Origin of the name grep (actually Eunice!)

[Gordon Davisson]

Guy Harris suggests a way around Eunice's problems with links:

>Use links (i.e., multiple directory entries pointing to the same file), but
>replace the "unlink" routine by one that just removes the link and doesn't
>delete the file (or "mark the file for deletion" or whatever).  Keep a
>reference count in the history file, and delete the file when the last link
>disappears.
>
>Will this work?  Can a user-mode Eunice program do all this, or do you have to
>be running in supervisor or executive mode or not be built from Eunice to
>create/delete directory entries and mark files for deletion?

I don't know much about Eunice, but if it lets you use the VMS system
services (and I don't see how it could avoid doing this), you can do it
with RMS calls: sys$enter and sys$remove. You can also manipulate links
with the undocumented DCL commands "set file <oldname>/enter=<newname>"
and "set file <name>/remove".

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