Technical data

Setting System Time
6.6 Setting Time Using the Battery-Backed Watch (BBW) (Alpha Only)
6.6 Setting Time Using the Battery-Backed Watch (BBW) (Alpha
Only)
The OpenVMS Alpha architecture maintains the current date and time in the
Battery-Backed Watch (BBW) across power failures and system downtime. The
BBW is functionally equivalent to the Time of Day Register (TODR) that the VAX
architecture uses. One difference, however, is the BBW’s constraint on the date
range.
The BBW provides sufficient storage capability for only a century. The OpenVMS
Alpha system date range has been redefined as 1957 to 2056 to maintain correct
leap-year processing and to provide for the millennial transition.
In addition, the OpenVMS Alpha timing mechanisms have been changed to allow
2-digit year support in the $ASCTIM system service and the DCL command SET
TIME. (Prior to this change, only 4-digit year fields were allowed.) With 2-digit
support, you need to enter only the last 2 digits of a year. The century associated
with the year field is derived from the placement of the 2 digits in the 1957-2056
date range. For example:
$ SET TIME = 1-NOV-98
In this example, 98 is the equivalent of 1998.
$ SET TIME = 1-NOV-05
In this example, 05 is the equivalent of 2005.
6.7 Choosing Languages, and Date and Time Formats
You can specify languages other than English. From the list that the system
manager defines, users can later select a language that they want to display.
You can also select the time and date formats for many SHOW commands from a
predefined list or define new time and date formats.
Note
The SHOW TIME command does not include this feature because the
SHOW TIME command is processed completely by DCL, which does not
have access to the LIB$ routines necessary to format the output.
In addition, the SHOW commands for batch and print operations were
modified to include, in the default time-stamp, seconds as well as hours
and minutes. These new features were not previously documented.
For example, rather than 15-JAN-2001 10:16:25.14, you can use a different
format, such as the following one:
$ SHOW USERS
OpenVMS User Processes at JANUARY 15, 2001 10:16 AM
Total number of users = 7, number of processes = 11
Username Node Interactive Subprocess Batch
MCDERMOT ARD26B 1
PASTERNAK ARD26B - 2 1
.
.
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Setting System Time 6–17