MULTICS SOFTWARE RELEASE BULLETIN RELEASE MR12.4 PREPARED BY: MULTICS SUPPORT December 01, 1990 Copyright, (C) Bull H N, 1989 TRADEMARKS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Megacalc is a registered trademark of The Mega Group, Inc. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Tektronix is a trademark of Tektronix, Inc. DEC and VT100 are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. VersaTerm is a trademark applied for by Lonnie R. Abelbeck. IBM is a registered trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation. VisiCalc is a registered trademark of Visicorp, Inc. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION Multics Release 12.4 (MR12.4) is a complete release and assumes the prior installation of MR12.3. That is, the library tapes are self-supporting and do not require any other information to run Multics. This document includes descriptions of features included in Multics Release MR12.4. A separate document, Software Installation Bulletin (SIB), is supplied with the release tapes. The SIB describes the contents of the release tapes and includes procedures for installation of MR12.4. Additional documentation, including a list of bugs fixed in MR12.4, is provided with the release tapes, either as printable segments on the tape (in a special directory >doc>MR12.4), or as paper copy. Following is a summary of the remaining of sections in this document. Section 2 summarizes important highlights Section 3 describes significant software changes Section 4 describes incompatible changes Appendix A contains a partial list of new commands, active functions, and subroutines DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED 1-1 07/25/90 SRB12.4 Appendix B contains a list of Priced Software Products. These items are available only through contractual actions with a Bull H N sales representative Appendix C describes the associated documentation DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED 1-2 07/25/90 SRB12.4 SECTION 2 HIGHLIGHTS OF MR12.4 This section contains a brief summary of the most important items in this release. Refer to Section 3 for a more detailed description. A brief description of known bugs fixed in this release is available in the segment >doc>MR12.4>TRs_fixed_in_MR12.4. _S_O_F_T_W_A_R_E _C_H_A_N_G_E _P_R_O_P_O_S_A_L_S ox There were no Software Change Proposals (SCP) submitted for release MR12.4. DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED 2-1 07/25/90 SRB12.4 Exec_com has been modified to accept the literal &CR. Next one here. Netx one + 1 here. Another here. 1. Modified the display format for display_volume_log to print at 79 characters per line. Also the ability to display the disk label of the volume presented in the volog is added through the -label, -no_label and -all control arguments. 2. Modified display format of display_pvolog to print in columnized output of 79 characters per line. 3. Changed the set_volume_log command to allow the setting of the number of consolidated and inceremental reload groups through the -incr_sets and -cons_sets control arguments. 4. Enhanced the purging mechanism to provide better control over reload groups. 5. Removed the -incr_skip_count argument for the volume dumper commands. The new -purge_volume_log (-pvl) control argument is now used instead. Please use the set_volume_log command to establish the correct reload groups for your site. Please type: "help set_volume_log" for details. Pascal's round operator now correctly rounds real numbers of the form -x.5 to the value -(x+1).0, rather than -x.0 as was done before. C mods here. C mods here. PL1 mods here. Pl1 mods here. Pl1 mods here if needed. Emacs mods here. Emacs mods here if needed. MOWSE mods here if needed. If needed. If needed. If needed. qx or ted things here if needed. DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED 2-2 07/25/90 SRB12.4 SECTION 4 INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES Modified canonicalize_ to no longer arbitrairily terminate whatever it's input pointer is pointing at. The -incr_skip_count argument for the volume dumper commands has been removed. The new -purge_volume_log (-pvl) is now used instead. DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED 4-0 07/25/90 SRB12.4 APPENDIX A COMMANDS AND SUBROUTINES This is a partial listing of new commands for MR12.4. There are no new subroutines for MR12.4. A brief description of the command functionality is included. Refer to info segments or the appropriate manuals for more information. _N_E_W _C_O_M_M_A_N_D_S There are no new commands or subroutines for MR12.4. DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED A-1 07/25/90 SRB12.4 APPENDIX C DOCUMENTATION CHANGES _C_U_R_R_E_N_T _M_U_L_T_I_C_S _D_O_C_U_M_E_N_T_A_T_I_O_N _S_T_A_T_U_S A complete list of manuals (including current availability status) is provided in >doc>info>manuals.info. Subsequent to this release a SiteSA may obtain an updated list of available manuals at >doc>info>manuals.info on System M. _1_2_._1 _D_o_c_u_m_e_n_t_a_t_i_o_n There are no new or updated publications to support MR12.4. Updates to manuals are provided by errata info files found in >doc>info. Shown below are the errata, with add name, which have been created for MR12.4. errata.ak50.info Sys_Admin_Procedures_manual.info errata.am81.info Sys_Maintenance_Proc_manual.info errata.am82.info Basic_manual.info errata.at58.info Fortran_manual.info errata.az49.info LINUS.info errata.cj52.info EMACS_Ext_Writers_Guide.info errata.gb58.info Common_Commands_manual.info DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED C-1 07/25/90 SRB12.4 For the convenience of new user sites, a complete list of Multics manuals, is provided below. For information about how to order manuals, type "help order_manuals," on your system. AG90 Introduction to Programming on Multics AG91 Multics Programmer's Reference Manual AG92 Multics Commands and Active Functions AG93 Multics Subroutines and Input/Output Modules AG94 Multics PL/I Language Specification AK50 Multics System Administration Procedures AK51 Multics Project Administrator's Guide AK95 Multics APL User's Guide AL39 Multics Processor Manual AM81 Multics System Maintenance Procedures AM82 Multics BASIC AM83 Multics PL/I Reference Manual AN05 Multics GCOS Environment Simulator AN50 Guide to Multics Manuals AS40 Multics Graphics System AS43 Multics COBOL User's Guide AS44 Multics COBOL Reference Manual AT58 Multics FORTRAN Manual AT59 Multics DFAST Subsystem User's Guide AU25 Multics FAST Subsystem Reference Guide AU77 Multics Online Test and Diagnostics Reference Manual AW17 Multics Commands and Active Functions Quick Reference Guide AW32 Multics SORT/MERGE AW53 Multics Relational Data Store Reference Manual AZ49 Multics Logical Inquiry and Update System Reference Manual AZ98 Multics WORDPRO Reference Manual CC69 Multics Report Program Generator Reference Manual CC70 Multics FORTRAN User's Guide CC75 Multics Communications Administration CG40 Multics qedx Text Editor User's Guide CH23 Multics Extended Mail System User's Guide CH24 New User's Introduction to Multics--Part I CH25 New User's Introduction to Multics--Part II CH26 Multics Error Messages: Primer and Reference Manual CH27 Emacs Text Editor User's Guide CJ52 Multics Emacs Extension Writer's Guide CJ97 Multics Page Processing System Utility Manual CP31 Level 68 Introduction to Emacs Text Editor CP50 Multics Text Editor (Ted) Reference Manual CP51 Multics Menu Creation Facilities CX20 Fundamentals of Multics Executive Mail CX72 Executive Mail Editing Operations (Reference Card) CY73 Inter-Multics File Transfer Facility Reference Guide CY74 Multics Forum Interactive Meeting System User's Guide DJ18 Guide to Multics WORDPRO for New Users DU06 Fundamentals of Multics Forum Interactive Meeting System DW19 Multics MegaCalc User's Guide DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED C-2 07/25/90 SRB12.4 DX71 Fundamentals of Multics Executive Forum GB58 Multics Common Commands GB59 DPS 6/Multics Satellite 6M Reference Manual GB60 Multics HASP Service and Utility Manual GB61 Operator's Guide to Multics GB62 Multics Pascal User's Guide GB63 Multics Report Writer Reference Manual GB64 Multics Administration, Maintenance, and Operations Cmds GB65 Mulitics/Personal Computer File Transmission Facilities GB66 Multics On-Line Work Station End User's Guide GL71 Multics Simplified Computing and Filing Facility GN08 Multics Emacs Reference Card HH07 Multics C Compiler User's Guide DRAFT: MAY BE CHANGED C-3 07/25/90 SRB12.4 ----------------------------------------------------------- Historical Background This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. as a contribution to computer science knowledge. This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970), renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems incorporated Multics principles. Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. . ----------------------------------------------------------- Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission. Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc. Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS All Rights Reserved