VAX/DS Diagnostic Supervisor User's Guide

This document is the "VAX/DS Diagnostic Supervisor User's Guide," dated April 1989. It serves as a comprehensive manual for users of the VAX Diagnostic Supervisor (VAX/DS) and its command language.

The VAX/DS is presented as a monitor that provides a common set of user commands and consistent operating behavior for VAX diagnostic programs. It allows users to:

• Select devices and diagnostic programs to run.
• Specify run-time parameters, including running all or parts of a program.
• Control program behavior upon fault detection (continue, halt, loop).
• Obtain operating statistics for programs.

The guide details how to run VAX/DS in two main environments: user mode (under the VMS operating system) and standalone mode (without an operating system), including specific bootstrapping steps for various VAX processors. It explains the process of "attaching" devices for testing using Hardware Parameter Tables (P-Tables) and the ATTACH command, or automatically via the Autosizer.

A significant portion of the manual is dedicated to the VAX/DS command language, providing a summary and detailed descriptions of commands for:

• Specifying hardware devices (e.g., ATTACH, SELECT).
• Controlling program execution (e.g., RUN, START, CONTINUE, ABORT).
• Setting, clearing, and displaying run-time parameters and flags (e.g., SET, CLEAR, SHOW).
• Debugging and development (DEPOSIT, EXAMINE, NEXT).

It also covers file specifications (FILES-11, RT-11, ULTRIX-32 formats), control characters, and the creation and execution of command files (scripts) for automating repetitive tasks, including an "Autocom" feature for booting from command files.

Finally, the document introduces the Automated Quality Assurance (Auto-QA) feature, which helps programmers assess the quality of diagnostic programs by performing various checks like normal start, multiple passes, infinite loop-on-test, and run individual tests in reverse order. It also includes information on accessing processor registers and building bootable media for standalone mode.