HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

The OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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For information on programming on OpenVMS, see Chapter 10.

13.1 Where can I find freeware/shareware/software for OpenVMS?

• Details on many commercial OpenVMS products are available in the catalog located at:
  • http://www.hp.com/go/dspp_catalog
• The OpenVMS Freeware is is distributed with OpenVMS, and is also available for download at various sites, including the following:
  • http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
  • ftp://ftp.montagar.com/
  • ftp://mvb.saic.com/freewarev40/
  
  and at various other sites. The website also includes various updates and new packages that become available after the CD-ROM distributions are created.
  Submissions to the OpenVMS Freeware can be made via:
  • http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
  
  To acquire the OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM distribution, you can order an OpenVMS distribution from HP (the Freeware is included)(see the OpenVMS SPD for part numbers), or you can specifically order a Freeware distribution from HP under part number:
  • QA-6KZAA-H8
  
  The Freeware CD-ROM set contains a large assortment of freeware, and is a good starting point if looking for utilities. Many of the packages listed below are also on the Freeware CD. Some of the most oft-requested OpenVMS tools on the Freeware CD include ZIP and UNZIP and GZIP (please see Section 13.11, MMK (make), PINE, PERL, TAR, UUENCODE and UUDECODE. Many other tools are available on the Freeware.
• The UUENCODE and UUDECODE tools and various other tools are also available as part of TCP/IP Services package. (Use the DCL command procedure SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$DEFINE_COMMANDS.COM available on V5.0 and later to set up the necessary DCL foreign command symbols used for these and for various other tools provided by TCP/IP Services.)
• OpenVMS software (formerly at Western Kentucky University (WKU) is now available via Madgoat and via Process Software archives:
  • http://www.process.com/openvms/index.html
  • http://www.madgoat.com/
• The FILESERV packages are also available via anonymous FTP from:
  • ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/
  • ftp.process.com, under [.WKU.VMS.FILESERV].
  • ftp.vms.stacken.kth.se, under [.MIRRORS.WKU.VMS.FILESERV].
  • ftp.ctrl-c.liu.se, under [.WKU.VMS.FILESERV].
  • ftp.riken.go.jp
  • ftp.vsm.com.au, under kits and kits/decwindows.
  • ftp.vsm.com.au, via the WWW instead of FTP.
  
  The packages are also available via e-mail from FILESERV@PROCESS.COM. Send the commands HELP and DIR ALL in the body of a mail message to this email address for further information on retrieving the files.
• Arne Vajhøj operates an OpenVMS website, with software and other pointers, at:
  • http://www.levitte.org/~ava/
• Jouk maintains a summary of various public-domain and open-source software ports, and specifically ports of packages for use on OpenVMS, at:
  • http://nchrem.tnw.tudelft.nl/openvms/
• The Kermit file transfer package is available at:
  • http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/
  • ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/
• ZMODEM is available at:
  • ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/zmodem
  
  See the FILES file in that directory for further details. Note that this freeware version of ZMODEM will interoperate only with ZMODEM software that is licensed from Omen Technology. (This package is also available on various of the Freeware distributions.)
• A good source of software for OpenVMS systems and for various other platforms is the Encompass (formerly known as DECUS) library. Online catalogs are available as well as some software via
  • ftp://ftp.decus.org
  • gopher://gopher.decus.org/
  • http://www.decus.org/
• DECUS SIG Tape collections are available on Mark Berryman's system,
  • ftp://mvb.saic.com/
• David Jones's DECthreads-based HTTP_SERVER World-Wide Web server for OpenVMS, often known as the OSU webserver:
  • http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html
• Secure Shell (SSH) support for OpenVMS is available. Use of SSH V2 with current updates is recommended, as the security of older SSH releases have been compromised. Server for OpenVMS:
  • Secure Shell (SSH) Server for OpenVMS:
    • http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/~JONESD/ssh/DOC/
    
    Secure Shell (SSH) FISH Client for OpenVMS:
    • http://www.free.lp.se/fish/
    
    SSH V2 support is included with TCP/IP Services V5.4 and later, and support is likely also available within available third-party IP stacks.
    For information on the SSH key file configuration, see topic 151.22 and following in the VMS notes conference on the Deathrow Cluster (deathrow.vistech.net and openvms-rocks.com). You can telnet into the host, and an announced anonymous login is/was available; username DEMO, password USER.
  
  Information on OpenSSL (SSLeay) for OpenVMS:
  • http://www.free.lp.se/openssl/
  • http://www.free.lp.se/fish/
  
  Information on OpenSSL (SSLeay) and OSU Web server interoperation:
  • http://www.ourservers.net/openvms_ports/
  
  OpenSSL is included with OpenVMS V7.3-1 and later.
• DECwindows Motif V1.2-3 includes NCSA Mosaic 2.4 built for TCP/IP Services (UCX). V1.2-4 includes Spyglass Enhanced Mosaic, which supports many of the Netscape enhancements. Versions of the Netscape Navigator and particularly the Mozilla Web Browser are also available for OpenVMS. The Compaq Secure Web Browser (CSWB) kit is a packaged version of the Mozilla.org Mozilla Web Browser.
• A port of the NCSA Mosaic web browser that supports TCP/IP Services, Multinet and SOCKETSHR/NETLIB is available from:
  • ftp://wvnvms.wvnet.edu/mosaic/
  
  Versions of the Mosaic web browser are also available on the Freeware.
• Lynx (a character-cell World-Wide-Web web browser) is available from
  • ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/lynx
  
  Versions of Lynx, a character-cell web browser, are also available on the OpenVMS Freeware.
• The Netscape Navigator and Mozilla web browsers are available at:
  • http://www.openvms.compaq.com/ebusiness/Technology.html
  • http://www.mozilla.org/
• PGP (Phil Zimmerman's "Pretty Good Privacy") is available from various distribution sites, including those listed in the PGP FAQ. Information on PGP and on OpenVMS downloads of PGP is available. Relevant URLs include:
  • http://www.ipgpp.org/
  • http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html
  • http://www.pgpi.com/
  • http://www.yrl.co.uk/~phil/pds/pds.html
  • http://www.nai.com/
• GNU Privacy Guard (GPG, GnuPG) is available.
  Search the news://comp.os.vms/ newsgroup archives for information regarding GnuPG; the source code, binaries for various platforms, and documentation are all available at:
  • http://www.gnupg.org/
  
  The OpenVMS source code and OpenVMS Alpha images can be found at:
  • http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/pub/SOFTWARE/openvms/
  • ftp://ftp.process.com/vms-freeware/mathog/
  
  As of this writing, the port only runs on OpenVMS Alpha, but an investigation of an OpenVMS VAX port is reportedly under consideration.
• An archive of the CENA DECwindows, X Windows, and VMS software packages can be found at the following sites:
  • http://decwarch.free.fr/
  • ftp://ftp2.cnam.fr/decwindows/
  • ftp://ftp.ctrl-c.liu.se/decwindows/
  • ftp://ftp.vms.stacken.kth.se/mirrors/decwindows/
  • http://www.multimania.com/pmoreau/decw/
  
  Other FTP mirror sites for the DECwindows archive include:
  • axp.psl.ku.dk (Multinet)
  • ftp2.cnam.fr (MadGoat)
  
  ftp.x.org (in /contrib/vms) is effectively not a mirror, but it does have various OpenVMS packages from the DECwindows archive.
  A list of the http mirror sites for the DECwindows archive is available at:
  • http://axp616.gsi.de:8080/wwwar/cena/decwindows/cena.html
  
  Various of these packages are also available on the Freeware.
• ImageMagick is an X11 package for display and interactive manipulation of images. The package includes tools for image conversion, annotation, compositing, animation, and creating montages. ImageMagick can read and write many of the more popular image formats (e.g. JPEG, TIFF, PNM, XPM, Photo CD, etc.).
  • http://www.imagemagick.org/
  
  Versions of ImageMagick are also included on the Freeware.
• XV is a image viewing and editing tool and is available from:
  • ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/xv
  • http://www.sanface.com/
  • ftp://www-pi.physics.uiowa.edu/~dyson/xv/
• Many software packages are available for displaying various bitmap files (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, etc) on OpenVMS. Xloadimage, Xli, Xv, ImageMagick are the most common tools used under OpenVMS. Various web browsers such as Mozilla (qv) can also display various file formats on OpenVMS. You can find some of these tools at the DECwindows Archive:
  • http://www.multimania.com/pmoreau/decw/index.html
  • http://www.multimania.com/pmoreau/decw/images.html
• GHOSTSCRIPT (gs) and GHOSTVIEW (gv) are available from the Freeware V5.0 and Freeware V6.0 distributions:
  • http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
  
  Versions are also available on the Freeware.
  Also see:
  • http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gnu/
• XPDF, a DECwindows viewer for PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files, is available from:
  • http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/
  
  Software and installation kits for XPDF are also available on the Freeware.
  Beware: the XPDF tool included on OpenVMS Freeware V4.0 is dated, and has been found to have various bugs. Use the Freeware V5.0 version of the XPDF kit, or (better) later.
  A Java-based PDF viewer is available from Adobe, and is known to operate on recent OpenVMS Alpha releases:
  • http://www.adobe.com/
• Various OpenVMS-related tools---both freeware and shareware---such as txt2pdf---are available from at:
  • http://www.sanface.com/
• The MPEG library version 1.1 is available for OpenVMS VAX and Alpha at
  • ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/vms/mpeglib-11-vms.readme
  • ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/vms/mpeglib-11-vms.zip
  
  Various MPEG players and related tools are available on the Freeware.
• An Archie clone is available at INFO.CS.PUB.RO. Telnet to that machine, and login as VMSARCI. It contains now listings for over 30 ftp servers with over 14 gigabytes of OpenVMS software.
  The most useful commands are LIST, which generates a list of scanned ftp servers, and FIND string, whichs looks for a file containing "string" in the name; the search modes are only "substring" [default] and "exact", and regex search is not supported (so FIND EMACS will work, but FIND *EMACS* or FIND *EMACS*.* will not). The search is case-insensitive.
  The maintainer of the site (stfp@roipb.cs.ipb.ro) requests that anyone submit notifications of FTP servers with OpenvMS software that are not listed on the site.
• The Levitte (extended :-) Family (and OpenVMS) website:
  • http://www.levitte.org/
  • http://www.levitte.org/~ava/
• Robert Alan Byer's OpenVMS Hobbyist Systems, including OpenVMS public domain software and various ports:
  • http://www.ourservers.net/
• CalTech Software Archives:
  • http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/pub/software/openvms/aaa_contents.txt
• DJE Systems Website (David J. Dachtera)
  • http://www.djesys.com/freeware/vms/
• Web Servers:
  Apache Web server (HP Secure Web Server (SWS, formerly CSWS)):
  • http://www.openvms.compaq.com/ebusiness/Technology.html
  • http://www.er6.eng.ohio-state.edu/~jonesd/apache/1_3_9/
  
  The SOAP Toolkit is available at the OpenVMS website.
  OSU Web server
  • http://www.er6.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html
  • http://www.kjsl.com/archives/
  • email list: VMS-WEB-daemon-Request@KJSL.COM
  
  WASD Web server
  • http://wasd.vsm.com.au/wasd/
  
  Purveyor Web server:
  • email list: listserv@cjis.ci.lincoln.ne.us, no subject, one line message: SUBSCRIBE PURVEYOR
  
  FastCGI software is available from:
  • http://www.DigitalSynergyInc.com/
• CD-R (CD-Recordable) media tools are available, please see Section 9.7.
• Grace (WYSIWYG 2D plotting tool)
  • http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/
• The POV-Ray ("Persistance of Vision" Raytracer) ray-tracing graphics package is available on the OpenVMS Freeware.
• Majordomo mailing list handler:
  • http://www.openvms.compaq.com/ebusiness/Technology.html
• PINE (OpenVMS tools for sending and receiving MIME mail):
  • ftp://ftp2.kcl.ac.uk/pub/vms/pine-vms/
  • http://www.agh.cc.kcl.ac.uk/files/vms/pine-vms/
  
  A MIME tool is available in OpenVMS V7.2 and later.
  Also see the mmencode base64 encode and decode available at:
  • http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/htbin/software_list.cgi
• Menufinder (menu-driven system management environment):
  • http://www.itre.com/mf/download.html
• SYSLOGCLIENT (a client for processing SYSLOG requests) has been provided for download by Mark Hemker at:
  • http://home.insightbb.com/~hemker/vms.html
• tcgmsg, pvm, mpi, linda:
  • ftp://v36.chemie.uni-konstanz.de/tcgmsg_vms/tcgmsg_vms.zip
• OpenVMS software that can control a Tripp-Lite Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) is available from:
  • http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/pub/software/openvms/tcontrol.zip
  
  UPShot web-based software for controlling a UPS is available from:
  • http://www.tmesis.com/apc/beta.htmlx
  
  OpenVMS software for controlling Liebert UPS devices are available from the Liebert website:
  • http://www.liebert.com/apc/beta.htmlx
• Examples of using the OpenVMS Foreign MAIL interface are available at:
  • http://www.hhs.dk/anonymous/pub/vms/collection/foreignmail.zip
  • http://www.hhs.dk/anonymous/pub/vms/nbl/nbl.zip
• For tools to manage or to search your OpenVMS MAIL file, see:
  • http://vms.process.com/scripts/fileserv/fileserv.com?MLSEARCH
• AscToHTM attempts to convert any plain text file to HTML, while AscToTab restricts itself to files that are plain text tables. (Versions are also availabe on the OpenVMS Freeware).
  • http://www.jafsoft.com/asctohtm/index.html
  • http://www.jafsoft.com/asctotab/index.html
• Information on the SAMBA package, a package that provides SMB-based Microsoft Windows PC disk and print services for OpenVMS, is available at:
  • http://ifn03.ifn.ing.tu-bs.de/ifn/sonst/samba-vms.html
  • http://www.samba.org/
  • http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
  
  To subscribe to the SAMBA-VMS mailing list e-mail listproc@samba.org with no subject line and the following single line of text:

  subscribe samba-vms Your Full Name

  
  Also see:
  • http://lists.samba.org/
• The Perl language is available for OpenVMS, see Section 13.9 for details.
• XML is available for OpenVMS.
  Source code of an XML Parser is available from Oracle.
  Also see:
  • http://www.python.org/sigs/xml-sig/
  
  An XML parser is available as part of OpenVMS V7.3 and later.
• Python kit, and resource, and documentation sites include:
  • http://www.pi-net.dyndns.org/anonymous/kits/
  • http://vmspython.dyndns.org/
  • http://www.python.org/
• GTK+ (The GIMP GUI Tookit) for OpenVMS:
  • http://www.openvms.compaq.com/ebusiness/Technology.html
• The OpenVMS Porting Library now available, and is intended to permit easier porting of C and C++ applications from UNIX systems to OpenVMS:
  • http://www.openvms.compaq.com/ebusiness/Technology.html
  
  GTK is also available.
• Mlucas (specialized FFT):
  • ftp://hogranch.com/pub/mayer/README.html
• Tools to monitor the terminals and the activity of other OpenVMS users (in addition to existing auditing capabilities in OpenVMS) are available. Peek and Spy (Networking Dynamics) and Contrl (Raxco) are two of the commercial packages, while the freeware Supervisor package is available on OpenVMS VAX.
  • http://www.networkingdynamics.com/
  • http://www.raxco.com/
• Python for OpenVMS:
  • http://www.python.org/
  
  Also see the OpenVMS Freeware.
• Various packages for OpenVMS:
  • http://richj.home.mindspring.com/richware/index.html
  • http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_vax_vms.html
• TSM (Terminal Server Manager) is available via:
  • http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/digital_networks_archive/servers/tsm/index.html
  • Look at Freeware V5.0 at http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
  • Beware: The TSM saveset shipped on the Freeware V5.0 disk media is known to be corrupted. Download a new copy of the saveset from the Freeware V5.0 FTP server or from the Freeware V5.0 website.
• TCL for OpenVMS:
  • ftp://sapodilla.rsmas.miami.edu/pub/VMS-tcl/
• make, gmake, mmk and other build tools are available on the Freeware.
• An OpenVMS port of the ht://Dig web search engine is available at:
  • ftp://ftp.pdv-systeme.de/vms/
• A mySQL database client is available at:
  • http://mysql.holywar.net/Downloads/MySQL-3.22/mysql-3.22.25-clients-vms.zip
  • http://mysql.holywar.net/Downloads/MySQL-3.22/mysql-3.22.25-clients-vms.readme
  
  For additional information related to the mySQL port, please search the news://comp.os.vms/ newsgroup archives. A MySQL port is also available on the OpenVMS Freeware.
  • http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/
• If you need to change the file modification date and are looking for a utility such as the UNIX touch tool, look at DFU on the OpenVMS Freeware (DFU SET or simular), or use an existing DCL commands such as:

  $ SET FILE/PROTECT=(current_protection_mask) [...]*.*

• A table listing translations between UNIX shell and OpenVMS DCL commands was posted to news://comp.os.vms/ by Christopher Smith some time ago. This page should be available from the google newsgroup archives.
  For information on and the status of the OpenOffice port for OpenVMS, please see:
  • http://www.oooovms.dyndns.org
• The UNIX touch tool is available via various means:

  $ RENAME filename.ext;version *

  • http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/helplib/@hvmsapps/TOUCH
  
  MadGoat FILE tool (see the MadGoat archives)
• use /REVISION_DATE or /CREATION_DATE
• The DFU tool (see the OpenVMS Freeware)
• The pair:

  $ set file 'p1' /acl=(ident=[system],access=none) $ set file 'p1' /acl=(ident=[system],access=none) /delete

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