OpenVMS Record Management Services Reference Manual

This document is a reference manual for OpenVMS Record Management Services (RMS), providing detailed information for programmers.

Key aspects include:

• Overview of RMS Functions: It introduces RMS as a set of generalized services for processing and managing files and their contents, callable from any OpenVMS programming language.
• Program Interface: It describes how programs interact with RMS, covering the run-time environment, field naming conventions, calling sequences for services, program execution modes, and how condition values (errors/successes) are returned.

• Control Blocks: A major portion of the document is dedicated to detailing various RMS control blocks and their fields, which are used to pass arguments to RMS services. These include:

  • File Access Block (FAB): Defines file characteristics, access, and run-time options.
  • Name Block (NAM) and Long Name Block (NAML): Provide extended file specification capabilities, with NAML supporting file names longer than 255 bytes (Alpha systems only).
  • Record Access Block (RAB) and 64-Bit Record Access Block (RAB64): Define run-time options for record streams and individual operations, with RAB64 supporting 64-bit addresses (Alpha systems only).
  • Extended Attribute Blocks (XABs): Various types of XABs (e.g., XABALL for allocation, XABDAT for date/time, XABFHC for file header characteristics, XABITM for item lists, XABKEY for key definitions, XABPRO for protection, XABRDT for revision date/time, XABRU for recovery units, XABSUM for summary, XABTRM for terminal operations) that supplement or supersede information in FABs or RABs.

• RMS Services: It provides detailed descriptions of individual RMS services like $CLOSE, $CONNECT, $CREATE, $DELETE, $DISPLAY, $ENTER, $ERASE, $EXTEND, $FIND, $FLUSH, $FREE, $GET, $NXTVOL, $OPEN, $PARSE, $PUT, $READ, $RELEASE, $REMOVE, $RENAME, $REWIND, $SEARCH, $SPACE, $TRUNCATE, $UPDATE, $WAIT, and $WRITE. Each service entry includes its format, return values, arguments, and details on which control block fields it uses as input or output, along with potential condition values returned.

• VAX MACRO Programming Information: An appendix explains how to use RMS macros in VAX MACRO, covering initialization macros, symbol definition macros, store macros, and service macros, with programming examples.

The manual is intended for programmers working with OpenVMS to understand and implement file and record management operations. It supersedes previous versions for OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.2 and OpenVMS VAX Version 7.2, and is relevant for OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 and OpenVMS VAX Version 7.3.