Hi Adrian,

I found some old files that can be used to demonstrate one way to use VMCF.? These were actually used in production back in the day.? A virtual machine server (VMSINK) would host CMS files used by various applications that were invoked by users running CMS.? Using VMCF, the application programs could request that the server open a file, read or write record(s), and close the file, among other functions.? In this way, multiple userids could access the same file, and with proper coding in the application program even support multiple users writing to the same file.? VMSINK served to serialize the file i/o.? These programs would probably work in VM/370 Sixpack with no changes except that possibly the FORM=E specification should be removed from the FSCB macros.? But the point isn't so much to try to run them as to use them as a guide to setting up VMCF as a sender and a receiver.

I uploaded the programs to the files area, called 'vmsink.zip'.? It contains the server which sets up VMCF, and the requestor which uses VMCF to request services from the server.?? The programs are not large and perhaps they can help you see how to use VMCF, as one example.? There is a README file within to guide you through the components and a bit more detail.

Regards,
Bob

Thanks Peter ... Appreciated!

Hi Adrian,

Anyway ... has anyone got some assembly examples that I could use to hack
something that I could call from C?

Sorry, I can't seem to find any. The closest I came was some code that
uses VMCF to receive SMSGs:

Also ... and I appreciate I need to read more ... for the sink machine what
do I actually have to do to allow a module to be waiting on a
interrupt/message?

You have to issue a DIAG 68 with the VMCPAUTH function code and the address
and length of a buffer to receive messages into. Actually, this is the
side that is implemented in the link I quoted above. There isn't any
code provided to send VMCF messages unfortunately, however, it may give
some ideas on how to set up a VMCF control block and call DIAG 68 and how
to deal with the resulting external interrupts when VMCF messages arrive.

Maybe someone else can find a better example?

One thing to note is that your module should not exit back to CMS until
you have turned off ("unauthorised") VMCF. In later versions of VM/CMS,
it is possible to use NUCXLOAD to get around this issue by permanently
loading code and buffers to handle VMCF external interrupts, however,
NUCXLOAD is not available in VM/370. It might be possible to use RESLIB
instead though.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.

I have read the section. Old school but completely sensible, although the security bit made me smile, as did the publication date of April 1!

Anyway ... has anyone got some assembly examples that I could use to hack something that I could call from C?

Also ... and I appreciate I need to read more ... for the sink machine what do I actually have to do to allow a module to be waiting on a interrupt/message?

Thanks in advance

Adrian

Thanks all - that gives me a start :-)

I recall putting hooks into HASP under MVT to capture and react to commands sent via SMSG. As I recall, VM fires an external interrupt at the receiving VM...

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Is there any facility in VM/CMS R6 (i.e. the six pack)?

If you are talking virtual machine to virtual machine, there is VMCF.

I am not looking for TCP/IP (LOL) - but any example would be useful.? I
want to call from C - so an assembler stub would be lovely :-)

Is there a message send (and listen facility?) (Was that later?) Or better,
a way to share a memory block between two VMs - what did folks do back in
the day!?

It's a little before my time but I suspect they used VMCF (DIAG 68). You
can find details in GC20-1807-7 IBM Virtual Machine Facility/370: System
Programmer's Guide amongst other places.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.

Is there any facility in VM/CMS R6 (i.e. the six pack)?

I am not looking for TCP/IP (LOL) - but any example would be useful.? I want to call from C - so an assembler stub would be lovely :-)

Is there a message send (and listen facility?) (Was that later?) Or better, a way to share a memory block between two VMs - what did folks do back in the day!?

A bit of shared memory would give me a socket and from that everything is possible (even in user land)

Thanks

Adrian

Hi Chris,

Late to this thread, but... I hope I can contribute.? I'm ok at REXX (and
EXEC when needed), and would probably be able to code some things in Pascal,
and have a strong interest in being able to expand our capabilities with
the RSCS + TCPNJE we have (so far).? I may even try to hack in a "default"
route to RSCS in assembler, if I get feeling brave enough. (Hints welcome!
GETROUTE is in DMTAXS, that's as far as I've gotten.)

A default route is straightforward enough to add. I'm just not that keen on
doing it on VM/370 RSCS because it makes it very easy to end up with files
and messages stuck going around in loops indefinately. There is provision
in NJE file headers for detecting transit through excessive numbers of nodes
but I haven't implemented this yet in my NJE code. Also, it doesn't look
like message / command (NMR) headers have any similar provision so I don't
know what would stop those going in circles.

Regarding coding, the REXX (and EXEC) we have access to suffers from a lack
of EXECIO functionality making it difficult to read and write files. I'm
very rusty on Pascal so I don't know what would be possible there. If it's
like FORTRAN, I suspect FILEDEFs will be needed to access CMS files unless
file access is done by calling assembler routines maybe?

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.

Late to this thread, but... I hope I can contribute.? I'm ok at REXX (and EXEC when needed), and would probably be able to code some things in Pascal, and have a strong interest in being able to expand our capabilities with the RSCS + TCPNJE we have (so far).? I may even try to hack in a "default" route to RSCS in assembler, if I get feeling brave enough. (Hints welcome! GETROUTE is in DMTAXS, that's as far as I've gotten.)
Cheers,
Chris Craft.

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Hi 闯ü谤驳别苍!

Fantastic! I've always been impressed by the talent that is out there. I've got to thank you for all the work you put into the tk4- project. It looks like I will also try your POC. I wonder if it works with JES3 :-) Worked in a JES3 shop for 20 years and for some 2-5 years we had a NJE link with a system in NYC that ran JES2, that was interesting.

Best Regards,

Bill Doughty, N2OCM

Hi Bill

I am one of those people Peter mentioned ;-)

During the past weeks I created a proof of concept implementation of funetnje targeting at providing an "NJE helper" on the Hercules host that makes an MVS 3.8 system running on that host participate in an NJE network, without needing to make any modifications to JES2. It currently works quite well (RECFM F/FB, LRECL 80 only, by now) on Linux and MacOS hosts (others not yet, simply because I didn't adapt the source). In Peter's inofficial new EARN/Bitnet NJE network my online TK4- system participates as node CZHETH3C using this NJE helper POC. All who are interested can download the POC from? (do so at your own risk, this is a proof of concept, not a production software).
?
Cheers
闯ü谤驳别苍

Hi Bill,

Thanks, I was aware of funetnje. Found it on GitHub. I wanted to make a
few cosmetic changes to it, mostly where things install and where the
spool files and config files live. Unfortunately my laptop with the
changes I made were at least temporally lost as the hard drive failed.

I think several different people are all independently tweaking funetnje
to update it so there is probably a lot of duplicated effort going on :-(

As for MVS, I just hoped that I could at least use RSCS as a RJE
station. But that is for future investigation. I know th4- will do RJE
as I was able to get the rje80 program to connect and send a job and
receive its' printout. I just hope I could get RSCS to do the same.

I believe that setup can be made to work. However, some do not regard it
as not completely satisfactory because MVS is only able to interact with
nodes directly connected to it ie it cannot send files to distant nodes
on an NJE network.

Any assistance you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

I'll send you an email.

I've sent you a zip file of RSCS updates.

Regards,
Peter.

Hi Peter.,

On 12/8/2019 5:31 PM, Peter Coghlan wrote:

As well as the ability to accept SMSG commands, I also have updates to enable
VM/370 RSCS to host NJE links (just about!). The latter co-operate with
TCPNJE devices which are part of Hercules and between them allow NJE links
to be carried over the internet.

Cool!

One of my longer term goals is to have vm/370, linux and the tk4- MVS
systems all talking to each other. But I wanted to have at least a pair
of vm/370 systems talking first.

I am completely clueless about MVS but I believe others may be working on
NJE connectivity for MVS. For linux, there is funetnje.

Thanks, I was aware of funetnje. Found it on GitHub. I wanted to make a
few cosmetic changes to it, mostly where things install and where the
spool files and config files live. Unfortunately my laptop with the
changes I made were at least temporally lost as the hard drive failed.

As for MVS, I just hoped that I could at least use RSCS as a RJE
station. But that is for future investigation. I know th4- will do RJE
as I was able to get the rje80 program to connect and send a job and
receive its' printout. I just hope I could get RSCS to do the same.

Any assistance you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

I'll send you an email.

Regards,
Peter.

Best regards,

Bill Doughty, N2OCM

(retired MVS and UNIX/Linux guy)

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Hi Bill,

I would be glad to give your updates a try. By any chance would this
update include your work with TCPNJE? If so that would be awesome. I'm
somewhat aware of the great work you have done is this area.

As well as the ability to accept SMSG commands, I also have updates to enable
VM/370 RSCS to host NJE links (just about!). The latter co-operate with
TCPNJE devices which are part of Hercules and between them allow NJE links
to be carried over the internet.

One of my longer term goals is to have vm/370, linux and the tk4- MVS
systems all talking to each other. But I wanted to have at least a pair
of vm/370 systems talking first.

I am completely clueless about MVS but I believe others may be working on
NJE connectivity for MVS. For linux, there is funetnje.

Any assistance you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

I'll send you an email.

Regards,
Peter.

Best regards,

Bill Doughty, N2OCM

(retired MVS and UNIX/Linux guy)

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Hi All!!

I'm trying to work with the VM/370 sixpack 1.3 Beta 3 and it looks like
a really nice piece of work! Thank's Dave Wade and everybody who put in
the work and made it available for us clueless folk :-)

I was able to set up a RSCS virtual machine. However, after I IPL'ed
RSCS and did a "SET SMSG ON". I disconnected and logged into the MAINT
account. I tried the following and this is what happened:

q n
RSCS???????? - DSC, OPERATOR - 009, CMSBATCH - DSC, CPWATCH?? - DSC
MAINT?????? - 0C0
Ready; T=0.01/0.01 15:46:47
smsg rscs q sys
RSCS???????? NOT RECEIVING; NOT AUTHORIZED
Ready(00057); T=0.01/0.01 15:47:12

I tried looking around for clues about why this is happening, but I
guess my Google fu has failed me. Anybody have a clue what I may be
doing wrong? I know more about MVS and am quite the newbie with VM :-)

Hi Bill,

There was some sort of misunderstanding between Dave and I and somehow
the VM/370 sixpack 1.3 Beta 3 download page ended up saying there were
RSCS updates included but they never actually got included.

The RSCS that comes with VM/370 is very limited and is not capable of
responding to SMSG commands.  It only accepts commands on the RSCS
console.

I have some rough and ready updates for RSCS that can help with this if
you want to give them a try.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.

Hi Peter,

I would be glad to give your updates a try. By any chance would this update include your work with TCPNJE? If so that would be awesome. I'm somewhat aware of the great work you have done is this area.

One of my longer term goals is to have vm/370, linux and the tk4- MVS systems all talking to each other. But I wanted to have at least a pair of vm/370 systems talking first.

Any assistance you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Bill Doughty, N2OCM

(retired MVS and UNIX/Linux guy)

Hi All!!

I'm trying to work with the VM/370 sixpack 1.3 Beta 3 and it looks like
a really nice piece of work! Thank's Dave Wade and everybody who put in
the work and made it available for us clueless folk :-)

I was able to set up a RSCS virtual machine. However, after I IPL'ed
RSCS and did a "SET SMSG ON". I disconnected and logged into the MAINT
account. I tried the following and this is what happened:

q n
RSCS???? - DSC, OPERATOR - 009, CMSBATCH - DSC, CPWATCH? - DSC
MAINT??? - 0C0
Ready; T=0.01/0.01 15:46:47
smsg rscs q sys
RSCS???? NOT RECEIVING; NOT AUTHORIZED
Ready(00057); T=0.01/0.01 15:47:12

I tried looking around for clues about why this is happening, but I
guess my Google fu has failed me. Anybody have a clue what I may be
doing wrong? I know more about MVS and am quite the newbie with VM :-)

Hi Bill,

There was some sort of misunderstanding between Dave and I and somehow
the VM/370 sixpack 1.3 Beta 3 download page ended up saying there were
RSCS updates included but they never actually got included.

The RSCS that comes with VM/370 is very limited and is not capable of
responding to SMSG commands. It only accepts commands on the RSCS
console.

I have some rough and ready updates for RSCS that can help with this if
you want to give them a try.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.

Bill Doughty, N2OCM

(retired MVS and UNIX/Linux guy)????????????

ps: sorry if you received this message twice, as I wasn't sure which
list is now the preferred e-mail address these days.

Hi All!!

I'm trying to work with the VM/370 sixpack 1.3 Beta 3 and it looks like
a really nice piece of work! Thank's Dave Wade and everybody who put in
the work and made it available for us clueless folk :-)

I was able to set up a RSCS virtual machine. However, after I IPL'ed
RSCS and did a "SET SMSG ON". I disconnected and logged into the MAINT
account. I tried the following and this is what happened:

q n
RSCS???? - DSC, OPERATOR - 009, CMSBATCH - DSC, CPWATCH? - DSC
MAINT??? - 0C0
Ready; T=0.01/0.01 15:46:47
smsg rscs q sys
RSCS???? NOT RECEIVING; NOT AUTHORIZED
Ready(00057); T=0.01/0.01 15:47:12

I tried looking around for clues about why this is happening, but I
guess my Google fu has failed me. Anybody have a clue what I may be
doing wrong? I know more about MVS and am quite the newbie with VM :-)

Bill Doughty, N2OCM

(retired MVS and UNIX/Linux guy)????????????

ps: sorry if you received this message twice, as I wasn't sure which
list is now the preferred e-mail address these days.

But perhaps we should put a posting on yahoo groups redirecting to here. Have 2 forums going is going to be confusing.....