing by the larger tape library systems such as Storagetek.

The recent TRIM implementation where LOG VOL NEW records are tracked to provide a better indication of the time a tape volume was first opened, caused a problem with tapes which have no FILEID (e.g. database dumps). In such cases, the MCP unconditionally stores the volume name into the fileid field in the log record; when this is processed by SUPERVISOR, a database dump with the name LINCDB thus becomes LINCDB/LINCDB. This behaviour causes rule matching to fail and, since any generation handling is only done during the NEW VOL processing, other members of the family are not then updated.

SUPERVISOR is now forced to check the fileid against the volume name in these log records; if they are the same then the fileid entry is discarded. These means that any legitimate multi-level tape names where the fileid and VolumeID will discard the fileid but it means that the above, more serious problem is resolved.

SUPERVISOR will now always obtain the setting of the TL_SILOKIND config variable whenever the SILO option is set (OP+SILO). Previously, a restart of SUPERVISOR would have been necessary.

Also, the DELINK DSI command will now inform the TAPELIBUPDATER task to delink from the TAPELIBRARYSUPP library so that the DSI software can be terminated gracefully.

The behaviour of the SILO option is controlled by the setting of the MAGUS configuration variable, TL_SILOKIND. This is NOT configurable from SUPERVISOR and can only be changed with the INSTALL utility. The variable controls whether DSI or UNISYS robot tape libraries are supported; for DSI libraries, it is assumed that TAPEMANAGER is SL-ed to Metalogic's own TAPEMANAGER library and DSI's TAPEMANAGER is SL-ed to CSCLIB, where appropriate.

The TL_SILOKIND config can take the following values:

TL_SILOKIND=DSI

Means that full DSI Cartridge Tape Library support is available. All tape assignments are passed through to the CSCLIB, by Metalogic's TAPEMANAGER, for processing by DSI's own TAPEMANAGER library. A TM STATUS will show the operational mode as ACTIVE.

TL_SILOKIND=DSI_SERIALNO

As above, except that tape assignment requests are only passed to the DSI library if a tape serial number has already been assigned in the request. If a tape has both a SERIALNO and SCRATCHPOOL assignment, the SCRATCHPOOL is removed.

TL_SILOKIND=DSI_NOTM

The DSI TAPEMANAGER will still run in ACTIVE mode but any tape assignment requests will NOT be passed to the DSI software by Metalogic's TAPEMANAGER.

TL_SILOKIND=UNISYS

SUPERVISOR supports the Unisys CSCLIB version 2.1 interface for larger CTL systems such as the various Storagetek systems currently available.

In all the above DSI cases, the Metalogic TAPEMANAGER will only pass through control and tape assignment requests to the DSI TAPEMANAGER. If no DSI mode is active, Metalogic's TAPEMANAGER will not forward any requests to DSI software.

Tape purge requests are NEVER passed to DSI software regardless of the operating mode.

Should it be necessary to change the above setting, the INSTALL program should be used. From a Cande session, under a PU:

     U META/INSTALL TL_SILOKIND=DSI_SERIALNO

Both SUPERVISOR (TT QUIT SUPERVISOR) and TAPEMANAGER (SEND TM QUIT) must be restarted for the new mode to apply. TAPEMANAGER may be restarted using SEND TM START. A TT WS response will always show the current mode of Supervisor's CTL support, if applicable.

The LOGREADER utility now supports the VOLUME NEW log entries mechanism introduced in SUPERVISOR Dnote 450.05 (see LOGREADER DNote 440.07).

This patch supports that implementation.

With the arrival of large capacity tape drives which can hold very large databases on a single reel, it is now very likely for database audit dumps, produced whilst an on-line dump is still running, to become linked to the PREVIOUS completed dump. This is because the TRIM system only updates the METATAPELIB database once the on-line dump is complete. Although this problem relies on the customer using "linked" rules, this is a very common of handling audits and Metalogic have decided to addressed this important issue in the following way.

Instead of tracking tape creation at label time, SUPERVISOR will now detect specific LOG VOLUME events for new tapes which have just been opened for output. A "raw" entry is written into METATAPELIB which will be assigned a creation date and time for the tape reflecting this open time. The entry is nearly complete with rules automatically being applied but job and task name information will be marked as "TAPE_IN_USE".

When a tape creation notice is eventually received, the job and task information is updated but creation date / time is NOT changed. Further, the assigned rules is not re-applied. The event entries in the TAPELOG will appear as :

 01:39:15 Evt: CREATED [000026] DEV99021A by FLEX
 01:30:18 Evt: NEW VOL [000026] DEV99021A by FLEX

In the above example, the response for a TP 26 command would show the creation time to be 01:30:18 whereas the old mechanism would have shown 01:39:15.

This is an important change to the way that the TRIM system now tracks tapes as they are created on the system. Where the application creating the tape is aborted before completion, the "raw" entry will remain in the database unless the caller does a programmatic CLOSE with PURGE. An example of this is a normal COPY JOB which was terminated before any files were copied to the tape; here, MCP automatically purges the tape as part of its clean-up.

The implementation of the GETSCRATCH attribute allows the control and allocation of scratch tapes, optionally designated by density and ScratchPool This feature allows a SUPERVISOR OPAL program to allocate the FIRST eligible tape belonging to a selected subset of tapes and assign it for "future use".

GETSCRATCH has the following syntax and expects two string parameters:

The <density> string should conform to one of the following known Unisys density values:

   200, 1600, 6250, 38000, 1250, 11000, 36TRK, DDS2
   QIC1000, DDS3, 128TRK, DLT3, DLT6, DLT10, DLT20, DLT35

The <scratchpool> parameter should be a valid scratch pool name up to 17 characters in length: if longer, the string is truncated. The reason that <density> is a string is to allow MX=WAITING OPAL programs, scanning for REQUIRES MT waiting entries, to plug any specified density in the RSVP directly into the GETSCRATCH attribute. Both parameters can be empty strings.

If a tape is found that matches the given <density> and <scratchpool>, GETSCRATCH will return the SerialNumber as a string. If no matching tape is found, GETSCRATCH will return one of the following error strings:

 ERR:INVALID DENSITY
 ERR:DB OFFLINE
 ERR:DB OPENERR
 ERR:NO SERIALS

Once a tape has been "assigned" by the GETSCRATCH attribute, it is not "unassigned" until the tape has been used for output. Until this time, the assigned tape can be tracked by using several new variants of the TP command. See TAPELIBUPDATER DNote 440.05 for more information about the ASSIGNED and UNASSIGN modifiers.

During assignment, several tape attributes are changed: SLOT is set to the value 99999, SENDDATE and SENDTIME are set to the current date and time. Because these attributes are available to OPAL programs, it is possible to monitor for tapes that remain assigned over a long period of time.

For example, GETSCRATCH could be used to allocate a tape for mounting on a CTL subsystem. Such mount requests can take time to be satisfied so the use for GETSCRATCH avoids the possibility of collisions by marking these tapes assigned. The following OPAL code handles a REQUIRES MT waiting entry of the form:

---Job--Task-Pri---Elapsed------ 5 WAITING ENTRIES 
  8892\ 8893  50      1:55 *LIBRARY/MAINTENANCE
    LOGDUMP/FILE000 REQUIRES MT #1 (DLT3) SCRATCHPOOL=DLTPOOL1

 TT DEFINE + ODTSEQUENCE MOUNT_REQUEST(MX):
    IF "REQUIRES MT" ISIN RSVP AND
       NOT "MT [" ISIN RSVP THEN
    BEGIN
       IF "SCRATCHPOOL=" ISIN RSVP THEN
          STORE("SCP",DECAT(RSVP,"SCRATCHPOOL=",1))
       ELSE
          STORE("SCP",EMPTY);
       IF " (" ISIN RSVP THEN
          STORE("DEN",DECAT(DECAT(RSVP," (",1),")",4))
       ELSE
          STORE("DEN",EMPTY);
       IF NOT PUTSTR("SN",GETSCRATCH(GETSTR("DEN"),GETSTR("SCP")))
                                                 HDIS "ERR" THEN
          ODT(MIXNUMBER,"FA SERIALNO=""",GETSTR("SN"),"""")
       ELSE
          DISPLAY("GETSCRATCH ",GETSTR("SN"));
    END;

This code will automatically assign the serial number of the tape returned by GETSCRATCH to the waiting entry using the FA SERIALNO command.

Once an assigned tape has been processed by an application program, the assignment status is removed: SLOT, SENDDATE and SENDTIME are all set to 0.

Note that GETSCRATCH will also function in the same way from a slave TRIM system. Any assigned tape, selected on the master, will be marked in the normal way except that the requesting HOSTNAME will be that of the slave.

Previously if a sequence of CALL DOs were performed within an ODTSEQUENCE Supervisor could fault. Nested CALL DOs were not affected.

This has now been corrected.