From:	CSBVAX::CSBVAX::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX"  4-DEC-1988 15:21
To:	MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART"
Subj:	Re: ST Mail and Piping under VMS


Received: From KL.SRI.COM by CRVAX.SRI.COM with TCP; Tue, 29 NOV 88 12:36:39 PDT
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Date:     Tue, 29 Nov 88 07:11:13 PST
From:     carl@CitHex.Caltech.Edu (Carl J Lydick)
Message-Id: <881129065412.1279@CitHex.Caltech.Edu>
Subject:  Re: ST Mail and Piping under VMS
In-Reply-To: Your message <921@suned1.UUCP> dated 26-Nov-1988
To:       suned1!efb@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov, info-vax@CitHex.Caltech.Edu

 > For some weeks have been looking for what may not exist.  Have STC046  mail
 > on VMS4.6 MV_2.  In st_msg:malias.  a line:
 >     general:  |'@vms.comfile'
 > is supposed to grab the incoming message to pseudo user general.  Not being
 > a  wiz  of writing to std_input under vms, I have tried in my VMS .com file
 > to either TYPE SYS$INPUT /out=news.file or COPY SYS$INPUT NEWS.FILE .  Both
 > bright  ideas  generate  news.file  ..  it is EMPTY, however.  If capturing
 > stdinput is reserved to compiled code vice VMS DCL files,  can  anyone  who
 > has tried this suggest a few lines which will get a PID for a file name and
 > cat   the   file   destined   for   general    to    go    to    a    named
 > device:[directy]00pid.ext ?

To  answer  your  immediate  question:  Create  the  file   ST_BIN:VMS.COMFILE
containing just the record:
        $ COPY 'F$STRING(P1-"<")' device:[directory]00'F$GETJPI("","PID")'.EXT
At  the very end of this message, you'll find the routine STC (as developed by
Ken Adelman, now of TGV [KEN@TGV.COM]) uses to do file redirection.   Back  to
your problem, the entry in ST_MSG:MALIAS. can, more generally, be of the form:
        general:        |'@vms.comfile [arg1 [arg2 ... [arg7]]]';
Note that I've used single quotes; this permits you to imbed double quotes  in
the  pipeline command arguments, which DCL will parse as usual.  This lets you
use arguments with characters that are special to DCL in the pipeline.  DELIVR
will  pass  the  arguments  as  you  gave  them, followed by an extra argument
specifying input redirection to the subprocess.  The redirection  argument  is
the  last  argument  passed, and is a left angle bracket followed by the input
filename.  Thus, in general, to set up to process the  message,  you  want  to
start your procedure with something like:
        $!  Set up a reasonable default
        $       INPUT_FILE = F$TRNLNM("SYS$COMMAND")
        $!  Now look for the last non-null argument
        $       N = 8
        $ LBL0: IF P'N' .NES. "" THEN -         !If this arg isn't null
        $               GOTO LBL1               !see if its redirection
        $       N = N - 1                       !Point to next arg
        $       IF N .GT. 0 THEN GOTO LBL0      !Boundary check
        $!  The code from here to LBL1 should be unreachable.  If you get here
        $!  no arguments were passed to the procedure, which probably means
        $!  you've run the procedure other than via DELIVR.
        $       Write SYS$OUTPUT "No arguments specified"       !Log the error
        $       GOTO LBL3                       !and try to continue
        $ LBL1: IF F$EXTRACT(0,1,P'N') .EQS. "<" THEN GOTO LBL2
        $!  This should also be unreachable; if you get here, it means the
        $!  last argument did not specify input redirection; this probably means
        $!  you specified more than 7 user arguments in the record in MALIAS.
        $       WRITE SYS$OUTPUT "No redirection specified      !Log the error
        $       GOTO LBL3                       !and try to continue
        $ LBL2: INPUT_FILE = F$STRING(P1-"<")   !strip the left angle bracket
        $       P'N' :=                         !and null out the current arg
        $ LBL3:
At this point, the string  INPUT_FILE  contains  the  best  guess  as  to  the
filespec  for input, and P1-P7 are whatever was specified in MALIAS.  You then
deal with this filename in whatever manner is appropriate to  the  way  you're
processing  the message.  A more complete description of what DELIVR does with
the MALIAS record, complete with an example including the  MALIAS  entry,  all
data files, and the output file follows:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The problem is that STmail (more precisely, the entire Software Tools package)
incorporates a number of UNIXisms, one of which is the way the standard input,
output,  and error streams are redirected.  The syntax used by DELIVR is a bit
more general than what you're using in that it allows for records of the form:
        destination:    |'command args'
or:
        destination:    |"command args"
The former allows you to imbed double  quotes  in  the  arguments,  which  DCL
parses  as  usual,  so  you can have arguments with imbedded spaces or special
characters; if you want imbedded single quotes, you have  to  use  the  latter
syntax,  I  think).   At  any  rate, assuming the former syntax, DELIVR (or if
you're using DCONTROL to allow multi-stream  delivery,  DELIVR-n  (n  a  small
integer)  will  spawn a subprocess (named MAILER_n, where n is a small integer
uniquely identifying the subprocess) with a command of the form:
        $ command args <inputfile
and SYS$INPUT and TT defined to be NLA0:   and  SYS$OUTPUT  defined  to  be  a
mailbox   that   the   parent   process   will   copy   to   its   error  file
(ST_TMP:DELIVR_n.ERR).  Thus, the process starts out with its initial  set  of
process logical names set to something like:
        "SYS$COMMAND" = "_NLA0:"
        "SYS$DISK" = "ST_ROOT:"
        "SYS$ERROR" = "_MBA927:"
        "SYS$INPUT" [super] = "_DRA1:"
        "SYS$INPUT" [exec] = "_NLA0:"
        "SYS$OUTPUT" [super] = "_MBA927:"
        "SYS$OUTPUT" [exec] = "_MBA927:"
        "TT" [super] = "NL:"
        "TT" [exec] = "_NLA0:"
        "VAXC$PATH" = "st_root:[bin]"
It's then up to the subprocess to process the  indirection  requests.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As an example, if ST_MSG:MALIAS contains the record
        test:           |'@ST_TMP:TEST.COM "This is a test"';
the file ST_TMP:TEST.COM consists of the records:
        $       SET NOON        !F$VERIFY(0)
        $       DEFINE SYS$OUTPUT ST_TMP:TEST.LOG
        $       WRITE SYS$OUTPUT F$FAO("!72**")
        $       SHOW SYMBOL/LOCAL P%
        $       WRITE SYS$OUTPUT F$FAO("!72**")
        $       N = 1
        $       FILE = "NL:"
        $ LOOP: PN = P'N'
        $       IF F$EXTRACT(0,1,PN) .EQS. "<" THEN -
        $               FILE = PN - "<"
        $       N = N + 1
        $       IF N .LT. 8 THEN GOTO LOOP
        $       COPY 'FILE' SYS$OUTPUT:
        $       WRITE SYS$OUTPUT F$FAO("!72**")
        $       DEASSIGN SYS$OUTPUT
        $       EXIT 1
and the file ST_TMP:TEST.DAT contains:
        xxxxx
        This is the body of the message.
        xxxxx
then the command:
        $ MCR ST_BIN:SNDMSG -S"Testing" test <ST_TMP:TEST.DAT
will create the file ST_MSG:TEST.LOG which will containin something like:
        ************************************************************************
          P1 = "This is a test"
          P2 = "<ST_TMP:STC_0000124B.POP"
          P3 = ""
          P4 = ""
          P5 = ""
          P6 = ""
          P7 = ""
          P8 = ""
        ************************************************************************
        <CTRL-A><CTRL-A>
        X-ST-Status: N
        Return-path: <carl@CitHex.Caltech.Edu>
        Date:     Tue, 29 Nov 88 05:26:50 PST
        From:     carl (Carl J Lydick) @ CitHex.Caltech.Edu
        Message-Id: <881129052650.1253@CitHex.Caltech.Edu>
        Subject:  Testing
        To:       test @ CitHex.Caltech.Edu
        
        xxxxx
        This is the body of the message.
        xxxxx
        ************************************************************************
Where <CTRL-A> represents an actual control-A.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
/*	 file redirection on VMS    */
/********************************************************\
 *	usage:						*
 *		main(argc, argv)			*
 *		int argc;				*
 *		char *argv[];				*
 *		{	...				*
 *			argc = file_redir(argc,argv);	*
 *			...				*
 *		}					*
\********************************************************/
#include <stdio.h>
#include "../hfiles/symbols.h"

int file_redir(argc,argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
	int i;

	for (i=1; i<argc; i++) {
	    if (argv[i][0] == '<') {	/* input redirection  */
	       if (freopen(&argv[i][1],"r",stdin) == NULL )  {
		  perror(&argv[i][1]);
		  exit(ERREXIT);
	       }
	       argc = skip_argv(argc,argv,i);
	       i--;
	    } else if (argv[i][0] == '>') {    /* output redirection  */
		if (argv[i][1] == '>') {
		    if (freopen(&argv[i][2],"a",stdout) == NULL) {
			perror(&argv[i][2]);
			exit(ERREXIT);
		    }
		    argc = skip_argv(argc,argv,i);
		    i--;
		} else {
		    if (freopen(&argv[i][1],"w",stdout) == NULL) {
			perror(&argv[i][1]);
			exit(ERREXIT);
		    }
		    argc = skip_argv(argc,argv,i);
		    i--;
		}
	    } else if (argv[i][0] == '?') {    /* stderr redirection  */
		if (argv[i][1] == '?') {
		    if (freopen(&argv[i][2],"a",stderr) == NULL) {
			perror(&argv[i][2]);
			exit(ERREXIT);
		    }
		    argc = skip_argv(argc,argv,i);
		    i--;
		}
	    }
	}
	return(argc);
}

int skip_argv(argc,argv,n)
int argc, n;
char *argv[];
{
	register int i;

	for (i = n; i < argc; i++ )
	   argv[i] = argv[i+1];
	argc--;
	return(argc);
}
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hope this helps.