From:	MERC::"uunet!CRVAX.SRI.COM!RELAY-INFO-VAX"  9-JUL-1992 04:58:22.20
To:	info-vax@cdclu1.genrad.com
CC:	DONGRAY@cdclu1.genrad.com
Subj:	Re: Utility for chronological directory in DCL?

>         I am looking for a DCL utility that would produce a file
> directory in chronological order, something akin to the "ls -lt" command
> in Unix.  I have tried the SORT command already but I run into trouble
> trying to sort the month field.  Why the heck didn't they put the month
> names in alphabetical order anyways...???!!!
>
>         Any help will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you, in advance.
[...]
>              				       khan@us17501.mdc.com

The DIRECTORY command is actually one of the one that are well-behaved when it
comes to date/time formats. If you've executed SYS$STARTUP:LIB$DT_STARTUP.COM
then there is a logical names table called LNM$DT_FORMAT_TABLE containing the
predefined date/time formats. The one used is specified by the logical
LIB$DT_FORMAT. It has default value LIB$DATE_FORMAT_001,LIB$TIME_FORMAT_001.
These pair of logicals translate to "!DB-!MAAU-!Y4" and !H04:!M0:!S0.!C2".
If you look at the definitions, you'll find that LIB$DATE_FORMAT_036 is
"!Y4/!MN0/!D0" and LIB$DATE_FORMAT_037 is "!Y4-!MN0-!D0". Using either of
these, you can get the DIR command to produce an output that is easy to sort.

$ dir/dat login.com

Directory U$E:[DONGRAY]

LOGIN.COM;20         28-MAY-1992 18:26:43.49

Total of 1 file.
$ def lib$dt_format lib$date_format_037,lib$time_format_001
$ dir/dat login.com

Directory U$E:[DONGRAY]

LOGIN.COM;20         1992-05-28 18:26:43.49

Total of 1 file.

Alternatively, this can be used just to give a prettier output.

$ def lib$dt_format lib$date_format_006,lib$time_format_011
$ dir/dat login.com

Directory U$E:[DONGRAY]

LOGIN.COM;20         28 MAY 92 06:26 PM

Total of 1 file.

Or, with enough privilege, you can go totally over the top ...

$ def/tab=lnm$dt_format_table/exec lib$date_format_501 "!WC !DD !MAC !Y4"
$ def/tab=lnm$dt_format_table/exec lib$time_format_501 -
	"!MM minutes and !SS seconds past !HH2 !MIL"
$ def lib$dt_format lib$date_format_501,lib$time_format_501
$ dir/dat login.com

Directory U$E:[DONGRAY]

LOGIN.COM;20         Thursday 28 May 1992 26 minutes and 43 seconds past 6 pm

Total of 1 file.

Perhaps this is getting silly ... :-).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : Derek Dongray, Systems Manager, GenRad Ltd.
Phone : 061 486 1511 ext 166
PSS : 234261600119::Dongray                 UKnet : Derek.Dongray@GenRad.co.uk
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