Technical data

Customizing the Operating System
5.6 Customizing the Help Message Database
Use this syntax to extract one or more messages specified by the search
string:
HELP/MESSAGE/EXTRACT=filename.MSGHLP search-string
2. Check the contents of the resulting .MSGHLP file to be sure that it contains
only the data that you want to delete from the database. Edit out any
messages that you do not want to delete from the database.
3. Use /DELETE to delete the contents of the .MSGHLP file from the database.
Include /LIBRARY if the MSGHLP$LIBRARY.MSGHLP$DATA file is not
the default database or if it is not the first file in the search path defined by
logical name MSGHLP$LIBRARY.
HELP/MESSAGE/DELETE=filename.MSGHLP
HELP/MESSAGE/DELETE=filename.MSGHLP/LIBRARY=disk:[directory]filename.MSGHLP$DATA
Save the .MSGHLP file if you might ever want to add the deleted messages
back into the database prior to the next upgrade. You can store the file on
tape to conserve disk space. If you delete and then reinsert messages, these
messages are treated like user-supplied messages and are displayed with
change bars.
Any Compaq supplied messages that you delete are currently reinserted into
the database at the next upgrade. You can delete the messages again using a
saved .MSGHLP file or you can create a new .MSGHLP file. Note that if you
keep a .MSGHLP file for future deletion purposes only, you need save only the
lines prefixed by 1 and 2.
4. To save disk space, you can compress the .MSGHLP$DATA file to close up
any free space created by the deletions. Use the following command sequence
to compress the file:
CONVERT disk:[directory]filename.MSGHLP$DATA disk:[directory]filename.MSGHLP$DATA
PURGE disk:[directory]filename.MSGHLP$DATA
Example
The following example extracts and then deletes all messages for the DDTM
(DECdtm services) facility from the default database. The last two commands
compress the Compaq supplied database file to conserve disk space after the
deletions.
$ HELP/MESSAGE/FACILITY=DDTM/EXTRACT=DDTM.MSGHLP
$ HELP/MESSAGE/DELETE=DDTM.MSGHLP
$ CONVERT SYS$COMMON:[SYSHLP]MSGHLP$LIBRARY.MSGHLP$DATA -
_$ SYS$COMMON:[SYSHLP]MSGHLP$LIBRARY.MSGHLP$DATA
$ PURGE SYS$COMMON:[SYSHLP]MSGHLP$LIBRARY.MSGHLP$DATA
5.6.4 Adding Comments to Compaq Supplied Messages
You can add comments to Compaq supplied messages documentation. Comments
display with change bars immediately following the Compaq supplied description.
This feature is a handy way to publicize a site-specific solution for a common
problem.
Note
Currently, user-supplied comments to Compaq supplied .MSGHLP$DATA
files are not preserved through the next upgrade. However, if the Compaq
5–30 Customizing the Operating System