[HECnet] Reducing the ERROR.SYS file size

[Thomas DeBellis]

The octal code for the DECnet Frame Too Long error is _240_.  In order 
to free up some PS: space on my systems, I split off all these off into 
a separate binary file on another structure.  On VENTI2::, ERROR.SYS 
went from 96,967 pages to 45,847 pages.  The separate binary file 
containing only the 240's is 51,120 pages long, so more than half the 
space were these errors.

TOMMYT:: was a similar story: there, the ERROR.SYS file was a whopping 
137,970 pages long.  With the 240 items split off, it went down to 9,614 
pages, while the (binary) extracted items were 129,410 pages long.  It's 
hard to understand what files of these sizes mean; at nearly two RP06's, 
this single file approaching ⅔ of the total storage that was allocated 
to ⅓ of Columbia's 25,000 undergraduate student body.

The size of my ERROR.SYS files is due to two factors:

 1. It's every error since I started running Tops-20 again in late 2001
 2. I have a lot of errors due to DECnet nodes coming on and off line

The 2^nd item is triggered because of a nightly batch job (VIKING) that 
updates my development changes on VENTI2 to another structure on TOMMYT, 
in case I blow VENTI2 up.  The KLH10 NI can pump out an amazing amount 
of data, but chokes when it is receiving; I've never really understood 
why (not that I've carefully looked).  If you want to get data into the 
machines, then you either have to use a magnetic tape or Kermit.

Anyway, this plus, quarterly backups, is how I address losing files by 
mistake.  You ARE all doing backups, right?

Meanwhile, it seems to me that, for the time being, I really don't care 
about the node-online/offline events.  Unfortunately, there does not 
appear to be any way to shut them off.  I'm thinking putting together 
some kind of monthly batch job to strip these out.  Again, any Tops-10 
or Tops-20 machine is going to see /huge/ error logs because of what's 
happening.

Isn't anybody else noticing anything?



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