VMS Software / Documentation / VSI VMS/XDE E2026.02 Beta

VSI VMS/XDE E2026.02 Beta

Release Notes

Publication Date: February 2026

1. Introduction

VSI is pleased to introduce VMS Cross-Development Environment (VMS⁠/⁠XDE) E2026.02. For detailed information about the product, refer to VSI VMS/XDE Installation and Configuration Guide.

2. Fixes and Improvements

In VMS⁠/⁠XDE E2026.02:

  • 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.

In VMS⁠/⁠XDE E2026.01:

  • Compatibility with the native OpenVMS timers subsystem has been improved (bug report case 2120).

  • Compatibility with the native OpenVMS global sections subsystem has been improved (bug report case 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 (bug report case 2295).

  • The attributes of the file SYSUAF.TEMPLATE are now set correctly after VMS⁠/⁠XDE installation (bug report case 2297).

  • Fatal error messages are now reported to the host OS console STDERR stream (bug report case 2310).

  • The issue with the delayed DCL output after exiting from the DEBUGGER utility has been fixed (bug report case 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 (bug report case 2319).

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

  • The previously missing logical name LNM$DT_FORMAT_TABLE has been added (bug report case 2323).

  • An issue that was causing the FMS editor to crash upon exiting has been fixed (bug report case 1316).

  • An issue with the incorrect reporting of the host OS storage read/write errors has been fixed (bug report case 2264).

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

  • Newly created files now inherit the default process protection mode (bug report case 2289).

  • VMS⁠/⁠XDE now supports the OpenVMS file security commands (bug report case 2289).

  • An OpenVMS file created from an existing host system file now inherits the permissions of the host system file (bug report case 2298).

  • An issue with the incorrect counting of AST quotas has been fixed (bug report case 2327).

In VMS⁠/⁠XDE E2025.11:

  • Running VMS⁠/⁠XDE using the host OS root account has been disallowed (bug report case 2296).

  • A bug that was causing VMS⁠/⁠XDE to crash when running the DCL command MCR SYSMAN IO AUTO has been fixed (bug report case 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 (bug report case 2280).

  • VMS⁠/⁠XDE is now more stable when used on NTFS with WSL2 (bug report case 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 (bug report case 2291).

  • Incorrect output of the SDA command SHOW SUMMARY has been fixed (bug report case 2291).

  • System requirements have been revised and lowered (bug report case 2281).

  • The TCP/IP routine GETADDRINFO now returns the correct information for IPv6 addresses (bug report case 2294).

  • A system requirements check has been added to the installation procedure (bug report case 2282). The check validates the following:

    • Support for extended attributes

    • GLIBC/GLIBCXX version

    • Kernel version

    • Existing VMS⁠/⁠XDE installations on the current system

    • Whether the installation is attempted from a root account

  • Added the missing DKC1 device to the full installation package.

In VMS⁠/⁠XDE E2025.10.1:

  • Multithread stability fixes:

    • A bug that was causing VMS⁠/⁠XDE to hang when creating a new process has been fixed.

    • A bug that was causing VMS⁠/⁠XDE to hang when running multithread applications (such as JAVA) has been fixed.

  • Terminal interaction fixes:

    • A bug that was causing the terminal window to hang on image rundown has been fixed.

    • A bug that was causing the terminal window to lag when running multiple subprocesses has been fixed.

  • 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.

3. Known Issues and Limitations

The current version of VMS⁠/⁠XDE has the following issues and limitations:

  • 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. Any relevant TCP/IP configuration will be pulled from the host system.

  • SYSGEN utility can only be used to display system parameter values. Using this utility to change any parameter values may render your system unusable.

  • SYSMAN 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. Configuring VMS⁠/⁠XDE timezone manually is strictly prohibited.

    Do not edit or otherwise create new versions of the file STS$TIMEZONE_SRC.DAT.

    Do not run the UTC$TIME_SETUP.COM, UTC$CONFIGURE_TDF.COM, UTC$TIMEZONE_SETUP.COM, or DTSS$INSTALL_TIMEZONE_RULE.COM command procedures.

  • 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 PTHREAD$RTL and TCPIP$IPC_SHR libraries are not fully supported.

  • DECwindows subsystem is supported with limitations.

  • Stack size is limited to 2048 KB for the main thread and 1024 KB for pthreads.

  • SDA and DEBUGGER utilities are supported with limitations.

  • DELTA and XDELTA debuggers are not supported.

  • Process and system quotas are supported with limitations.

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

  • OpenSSH only supports client applications.

4. Trial Period Limitations

The trial period for the current demo version of VMS⁠/⁠XDE will end on March 31, 2026. For more information, refer to VMS Software EULA.