This document describes the changes made to BOOT since TOPS-20 V5, including all changes made for TOPS-20 V6 and V6.1. BOOT.DOC -- Changes to BOOT [version 10(201)] September 1984 COPYRIGHT (c) DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION 1976, 1984. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS SOFTWARE IS FURNISHED UNDER A LICENSE AND MAY BE USED AND COPIED ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF SUCH LICENSE AND WITH THE INCLUSION OF THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICE. THIS SOFTWARE OR ANY OTHER COPIES THEREOF MAY NOT BE PROVIDED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO ANY OTHER PERSON. NO TITLE TO AND OWNERSHIP OF THE SOFTWARE IS HEREBY TRANSFERRED. THE INFORMATION IN THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION. DIGITAL ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OR RELIABILITY OF ITS SOFTWARE ON EQUIPMENT THAT IS NOT SUPPLIED BY DIGITAL. Changes to BOOT [version 10(201)] Page 2 1.0 NEW FUNCTIONALITY The following new functions have been added to BOOT: 1. Subdirectory handling. BOOT will now load/dump from/to a subdirectory. 2. Dual-port unlocking. Previously, BOOT would unconditionally grab a dual-ported RP04567 and not release it until the load or dump was completed. Now, it is more polite, locking and unlocking the port for each IO transaction. This allows the other system to access the device when the port is unlocked. In particular, one can now interrupt a load or dump in progress with ^\ and get to the RSX20F parser. A single ^\ is sufficient (it requires about 2-4 seconds to receive the parser prompt). 3. Single-pass loading. BOOT will perform only a single pass to load release 6 monitors. It will still perform a 2-pass load on pre-release 6 monitors. 4. Long-file handling. BOOT can now load a monitor containing more than 512 pages. [End BOOT.DOC] COPYRIGHT (C) 1976,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985 BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, MAYNARD, MASS. THIS SOFTWARE IS FURNISHED UNDER A LICENSE AND MAY BE USED AND COPIED ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF SUCH LICENSE AND WITH THE INCLUSION OF THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICE. THIS SOFTWARE OR ANY OTHER COPIES THEREOF MAY NOT BE PROVIDED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO ANY OTHER PERSON. NO TITLE TO AND OWNERSHIP OF THE SOFTWARE IS HEREBY TRANSFERRED. THE INFORMATION IN THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION. DIGITAL ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OR RELIABILITY OF ITS SOFTWARE ON EQUIPMENT WHICH IS NOT SUPPLIED BY DIGITAL. Changes to BOOT [version 11(306)] Page 2 1.0 INTERNAL CHANGES TO BOOT V11 This new version of BOOT contains no new functionality. The changes that have been made are in the area of disk I/O. The I/O code has been rewritten to allow BOOT to write more than one page per I/O request, and to allow simultaneous I/O acrosss different channels when BOOT writes to a multi-pack structure. The routine that writes the dump file has been rewritten to take advantage of the changes in the I/O code. This routine scans the dump file's index block and writes out as many pages as it finds that are contiguous on the disk in one call to the disk I/O code. These changes have realized a considerable decrease in BOOT's dumping time. 2.0 EXTERNAL CHANGES TO BOOT V11 After BOOT has successfully written the dump file, it prints out two pieces of information. It prints the number of pages written to the file (not including the file's directory page). It also prints out the number of I/O requests needed to write the file. The more contiguous the DUMP.EXE file is, the lower this number will be (and therefore the faster the DUMP.EXE file will be written). In order to make the file as contiguous as possible, a refresh of the structure can be done, where the DUMP.EXE file is the first file created after all of the files on the structure have been deleted and expunged. Another observable change is that the DUMP.CPY file is now about 20 to 30 pages larger than it used to be. This is the file created by SETSPD when it copies the DUMP.EXE file. The old BOOT used to compress the DUMP.EXE file as it wrote it. The new BOOT writes each physical page to it's corresponding virtual page in the file (plus one to allow for the directory page). Although the DUMP.CPY file is larger, FILDDT will NOT map any pages from the file that were not in memory at the time the DUMP.EXE file was written. 3.0 RESTRICTIONS This BOOT will NOT load any 6.0 monitors. In general, it will not load any monitor that has been built with symbol A%POST (in POSTLD) greater than 745000. It will load the distributed (and autopatch) 5.1 and 6.1 monitors Changes in BOOT version 11(311) The behavior of BOOT with respect to errors during the dump phase of an autoreload has been restored to the behavior during TOPS20 V5: errors during the dump will not abort the autoreload (and cause BOOT to return to prompt level). This is now the default action for 6.1. However, some sites may be very anxious to capture a particular dump and would want an error during the dump phase to abort the autoreload (and provide a possible opportunity to correct the problem and try the dump again). BOOT now reads flags from the homeblock of the bootable structure, and said flags will control its behavior relative to errors encountered during the dump-phase of an autoreload. CHECKD now modifies and displays these flags (parameters): ENABLE BOOT-PARAMETERS (for structure) PS: (parameter) READ BOOT-PARAMETERS !Instructs BOOT to read the parameter word HALT-ON-DUMP-ERRORS !Instructs BOOT to halt the autoreload on a !dump-error and return to prompt level DISABLE BOOT-PARAMETERS ..... Note that if READ-PARAMETERS is disabled (the default condition on any structure), BOOT will not read the parameter word. If the parameters are enabled, the heading of BOOT messages will change from "[BOOT:" to "[*BOOT: ", with the asterisk indicating that the parameter word was read. The following CHECKD command will display the state of the parameter word: SHOW BOOT-PARAMETERS (for structure) PS: