I would just like to say that I wish whoever decided that a backup saveset's summary information data should be compressed when the backup was performed with compression enabled... well... wish they had left the summary block info alone.

Going to have to use a backup/list pipe and search for the date and blocksize lines.

Is there a quick and easy way to just read the first block or two and decompress it? The backup lists take a lot longer to run that just plucking the data data out of the summary and converting it

On Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 4:35:15 PM UTC-4, Rich Jordan wrote:
> I would just like to say that I wish whoever decided that a backup saveset's summary information data should be compressed when the backup was performed with compression enabled... well... wish they had left the summary block info alone.
>
> Going to have to use a backup/list pipe and search for the date and blocksize lines.
>
> Is there a quick and easy way to just read the first block or two and decompress it? The backup lists take a lot longer to run that just plucking the data data out of the summary and converting it
I haven't tried this, but the docs suggest that this should work...

Try BACKUP/LIST x.sav/sav nl:/confirm

This should list what you are looking for and prompt for what to do with the first file waiting for a response. Ctrl-Y out of it at that point.

Dan

On Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 4:48:27 PM UTC-4, abrsvc wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 4:35:15 PM UTC-4, Rich Jordan wrote:
> > I would just like to say that I wish whoever decided that a backup saveset's summary information data should be compressed when the backup was performed with compression enabled... well... wish they had left the summary block info alone.
> >
> > Going to have to use a backup/list pipe and search for the date and blocksize lines.
> >
> > Is there a quick and easy way to just read the first block or two and decompress it? The backup lists take a lot longer to run that just plucking the data data out of the summary and converting it
> I haven't tried this, but the docs suggest that this should work...
>
> Try BACKUP/LIST x.sav/sav nl:/confirm
>
> This should list what you are looking for and prompt for what to do with the first file waiting for a response. Ctrl-Y out of it at that point.
>
> Dan
Just tried this and if you replace the nl: with a valid directory, you will get the header from the /list and a confirmation request beforethe first file is processed.

NLA0: is not a valid output spec for backup.

Dan

On 13/07/2022 21:55, abrsvc wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 4:48:27 PM UTC-4, abrsvc wrote:
>> On Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 4:35:15 PM UTC-4, Rich Jordan wrote:
>>> I would just like to say that I wish whoever decided that a backup saveset's summary information data should be compressed when the backup was performed with compression enabled... well... wish they had left the summary block info alone.
>>>
>>> Going to have to use a backup/list pipe and search for the date and blocksize lines.
>>>
>>> Is there a quick and easy way to just read the first block or two and decompress it? The backup lists take a lot longer to run that just plucking the data data out of the summary and converting it
>> I haven't tried this, but the docs suggest that this should work...
>>
>> Try BACKUP/LIST x.sav/sav nl:/confirm
>>
>> This should list what you are looking for and prompt for what to do with the first file waiting for a response. Ctrl-Y out of it at that point.
>>
>> Dan
> Just tried this and if you replace the nl: with a valid directory, you will get the header from the /list and a confirmation request beforethe first file is processed.
>
> NLA0: is not a valid output spec for backup.
>
> Dan

I think NLA0: was OK in certain circumstances. Under VMS 6 we used the
following to delete the contents of large directories:

$ backup/delete/nolog/ignore=nobackup 'P1':*.*;* /excl=.dir nla0:x.x/save

Not needed later on I64

--
Chris

In article <taoflk$2l9tb$1@dont-email.me>, Chris Townley
<news@cct-net.co.uk> writes:

> I think NLA0: was OK in certain circumstances. Under VMS 6 we used the
> following to delete the contents of large directories:
>
> $ backup/delete/nolog/ignore=nobackup 'P1':*.*;* /excl=.dir nla0:x.x/save

It's OK if it includes a file spec as well.

On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 3:55:14 AM UTC-5, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <taoflk$2l9tb$1...@dont-email.me>, Chris Townley
> <ne...@cct-net.co.uk> writes:
>
> > I think NLA0: was OK in certain circumstances. Under VMS 6 we used the
> > following to delete the contents of large directories:
> >
> > $ backup/delete/nolog/ignore=nobackup 'P1':*.*;* /excl=.dir nla0:x.x/save
> It's OK if it includes a file spec as well.

Found an ugly but efficient and workable workaround for pulling the info from a compressed saveset using a pipe. I know a backup command qualifier to display just the summary of a backup saveset has been asked about for decades so not expecting any improvements (and the system I'm working on is still HP VMS for a few more months at least).

On 7/14/22 18:51, Rich Jordan wrote:
> On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 3:55:14 AM UTC-5, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>> In article <taoflk$2l9tb$1...@dont-email.me>, Chris Townley
>> <ne...@cct-net.co.uk> writes:
>>
>>> I think NLA0: was OK in certain circumstances. Under VMS 6 we used the
>>> following to delete the contents of large directories:
>>>
>>> $ backup/delete/nolog/ignore=nobackup 'P1':*.*;* /excl=.dir nla0:x.x/save
>> It's OK if it includes a file spec as well.
>
>
> Found an ugly but efficient and workable workaround for pulling the info from a compressed saveset using a pipe. I know a backup command qualifier to display just the summary of a backup saveset has been asked about for decades so not expecting any improvements (and the system I'm working on is still HP VMS for a few more months at least).

For uncompressed and unencrypted backups, you may want to have a look at
http://vms2linux.de/bcksum.html. Not perfect but maybe useful. Yes, it's
more than 7 years old and not tested on recent VMS, Windows or Linux
versions. Bug reports are welcome, including requests for newer
versions, platforms.