From:	SMTP%"cabilio@csbn2.concordia.ca"  6-FEB-1995 08:06:54.39
To:	EVERHART
CC:	
Subj:	Re: Problem with UCX (side track about deletin many files)

From: cabilio@csbn2.concordia.ca
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Subject: Re: Problem with UCX (side track about deletin many files)
Date: 3 Feb 1995 21:46 -0500
Organization: CSBN Concordia University
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In article <3gll4g$4fs@jac.zko.dec.com>, vandenheuvel@eps.enet.dec.com (Hein RMS van den Heuvel) writes...
> 
>In article <31JAN199500074650@csbn2.concordia.ca>, cabilio@csbn2.concordia.ca writes...
>>In article <3fmn9f$760@jac.zko.dec.com>, vandenheuvel@eps.enet.dec.com (Hein RMS van den Heuvel) writes...
>>> 
>>>Deleting thousand of files from a single large (hundreds of blocks) directory
>>>tends to crawl ahead and is hard to interupt. This is because the XQP is
> :
>>>I'll include a sample DCL procedure to do so. 
> :
> 
>> 
>>Nevertheless, the DCL procedure offered above can be very dangerous.
>>The procedure as written should be used ONLY when the files to be deleted
>>are in the current default directory.  The files listed by the DIRECTORY
> 
> 
>Steve's warning is correct. The procedure I provided was stricly
>meant as an example to get folks going. It is my no means a complete
>solution. When I previously suggested to folks to 'just delete your
>files in reverse' order they did not all know how to accomplish that.
>So this time I decided to throw in some code to start you of, but
>that was all the time I had available...
> 
>Thanks,         		+--------------------------------------+
>Hein van den Heuvel, Digital.	| All opinions expressed are mine, and |
>  "Makers of VMS and other	| may not reflect those of my employer |
>   fine Operating Systems."	+--------------------------------------+


Larry Horn <hornlo@okra.millsaps.edu> e-mailed me a simple suggestion for
this problem: use DIRECTORY /NOHEAD /NOTRAIL instead of plain DIRECTORY in
Hein's procedure.  With that fix, the directory specification appears
before each file name and the danger I referred to is averted.  I tried
the procedure and it does seem to speed things up considerably when you
DELETE a large number of files in a directory.

Thanks to Hein for his procedure and to Larry for his suggestion.

Steve Cabilio (cabilio@csbn2.concordia.ca)
