I'm a software configuration manager brought in to implement a version control tool across both VMS and Oracle environments. I've dealt with Oracle but I don't know/understand VMS. I understand there is some native functionality for version control in VMS. I really want to know what I'm dealing with so I'm working with the VMS team instead of against them. Can anyone give me some info on how CM is commonly done with VMS or what pitfalls to pay attention to? Thank you. Randy Wagner SAIC Bureau of Census

There is a product called decset : http://starlet.deltatel.ru/sys$examples/decset/decset_cookbook_contents.html There is also a (freeware) CVS client http://www.cvshome.org/ A File version is a native part of the VMS file specification e.g. MAIN.C;1 . When you edit and save this file it won't overwrite, but will create a new one with a higher version number : MAIN.C;2 Both files will be on disk. Some basic information about the filesystem is in the users guide : http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/731FINAL/6489/6489pro_005.html#understanding_files_specs If this doesn't answer your question you may have more luck at the forum at http://www.openvms.org

Leaving aside source file ownership issues (the kind dealt with by something like CVS), there are ways to tag modules (source code files, object files, image files). You need to exercise strong positive control (eg. coding and documentation standards) to make best use of these. Compile and link timestamps (embedded in the object and image files, not the file version numbers seen in the file specification) might be used to synchronize make/build processes. Features which may assist version control in run-time include image identifiers and timestamps, and for shared memory applications, global section identifiers. I would not use file version numbers (in the file specifications) as the mechanism is too easy to subvert (accidentally or intentionally).

Most, if not all compilers on VMS allow an ident specification in the sourcefile (like ".IDENT "<some string>" in FORTRAN) which will embed in the objectfile and will be shown in the executable as well. Willem Grooters