Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU!carl
From: carl@CITHEX.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: "$" IN LOGICALS
Message-ID: <880708051217.2532@CitHex.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 8 Jul 88 12:20:48 GMT
References: <880706101406.00000C7D.BAKY.83@WYOCDC1>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 28


 > I have heard here, and elsewhere, that dollar signs ($) are "reserved"
 > by digital for their own use in logicals.  Nevertheless our system
 > managers have named our disks "PRODUCT$DISK" and such.  Could somebody
 > clarify exactly WHERE DEC states this policy (e.g. in 4.6 release notes
 > page blah-blah paragraph 87...) so I can go look it up.  Also, do device
 > names qualify as logicals, and/or just what does the restriction cover?

I don't recall where in the documentation this is mentioned, but somewhere  in
there DEC does advise against using "$" in logical names.  The reason for this
is simple:  when DEC adds new functionality to VMS, it often  results  in  new
sets  of logical names (for example, when they expanded the concept of logical
name tables to include more than just PROCESS, GROUP, and SYSTEM tables,  they
introduced  a  set  of logical names of the form LNM$*), and to avoid possible
conflicts, DEC uses a "$" in all such logical names.  If you don't use  a  "$"
in  locally  defined logically names, you won't be unpleasantly surprised by a
conflict in the next release of some DEC product.

I don't see why your managers have chosen to invert the default logical naming
scheme  for  disks.   A  disk with label LABEL will have associated with it by
default the logical name DISK$LABEL when it is mounted.  For example

	$ show logical disk$product
	%SHOW-S-NOTRAN, no translation for logical name DISK$PRODUCT
	$ mount/system pda0 product
	%MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, PRODUCT      mounted on _PDA0:
	$ show logical disk$product
	   "DISK$PRODUCT" = "PDA0:" (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE)