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History

Origin and name changes

• MicroVMS was a distribution of VAX/VMS designed for MicroVAX and VAXstation hardware, which had less memory and disk space than larger VAX systems of the time.BOOK, Getting Started with OpenVMS: A Guide for New Users,weblink 978-0080507354, Michael D Duffy, 2002, Elsevier, MicroVMS split up VAX/VMS into multiple kits, which a customer could use to install a subset of VAX/VMS tailored to their specific requirements.NEWS, Computerworld, June 18, 1984, 7, The Micro VMS operating system announced last week by Digital Equipment Corp. for its Microvax I family of microcomputers is a prepackaged version of ..., Micro VMS operating system,weblink MicroVMS releases were produced for each of the V4.x releases of VAX/VMS and was discontinued when VAX/VMS V5.0 was released.MAGAZINE, DEC Professional Magazine, The VMS/MicroVMS merge, 74–84

• Desktop-VMS was a short-lived distribution of VAX/VMS sold with VAXstation systems. It consisted of a single CD-ROM containing a bundle of VMS, DECwindows, DECnet, VAXcluster support, and a setup process designed for non-technical users.WEB,weblink DECUServe WORKSTATIONS Conference 8, December 22, 2020, January 11, 1989, Bob McCormick, home.iae.nl, July 10, 2022,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20220710024529weblink">weblink dead, WEB,weblink Office Archaeology, February 24, 2004, December 22, 2020, blog.nozell.com, Desktop-VMS could either be run directly from the CD or could be installed onto a hard drive.WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20000816181649weblink">weblink Software Product Description - Desktop-VMS, Version 1.2, Digital, January 1991, August 16, 2000, February 2, 2022, Desktop-VMS had its own versioning scheme beginning with V1.0, which corresponded to the V5.x releases of VMS.WEB,weblink OpenVMS pages of proGIS Germany, vaxarchive.org, December 22, 2020,
• An unofficial derivative of VAX/VMS named MOS VP ()WEB,weblink Computer Complexes, Technical Equipment, Software And Support Of The System Of Small Electronic Computer Machines (SM Computer), May 1989, Russian, Soviet Union Research Institute of Information and Economics, October 16, 2021, D.O. Andrievskaya, was created in the Soviet Union during the 1980s for the SM 1700 line of VAX clone hardware.JOURNAL,weblink Software Systems Journal, 1988, 3, Basic software for 32-bit SM computer models, Prokhorov N.L., Gorskiy V.E., Russian, October 15, 2021, JOURNAL,weblink Software Systems Journal, 1988, 4, Multifunctional operating system that supports virtual memory for 32-bit computers, Egorov G.A., Ostapenko G.P., Stolyar N.G., Shaposhnikov V.A., Russian, October 15, 2021, MOS VP added support for the Cyrillic script and translated parts of the user interface into Russian.WEB,weblink Installing OS MOS-32M, June 16, 2012, October 15, 2021, Russian, pdp-11.ru, October 27, 2021,weblink dead, Similar derivatives of MicroVMS known as MicroMOS VP () or MOS-32M () were also created.

Port to Alpha

Port to Intel Itanium

Port to x86-64

Influence

Architecture

• The availability of four processor access modes (named Kernel, Executive, Supervisor and User, in order of decreasing privilege). Each mode has its own stack, and each memory page can have memory protections specified per-mode.
• A virtual address space which is partitioned between process-private space sections, and system space sections which are common to all processes.
• 32 interrupt priority levels which are used for synchronization.
• Hardware support for delivering asynchronous system traps to processes.

Executive and Kernel

File system

Command Language Interpreter

Features

Clustering

Networking

Programming

• VAX MACRO
• BLISS
• C
• DCL
• Fortran
• Pascal
• COBOL
• BASIC
• C++
• Java
• Common Lisp
• APL
• Ada
• PL/I
• DIBOL
• CORAL
• OPS5
• RPG II
• MUMPS
• MACRO-11
• DECTPU
• VAX SCAN

Development tools

• Language-Sensitive Editor (LSE)
• Code Management System (CMS) a version control system
• Module Management System (MMS), a build tool
• the Source Code Analyzer (SCA), a static analyzer
• the Performance and Coverage Analyzer (PCA), a profiler
• Digital Test Manager (DTM), as a test manager
• In addition, a number of text editors are included in the operating system, including EDT, EVE and TECO.WEB,weblink VSI OpenVMS DCL Dictionary: A–M, April 2020, January 2, 2021, VSI,

Database management

• Rdb – A relational database system which originally used the proprietary Relational Data Operator (RDO) query interface, but later gained SQL support.WEB,weblink Rdb's First 20 Years: Memories and Highlights, Ian Smith, 2004,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20051103112619weblink">weblink November 3, 2005, dead, January 24, 2021,
• DBMS – A database management system which uses the CODASYL network model and Data Manipulation Language (DML).
• Digital Standard MUMPS (DSM) – an integrated programming language and key-value database.
• Common Data Dictionary (CDD) – a central database schema repository, which allowed schemas to be shared between different applications, and data definitions to be generated for different programming languages.
• DATATRIEVE – a query and reporting tool which could access data from RMS files as well as Rdb and DBMS databases.
• Application Control Management System (ACMS) – A transaction processing monitor, which allows applications to be created using a high-level Task Description Language (TDL). Individual steps of a transaction can be implemented using DCL commands, or Common Language Environment procedures. User interfaces can be implemented using TDMS, DECforms or Digital's ALL-IN-1 office automation product.WEB,weblink$vaxdocmar002/database/acms_v43/6621/6621pro_contents.html, Compaq ACMS for OpenVMS Getting Started, Compaq, December 1999, January 24, 2021,
• RALLY, DECadmire – Fourth-generation programming languages (4GLs) for generating database-backed applications.WEB,weblink Building Dependable Systems: The OpenVMS Approach, March 1994, October 17, 2022, Digital Equipment Corporation, DECadmire featured integration with ACMS, and later provided support for generating Visual Basic client-server applications for Windows PCs.WEB,weblink Cover Letter for DECADMIRE V2.1 MUP Kit - DECADMIRE V2.1A, 1995, Digital Equipment Corporation, January 24, 2021, {{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

User interfaces

Text-based user interfaces

Graphical user interfaces{{Anchor|DECwindows}}

• The original graphical user interface for VMS was a proprietary windowing system known as the VMS Workstation Software (VWS), which was first released for the VAXstation I in 1984.JOURNAL,weblink Rick Spitz, Peter George, Stephen Zalewski, The Making of a Micro VAX Workstation, Digital Technical Journal, 1, 2, 1986, October 21, 2021, It exposed an API called the User Interface Services (UIS).WEB,weblink MicroVMS Workstation Graphics Programming Guide, May 1986, October 21, 2021, Digital Equipment Corporation, It ran on a limited selection of VAX hardware.NEWSGROUP,weblink comp.os.vms - Dec VWS Internals, comp.os.vms, January 4, 2007, February 27, 2021, Fred Kleinsorge,
• In 1989, DEC replaced VWS with a new X11-based windowing system named DECwindows.JOURNAL,weblink An Overview of the DECwindows Architecture, 1990, October 21, 2021, Digital Equipment Corporation, Digital Technical Journal, 2, 3, Scott A. McGregor, It was first included in VAX/VMS V5.1.WEB,weblink (Open)VMS(/ VAX), Version overview, vaxmacro.de, October 21, 2021, October 22, 2020,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20201022122158weblink">weblink dead, Early versions of DECwindows featured an interface built on top of a proprietary toolkit named the X User Interface (XUI). A layered product named UISX was provided to allow VWS/UIS applications to run on top of DECwindows.WEB,weblink Migrating VWS/UIS Applications to DECwindows?, HP OpenVMS ask the wizard, November 9, 2004,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180915122243weblink">weblink September 15, 2018, Parts of XUI were subsequently used by the Open Software Foundation as the foundation of the Motif toolkit.JOURNAL,weblink Strategies for Writing Graphical UNIX Applications Productively and Portably, Janet Dobbs, August 1989, 50, 10, 4, AUUG Newsletter, December 29, 2021,
• In 1991, DEC replaced XUI with the Motif toolkit, creating DECwindows Motif.WEB,weblink Using DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS, October 2019, October 21, 2020, VSI, CONFERENCE, Early Experience With DECwindows/Motif In the TRIUMF Central Control System, S. Kadantsev, M. Mouat, 13th International Conference on Cyclotrons and their Applications, 676–677,weblink August 28, 2019, November 25, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171125063526weblink">weblink dead, As a result, the Motif Window Manager became the default DECwindows interface in OpenVMS V6.0, although the XUI window manager remained as an option.
• In 1996, as part of OpenVMS V7.1, DEC released the New Desktop interface for DECwindows Motif, based on the Common Desktop Environment (CDE).WEB,weblink$axpdocdec023/office/dwmot126/vmsdw126/gettingstarted/getting_started.html, Getting Started With the New Desktop, Digital Equipment Corporation, May 1996, October 21, 2021, On Alpha and Itanium systems, it is still possible to select the older MWM-based UI (referred to as the "DECwindows Desktop") at login time. The New Desktop was never ported to the VAX releases of OpenVMS.

Security

Vulnerabilities

• Early versions of VMS included a number of privileged user accounts (including SYSTEM, FIELD, SYSTEST and DECNET) with default passwords which were often left unchanged by system managers.JOURNAL, Green, James L., Sisson, Patricia L., The "Father Christmas" Worm, 12th National Computer Security Conference Proceedings, June 1989,weblink November 23, 2015, green1989, WEB,weblink Security Audit on OpenVMS: An Internal Auditor's Perspective, November 2004, Kevin Rich, SANS Institute, July 21, 2021, A number of computer worms for VMS including the WANK worm and the Father Christmas worm exploited these default passwords to gain access to nodes on DECnet networks.WEB,weblinkweblink December 11, 2021, live, DEFCON 16: Hacking OpenVMS, January 20, 2011, Claes Nyberg, Christer Oberg, James Tusini, YouTube, July 21, 2021, {{cbignore}} This issue was also described by Clifford Stoll in The Cuckoo's Egg as a means by which Markus Hess gained unauthorized access to VAX/VMS systems.BOOK, Stoll, Clifford, The Cuckoo's Egg : tracking a spy through the maze of computer espionage, 1989, Doubleday, New York, 0-385-24946-2, 1st, In V5.0, the default passwords were removed, and it became mandatory to provide passwords for these accounts during system setup.
• A 33-year-old vulnerability in VMS on VAX and Alpha was discovered in 2017 and assigned the CVE ID {{CVE|2017-17482}}. On the affected platforms, this vulnerability allowed an attacker with access to the DCL command line to carry out a privilege escalation attack. The vulnerability relies on exploiting a buffer overflow bug in the DCL command processing code, the ability for a user to interrupt a running image (program executable) with {{kbd|CTRL/Y}} and return to the DCL prompt, and the fact that DCL retains the privileges of the interrupted image.On the internal workings of the CTRL-Y mechanism, see: OpenVMS AXP Internals and Data Structures, Version 1.5, sections 30.6.5.1 (CTRL/Y Processing) and 30.6.5.4 (CONTINUE Command) at pp. 1074–1076. The buffer overflow bug allowed shellcode to be executed with the privileges of an interrupted image. This could be used in conjunction with an image installed with higher privileges than the attacker's account to bypass system security.WEB, Ghost in the DCL shell: OpenVMS, touted as ultra reliable, had a local root hole for 30 years,weblink February 6, 2018, January 13, 2021, John Leyden, theregister.com,

POSIX compatibility

Hobbyist programs

Release history