VSI VMS/XDE V2026.09

Significant performance improvements across the board (work items 1584, 2486, 2491, 2518, 2551, 2553, 2571, and 2565).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports unattended installation and several other new installation options (work item 2574). For more information, refer to the VSI VMS⁠/⁠XDE Installation and Configuration Guide.

VMS⁠/⁠XDE is now shipped with xdecli – a tool that allows you to run OpenVMS commands from the Linux command prompt (work item 2545). For more information, refer to the VSI VMS⁠/⁠XDE Installation and Configuration Guide.

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports the SCTP protocol (work item 2522).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports OPCOM operations (work item 2550) and is shipped with a template script for OPCOM server startup – SYS$STARTUP:VMS$CONFIG-050_OPCOM.TEMPLATE.

All OpenVMS directories marked with the flag 'R' are now automatically marked with the Linux flag 'X' (access files and folders within the directory) for compatibility reasons (work item 2579).

Fixed the issue where certain filesystem operations returned SS$_BADPARAM instead of SS$_NOPRIV (work item 2579, forum topic https://forum.vmssoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=9792).

The F$LOGICAL lexical function now correctly shows logical names from the GROUP and JOB tables (work item 2611, forum topic https://forum.vmssoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=9800).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports object rights block for global sections (work item 2596).

Fixed several issues that were rendering VMS⁠/⁠XDE unresponsive (work items 2558, 2590, 2593, 2598, and 2602).

Fixed several crashes on sub-process startup (work item 2600).

Invoking the SYS$CRELNT system service from Python no longer causes an ACCVIO (work item 2614).

Utilities that require input (SYSGEN, SDA, etc.) now behave correctly when interrupted via Ctrl/C or Ctrl/Y (work items 2436, 2439, 2442, 2458, 2460, and 2480).

The SDA command CLUE MEMORY/LAYOUT now displays correct output (work item 2430).

Fixed several issues where the Debugger commands STEP and EXAMINE were causing crashes (work items 2449 and 2450).

The SDA command SHOW STACK now behaves as it does on OpenVMS (work item 2461).

Fixed several SYSGEN issues that were causing DECWindows to crash on start-up (work item 2465, forum topic https://forum.vmssoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=9744).

The SYS$FREESPACE.EXE utility now works correctly with all PCSI packages (work item 2469).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now runs correctly in unattended mode (work item 2471).

Fixed several filesystem behavior issues that emerged in particular situations, such as running the GNV command FIND, handling files with very long names, with the percentage sign (%) in the name, or an invalid version number (work items 2475, 2484, 2499, and 2507).

Using GNV Bash when the DECC$POSIX_STYLE_UID logical name is defined no longer causes a crash (work item 2481).

Fixed the C RTL issue that emerged when the socketpair() function was used as stdin/stdout pipeline during a vfork() or exec() call (work item 2464).

The unused logical name OSS$ROOT has been removed (work item 2474).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE compatibility with the Global Disk File Section has been improved; SYS$CRMPSC_GPFILE_64 and SYS$MGBLSC_64 system services are now supported with more options (work item 2453).

Storage emulation directories with invalid names are now ignored by VMS⁠/⁠XDE (work item 2506).

Running an audit server for the first time no longer causes a crash (work item 2459).

Displaying information about an auto-starting job queue no longer causes ACCVIO (work item 2509).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE is now out of the beta testing stage; the current release is the first full release of VMS⁠/⁠XDE.

The list of supported file attributes has been expanded to include "backup date", "expiration date", and "revision number".

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports the SYSGEN utility with a few minor limitations. For more information, refer to VSI VMS/XDE Installation and Configuration Guide.

The SDA command SHOW LOCKS now functions correctly and displays information about existing locks (work item 2360).

The command SHOW PROCESS/CONTINUOUS can now be interrupted via Ctrl/C, like on OpenVMS (work item 2394).

OpenVMS version in VMS⁠/⁠XDE has been updated to V9.2-3 Update V3.

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports the PTHREAD$RTL library.

Error and exception handling in VMS⁠/⁠XDE has been improved to closer resemble that of OpenVMS.

The mechanisms of process startup, image activation, and rundown have been improved to closer resemble those of OpenVMS.

The command MACRO/VERSION no longer returns the unexpected line error (work item 2360).

The command SET TIME used without arguments no longer crashes VMS⁠/⁠XDE (work item 2341).

The behavior of SYS$SETPRI has been fixed (work item 2369).

Improved process creation performance (work item 2364).

MMS no longer crashes when used in conjunction with timers (work item 2366).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE compatibility with OpenVMS filesystem attributes has been improved (work items 2326, 2347, and 2370).

The behavior of the command LIBR/COMPRESS/DATA=REDUCE has been fixed (work item 2379).

The F$CUNITS crash has been fixed (work item 2388).

Issue that was causing the DEBUGER to crash on a big step has been fixed (work item 2365).

SYS$FORCEX now checks the callers privileges (work item 2371).

Several minor stability issues have been fixed.

The trial period for the current demo version of VMS⁠/⁠XDE has been extended until March 31, 2026.

Compatibility with the native OpenVMS timers subsystem has been improved (work item 2120).

Compatibility with the native OpenVMS global sections subsystem has been improved (work item 2057).

Previously, if a subprocess created by the DCL command SPAWN crashed, VMS⁠/⁠XDE would also crash. This issue has been fixed in this release (work item 2295).

The attributes of the file SYSUAF.TEMPLATE are now set correctly after VMS⁠/⁠XDE installation (work item 2297).

Fatal error messages are now reported to the host OS console STDERR stream (work item 2310).

The issue with the delayed DCL output after exiting from the DEBUGGER utility has been fixed (work item 2312).

Previously, if a process with the initialized Common Event Flags subsystem crashed, VMS⁠/⁠XDE would also crash. This issue has been fixed in this release (work item 2319).

A bug that was causing VMS⁠/⁠XDE to crash upon executing the DCL command SET MESSAGE has been fixed (work item 2322).

The previously missing logical name LNM$DT_FORMAT_TABLE has been added (work item 2323).

An issue that was causing the FMS editor to crash upon exiting has been fixed (work item 1316).

An issue with the incorrect reporting of the host OS storage read/write errors has been fixed (work item 2264).

The behavior of DKC volumes has been improved to correctly handle files with no extension (work item 2314). For additional information, refer to Section 3: "Known Issues and Limitations".

Newly created files now inherit the default process protection mode (work item 2289).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports the OpenVMS file security commands (work item 2289).

An OpenVMS file created from an existing host system file now inherits the permissions of the host system file (work item 2298).

An issue with the incorrect counting of AST quotas has been fixed (work item 2327).

Running VMS⁠/⁠XDE using the host OS root account has been disallowed (work item 2296).

A bug that was causing VMS⁠/⁠XDE to crash when running the DCL command MCR SYSMAN IO AUTO has been fixed (work item 2286).

A bug that was causing the access violation exception when invoking the command SHOW DEVICES disk-name/FILES for a disk without opened files has been fixed (work item 2280).

VMS⁠/⁠XDE is now more stable when used on NTFS with WSL2 (work item 2287).

A bug that was causing VMS⁠/⁠XDE to crash when getting attributes of a file for which the user does not have permissions has been fixed (work item 2291).

Incorrect output of the SDA command SHOW SUMMARY has been fixed (work item 2291).

System requirements have been revised and lowered (work item 2281).

The TCP/IP routine GETADDRINFO now returns the correct information for IPv6 addresses (work item 2294).

A system requirements check has been added to the installation procedure (work item 2282). The check validates the following:

Added the missing DKC1 device to the full installation package.

Multithread stability fixes:

Terminal interaction fixes:

Storage devices fix:

The SHOW DEVICE DISK /FULL command now displays the following additional information: storage size, volume size, free space, and file limit.

Memory information fix:

The SHOW MEMORY command now correctly displays the amount of permanently allocated physical memory.

Interprocess communication fix:

Using the Module Management System (MMS) utility or the DCL command PIPE no longer causes VMS⁠/⁠XDE to hang.

Network driver fix:

An issue with the support of Network-related $QIO functions has been fixed, and using the SCP or FTP protocols no longer causes VMS⁠/⁠XDE to hang.

Process termination stability has been improved.

An interactive package installer has been added.

Several minor internal fixes and improvements have been implemented.

Documentation has been improved.

Directories containing files that are not visible to VMS⁠/⁠XDE (for example, files without a version number or with an unsupported version number) cannot be deleted through VMS⁠/⁠XDE.

VSI Code Management System (CMS) does not work with DKC volumes because they do not support the OpenVMS file versioning feature. For more information, refer to section A.1 of VSI VMS⁠/⁠XDE Installation and Configuration Guide.

The PTHREAD$RTL library can only use one CPU.

OpenVMS files that have the character string ^. in the name and no extension will be assigned an extension consisting of the characters following the last ^. string in the name. For example, if you create a file and name it FILE^.NAME, it will be assigned the extension .NAME and stored on the host file system as FILE.NAME.

None of the OpenVMS TCP/IP utilities are expected to work at this time. The standard OpenVMS TCPI/IP configuration process is not supported and not required. TCP/IP settings (such as the IP address and the DNS settings) are configured automatically based on the host system configuration.

The SYSMAN utility is supported with limitations.

The AUTOGEN command procedure is not supported.

The MOUNT utility is not supported.

File creation, modification, and access times are based on the host file system.

VMS⁠/⁠XDE timezone configuration is set automatically based on the host system timezone settings.

Do not run the command procedures UTC$TIME_SETUP.COM, UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM, UTC$TIMEZONE_SETUP.COM, or DTSS$INSTALL_TIMEZONE_RULE.COM, and do not edit or otherwise create new versions of the file STS$TIMEZONE_SRC.DAT. Doing so may render VMS⁠/⁠XDE unusable

Changing the VMS⁠/⁠XDE system time manually via the SET TIME command is not supported.

VMS⁠/⁠XDE cannot be installed or run by a root user or a user from the root group.

The name, user ID, and group ID of the current VMS⁠/⁠XDE user must match those of the current host system user.

VSI does not guarantee the correct functioning of VMS/XDE when it is installed directly on NTFS-based partitions or if NTFS-based partitions are used for the DKA0 or DKA1 storage devices.

Symbolic links are not supported.

The BACKUP.EXE utility cannot create physical backups.

The SYS$IPC system service does not work with user buffers in the P2 address space.

The TCPIP$IPC_SHR library is not fully supported.

DECwindows subsystem is supported with limitations.

USER mode stack size is limited to 2048 KB for the main thread.

SDA and DEBUGGER utilities are supported with limitations.

DELTA and XDELTA debuggers are not supported.

Process and system quotas are supported with limitations.

The command LIBRARIAN/DATA=EXPAND/OBJ is not supported on DKCx storage devices.

OpenSSH only supports client applications.