1. Forum
  2. USENET
  3. comp.os.vms

  • Uses For MCR

    From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.os.vms on Fri Sep 5 02:02:09 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.os.vms

    Everybody seems to use rCLMCR -2x-+rCY as a shorthand for rCLRUN SYS$SYSTEM:-2x-+rCY. (Oh, and I think it allows passing command-line
    arguments as well.) Does anybody use any of the other capabilities of
    MCR? Does anybody even *know* what they are?
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=C3=B8j?=@arne@vajhoej.dk to comp.os.vms on Fri Sep 5 08:32:40 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.os.vms

    On 9/4/2025 10:02 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:
    Everybody seems to use rCLMCR -2x-+rCY as a shorthand for rCLRUN SYS$SYSTEM:-2x-+rCY. (Oh, and I think it allows passing command-line arguments as well.) Does anybody use any of the other capabilities of
    MCR? Does anybody even *know* what they are?

    Most people just use it to avoid defining a symbol
    for foreign command.

    (no need to use it if RUN will work)

    Can it do anything interesting besides that?

    Arne

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Stephen Hoffman@seaohveh@hoffmanlabs.invalid to comp.os.vms on Sun Sep 21 17:34:45 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.os.vms

    On 2025-09-05 02:02:09 +0000, Lawrence D-|Oliveiro said:

    Everybody seems to use rCLMCR -2x-+rCY as a shorthand for rCLRUN SYS$SYSTEM:-2x-+rCY. (Oh, and I think it allows passing command-line arguments as well.) Does anybody use any of the other capabilities of
    MCR? Does anybody even *know* what they are?

    MCR was the path from VAX-11 native into PDP-11/RSX-11 compatibility
    mode rCo the integrated support was removed at VAX/VMS V4 and moved into
    a compatibility mode layered product rCo and the command incidentally
    also happened to correctly handle activating native images.

    There was a debate a quarter-century ago about either documenting what
    that MCR command can do, or undocumenting the MCR command, and the
    latter (mostly) won and (most of) the documentation for MCR was
    expunged.

    Given VAX-11 (as differentiated from VAX) is long gone, and given VAX
    is itself gone, MCR isn't all that useful or capable. Not past its
    continued ability to also run native images from SYS$SYSTEM.

    The replacement for MCR is automatic foreign commands, using the
    DCL$PATH logical name.
    --
    Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2