1 02/22/80  Volume naming conventions
 2 
 3      The MR8.0 RCP Resource Management package enforces slightly different con-
 4 ventions in the naming of volumes.  The most visible differences will be appar-
 5 ent to some users of tape volumes.
 6 
 7 
 8      Under previous releases, there was a loosely-defined correspondence be-
 9 tween the "name" of a volume and its "slot number".  The slot number specified
10 a location from which the operator could find the desired volume.  The name of
11 a volume was specified by what appeared on the internal magnetic label, if any.
12 In the majority of cases, where these are identical, operations on these vol-
13 umes will continue to be performed exactly as before.  However, the manner in
14 which a user requests a volume will most likely change for all volumes that:
15 1) Contain a "volume identifier" on an internal magnetic label, that differs
16 significantly from the slot number; or
17 2) Have been habitually requested under a generic name encompassing an informal
18 class of physical volumes, e.g., "plotter", "dump", and so on.
19 
20 
21 Magnetic label/slot mismatch:
22      Under Resource Management, the name of a volume is now defined by its slot
23 number, which is a unique, per-site quantity.  Users of tapes whose magnetic
24 label contains a "volume identifier" that differs from the slot number (now
25 also the name) may be accustomed, due to site policy, to requesting these de-
26 vices by volume identifier, optionally identifying the real slot number as a
27 comment to the operator; e.g.,
28      Smith1 -comment "slot 000123"
29 or
30      Smith1,*slot_000123
31 Users requesting these tapes under Resource Management must now request these
32 tapes by slot number.  Discrepancies between the magnetic label and the
33 user-requested name will be handled by operator volume-authentication proce-
34 dures and user-ring I/O modules.
35 
36 
37 Generic names:
38      Resource Management allows only one generic name: "scratch".  The comment
39 facility of the I/O module in use may be used to cause the same effect as a re-
40 quest via generic name, e.g.:
41      scratch,*plotter
42 or
43      scratch -comment plotter
44 In addition, system tape I/O modules have been modified to display to the user
45 the actual name of the tape in use when a scratch volume is mounted.
46 
47 
48 I/O Module modification:
49      For tape volumes, the tape_ibm_ and tape_ansi_ I/O modules have been modi-
50 fied to provide greater leniency in cases where the volume identifier recorded
51 on the VOL1 label does not match the user-supplied volume name.  Formerly,
52 these modules would refuse to operate on such tapes.  With MR8.0, the user will
53 now be queried as to whether the attachment should proceed as requested.