🚀 go-pugleaf

The Supervisor Series v5.4a has just been released.  The Supervisor
Series consists of SUPERVISOR (watch another user's terminal and enter
input on their behalf) and PHOTO (record terminal sessions to a log
file).  Access to the SUPERVISOR functions is controlled through the
use of identifiers.

This version of PHOTO includes fixes to prevent crashes and also makes
PHOTO compatible with VMS POSIX (finally).  There are a number of new
features that I hadn't intended to add, but....  The update from the
release notes is included below my signature.  PLEASE READ THE RELEASE
NOTES BEFORE INSTALLING THE SUPERVISOR SERIES!!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Supervisor Series is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.spc.edu
([192.107.46.27]).  You'll need the following files:

        [.MACRO32]UNZIP.EXE
        [.MACRO32.SAVESETS]SUPERVISOR.ZIP

To get the Supervisor Series via e-mail, send the following commands
in the body of a message to FILESERV@WKUVX1.BITNET:

SEND SUPERVISOR
SEND FILESERV_TOOLS

UnZip v5.0 for VMS is needed to unzip the savesets.  It's included in
FILESERV_TOOLS.

The Supervisor Series is installed with VMSINSTAL and includes
documentation in ASCII text, Bookreader, and PostScript formats.
There is a mailing list to discuss Supervisor Series problems and
usage.  To subscribe, send the following command in the body of a
mail message to LISTSERV@WKUVX1.BITNET (note, that's LISTSERV):

SUBSCRIBE SUPSER-L "Your real name"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your comments are welcomed.

Hunter
------
Hunter Goatley, VMS Systems Programmer, Western Kentucky University
goathunter@WKUVX1.BITNET, 502-745-5251

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          The following new features were added in the
          Supervisor Series V5.4:

          1  A new qualifier, /BROADCAST, was added to
             SUPERVISOR. This qualifier causes SUPERVISOR
             to trap all broadcast messages received by the
             supervising terminal. All such messages are written
             to a file, whose name can be specified as a value
             to /BROADCAST. By default, /BROADCAST is enabled;
             /NOBROADCAST must be specified to prevent the
             trapping of broadcast messages. Note that the
             message file is only created if messages are
             actually received during the session.

          2  SUPERVISOR was modified to check the page size of
             the target terminal and print a warning to the
             supervising user if the size differs from the
             page size of the supervising terminal. If the
             supervising terminal is smaller than the target
             terminal, many screen-oriented applications will
             not be displayed properly on the supervising
             terminal.

          3  The modules that comprise SUPERVISOR and PHOTO
             must be linked in a particular order to produce
             the correct executable images. While both perform a
             check to ensure the image was linked properly, the
             SUPERVISOR check was made after some initialization
             had occurred, causing the system to crash if
             the image was improperly linked. SUPERVISOR and
             PHOTO now check for this occurrence before any
             initialization takes place. This problem only
             occurred if the Supervisor Series images were
             rebuilt without using the MMS file.

          4  The HANDIN utility has been added to the Supervisor
             Series. HANDIN creates a log file in a protected
             directory and, upon HANDIN/OFF, automatically
             queues the log file to a designated printer
             (SYS$PRINT, by default). HANDIN was designed with
             the academic environment in mind: students can run
             HANDIN to produce printouts of terminal sessions.
             Because the file is created in a protected
             directory, the student is unable to edit the log
             file, ensuring that the printout is an unmodified
             record of the terminal session.

             HANDIN is described in more detail in Chapter 3.
             With this release, HANDIN is not yet an
             ``official'' Supervisor Series module, because
             it doesn't have enough features to be considered
             ``finished.''

          5  PHOTO is now compatible with VMS POSIX. Previous
             versions of PHOTO would report an ``internal
             consistency failure'' if POSIX was started on the
             system.

          6  In previous versions of PHOTO, pressing <Ctrl-Y>
             during PHOTO and PHOTO/OFF could crash the system.
             This problem has been corrected.

          7  PHOTO and HANDIN now check that all necessary
             privileges are enabled before executing any
             privileged routines. This eliminates potential
             problems with privilege-related errors occurring
             during initialization.

          8  A new qualifier, /ABORT, was added to PHOTO.
             PHOTO/ABORT terminates the PHOTO session and
             automatically deletes the log file.

          9  PHOTO now includes error and informational
             messages that reflect input-only recording where
             appropriate. Previously, the messages did not
             indicate the type of recording. This change affects
             the messages produced by PHOTO/INPUT, PHOTO/OFF,
             and PHOTO/STATISTICS.

          10 PHOTO now provides a default filename of
             SYS$DISK:[]PHOTO.LOG.  Previous versions of PHOTO
             did not supply any filename defaults.

          11 PLAYBACK was modified so that /STRIP removes rubout
             sequences (character, backspace, space, backspace)
             in addition to null characters.

          12 PLAYBACK was modified so that /STRIP and
             /TYPE=RECORD are the default settings, since
             PLAYBACK is most often used to convert binary log
             files to normal RMS text files.

          13 Miscellaneous clean-up changes were made to all
             of the utilities to increase reliability and
             efficiency.

[End of announcement]