CMS-370-BREXX

This is a port of Vasilis Vlachoudis's bREXX for the CMS system of VM/370.

See Vlachoudis's original README.md for his explanation of bREXX, as it was originally written for MS-DOS, and as it grew to support Unix, Linux, and MS-Windows.

Download

The source code for VM/370 CMS bREXX is available from RossPatterson/CMS-370-BREXX on GitHub. You can download that and build it yourself, on CMS, using the tools it includes.

Pre-built releases of VM/370 CMS bREXX are available at the Releases page at that same GitHub repository. You can download the release ZIP file and install it without having to compile anything.

Installation

There are several different ways you can install bREXX for VM/370 CMS. They all produce the same results, it's just a matter of your preference as to how you do it. For turnkey users (e.g., VM/370 Community Edition or VM/370 SixPack 1.3), the recommended process is to replace the GCCBRX DASD volume.

Install pre-built via the GCCBRX DASD volume.

If you're running VM/370 under the Hercules S/370 emulator, you can add the gccbrx.cckd emulated disk file to your configuration, add the statements in MAINTC DIRECT to your CP directory source (typically USER DIRECT on the MAINT 191 minidisk), and update your Hercules configuration to make it available to CP.

Note that if you already have GCCLIB for CMS and bREXX installed on your VM/370 system (e.g., you're running a turnkey system, or you've previously installed bREXX this way), you probably already have a GCCBRX DASD volume and the associated directory and configuration statements in place. Assuming you haven't modified any minidisks on the GCCBRX volume, you can replace it with the one from the new release.

1. Download the pre-built release BREXX.zip file from the location above to the machine where you run Hercules.
2. Unzip BREXX.zip.
3. Copy the gccbrx.cckd file to the folder where you keep your emulated DASD files.
4. Log on to MAINT on VM.
5. Upload the maintc.direct file to VM, add it to your USER DIRECT file, and install the updated directory (but see the VM/CE and SixPack note above).
6. Upload the newbrexx.exec file to MAINT on VM (typically to the MAINT 5E5 disk) as NEWBREXX EXEC.
7. Re-save the GCCLIB saved segment:
   1. DEFINE STORAGE 16M
   2. IPL CMS
   3. ACCESS (NOPROF
   4. GCCSEG F20000 GCCLIB
   5. Results: GCCSEG COMPLETE.
   6. IPL CMS
8. Install all the bREXX files (including some on the Y-disk): NEWBREXX
9. Re-save the CMS saved system to update the shared Y-stat:
   1. IPL 190 CLEAR
   2. SAVESYS CMS
   3. Results: SYSTEM SAVED.

Install pre-built via VMARC.

1. Download the pre-built release BREXX.zip file from the location above to the machine where you run Hercules.
2. Unzip BREXX.zip.
3. Log on to MAINT on VM.
4. Upload brexxbin.vmarc to VM in binary, fixed format, record length 80 as BREXXBIN VMARC.
5. Extract the pre-built bREXX file: VMARC UNPK BREXXBIN VMARC A BREXX TEXT A (OLDDATE.
6. Move the BREXX TEXT file to the Y-disk:
   1. ACCESS 19E Y
   2. COPY BREXX TEXT A = = Y (OLDDATE REPLACE
   3. ACCESS 19E Y/S
7. Upload brexxsrc.vmarc to VM in binary, fixed format, record length 80 as BREXXSRC VMARC.
8. Extract the archive of HELP files: VMARC UNPK BREXXSRC VMARC A BRXHELP VMARC A (OLDDATE.
9. Extract the HELP files: VMARC UNPK BRXHELP VMARC A * * A (OLDDATE.
10. Move the * HELPREXX files to the HELP disk (typically MAINT 19D).
11. Merge the REXX HELPTASK file into the HELP HELPTASKfile on theHELP` disk.
12. Re-save the CMS saved system to update the shared Y-stat:
13. DEFINE STORAGE 16M
14. IPL 190 CLEAR
15. SAVESYS CMS
16. Results: SYSTEM SAVED.

Install pre-built via AWSTAPE.

1. Download the pre-built release BREXX.zip file from the location above to the machine where you run Hercules.
2. Unzip BREXX.zip.
3. Log on to MAINT on VM.
4. At the Hercules console, attach the binary tape:
   1. devinit 480 unzip_dir/brexxbin.aws.
   2. /ATTACH 480 TO MAINT AS 181
5. At the Hercules console, attach the source tape:
   1. devinit 481 unzip_dir/brexxsrc.aws.
   2. /ATTACH 481 TO MAINT AS 182
6. Load the pre-built bREXX file: TAPE LOAD BREXX TEXT A.
7. Move the BREXX TEXT file to the Y-disk:
   1. ACCESS 19E Y
   2. COPY BREXX TEXT A = = Y (OLDDATE REPLACE
   3. ACCESS 19E Y/S
8. Load the archive of HELP files: TAPE LOAD BRXHELP VMARC A (TAP2.
9. Detach the tape drives: DETACH 181-182.
10. Extract the HELP files: VMARC UNPK BRXHELP VMARC A * * A (OLDDATE.
11. Move the * HELPREXX files to the HELP disk (typically MAINT 19D).
12. Merge the REXX HELPTASK file into the HELP HELPTASKfile on theHELP` disk.
13. Re-save the CMS saved system to update the shared Y-stat:
14. DEFINE STORAGE 16M
15. IPL 190 CLEAR
16. SAVESYS CMS
17. Results: SYSTEM SAVED.

Install from source via VMARC.

1. Download the pre-built release BREXX.zip file from the location above to the machine where you run Hercules.
2. Unzip BREXX.zip.
3. Log on to MAINTC on VM.
4. Upload brexxbin.vmarc to MAINTC 191 in binary, fixed format, record length 80 as BREXXBIN VMARC.
5. Upload brexxsrc.vmarc to MAINTC 191 in binary, fixed format, record length 80 as BREXXSRC VMARC`.
6. Extract the loader exec: VMARC UNPK BREXXSRC VMARC A BRXLOAD EXEC A (OLDDATE.
7. Run the loader exec: BRXLOAD VMARC
8. Compile bREXX from source: BRXBUILD
9. Build the bREXX file: BRXGEN
10. Send the bREXX deployment EXEC to MAINT:
11. SPOOL PUNCH MAINT
12. DISK DUMP NEWBREXX EXEC
13. Log on to MAINT on VM.
14. Install all the bREXX files (including some on the Y-disk):
15. DISK LOAD
16. NEWBREXX
17. Re-save the CMS saved system to update the shared Y-stat:
18. DEFINE STORAGE 16M
19. IPL 190 CLEAR
20. SAVESYS CMS
21. Results: SYSTEM SAVED.

Install from source via AWSTAPE.

1. Download the pre-built release BREXX.zip file from the location above to the machine where you run Hercules.
2. Unzip BREXX.zip.
3. Log on to MAINTC on VM.
4. At the Hercules console, mount and attach the source tape:
   1. devinit 480 unzip_dir/brexxsrc.aws.
   2. /ATTACH 480 TO MAINTC AS 181
5. Extract the loader exec: TAPE LOAD BRXLOAD EXEC A.
6. Rewind the tape: TAPE REW.
7. Run the loader exec: BRXLOAD TAPE
8. When prompted to, at the Hercules console, mount the binary tape: devinit 480 unzip_dir/brexxbin.aws.
9. Detach the tape drive: DETACH 181.
10. Compile bREXX from source: BRXBUILD
11. Build the bREXX file: BRXGEN
12. Send the bREXX deployment EXEC to MAINT:
13. SPOOL PUNCH MAINT
14. DISK DUMP NEWBREXX EXEC
15. Log on to MAINT on VM.
16. Install all the bREXX files (including some on the Y-disk):
17. DISK LOAD
18. NEWBREXX
19. Re-save the CMS saved system to update the shared Y-stat:
20. DEFINE STORAGE 16M
21. IPL 190 CLEAR
22. SAVESYS CMS
23. Results: SYSTEM SAVED.

License

Vasilis Vlachoudis's original license for bREXX said:

How much does it cost
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This is a FREEWARE program, as long as it is used for NON COMMERCIAL
purpose. But any generous contribution is well accepted :) to help
keeping this project alive. It is still FREEWARE if it is included
as a part (macro language) for another FREEWARE product.

  For commercial use the registration fee is $50 (for version 2.0
and above). Furthermore, if you want to include it as a macro
language in one of your shareware/commercial program you have to
contact the author Vasilis.Vlachoudis@cern.ch. For more
informations please contact me by e-mail on one of the above addresses.

Vlachoudis subsequently re-released it under version 2 of the GNU Public License (see vlachoudis/brexx on GitHub).

Several other programmers ported Vlachoudis's GPL'ed version of bREXX to VM/370, and dedicated their work to the public domain (see LICENSE and waiverform.txt.