  EFS/ODS-5 disk volume structure plans? 
 The Question is:
 
What are DEC/Compaq's (which we affectionately call DEQ) future plans for ODS-5
 in OpenVMS. More specifically, it is now an optional enhancement, will it
 always remain an optional enhancement, or can we expect that some day in some
 future release of VMS t
hat it will be a manditory upgrade of the file system.
Is ODS-5 a precursor to spiralog, and is spiralog development still in the works?
Thank you.
Jeff Cameron
 
 
 The Answer is:
 
  The Extended File System (EFS) ODS-5 disk volume structure is a direct
  (and easy) upgrade from the existing ODS-2 file structure, and EFS
  support is fully and directly integrated into OpenVMS V7.2 and later.
  BACKUP and various other tools can operate with ODS-2 and ODS-5 volumes,
  and an ODS-2 volume can be directly converted into an ODS-5 volume via
  a SET command.  DCL changes and system services have been implemented
  (or have been extended) to directly support the EFS filename parsing
  requirements.  TCP/IP Services and other packages are incrementally
  adding support for EFS, as well -- current versions of TCP/IP Services
  have had partial support for EFS added, for instance.
 
  EFS (with extensions needed for new requirements) serves as the basis
  for the file system used for the DII COE work presently underway.
 
  The Extended File System (EFS) ODS-5 disk volume structure is entirely
  unrelated to the Spiralog file system, and is an entirely different
  volume structure.  Spiralog itself was retired.
 
  Please see the EFS manual that is included in the OpenVMS documentation
  set for details, requirements, and considerations.
 
