[HECnet] Disallow login on DZ line in VMS

[Johnny Billquist]

That /NOTYPE_AHEAD would disable logins in VMS is a bit surprising.
In my eyes, that's very unintuitive. /NOINTERACTIVE seems much more 
sensible (yay for RSTS/E).

Sounds like VMS also have /NOINTERACTIVE...?

In RSX, /NOTYPE_AHEAD just means you don't have any typeahead. If you 
try typing something when nothing is reading, the characters are just 
thrown away. But if a read is in progress, things works just as normal.

But since RSX is a bit weird compared to most other OSes, in order to 
not be able to log in, you put the terminal line to slave mode. But 
you're not getting a login prompt anyway, unless you ask for it. You 
just get a CLI prompt when logged out, and can give any command you 
want. LOGIN is just one of them. (Most others are usually not allowed 
when logged out, but that's another story.)

Didn't RSTS/E also use to be able to give commands when logged out, and 
not just be thrown the login prompt? When did that disappear, and why?

   Johnny

On 2021-12-20 22:50, Paul Koning wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Dec 20, 2021, at 3:54 PM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
>>
>> The recent thread "Disallow system from dz lines (OpenVMS/VAX 7.3)" started me wondering how to entirely disable the login prompts on a given serial line, such as to use the port for some other purpose like controlling external hardware. I've been trying to find out how to do that in the manuals, but I haven't found it yet. It seems like it might be something to do with SET TERM, but I don't see obvious flags for that. Can anybody offer any hints? I won't be too surprised if my eyes have already glided over the answer in the manuals and HELP SET TERM text.
> 
> I don't know the VMS answer but I can give the RSTS answer: in V9 (I think) and later, set terminal/nointeractive" means the terminal can only be used as an application I/O device or DECnet line, not as a login terminal.  The feature was introduced to avoid starting the login program on the line in case random characters happened to appear -- that would make the line "in use" and prevent its use by, say, a printer spooler.
> 
> 	paul
> 
> 

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
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