Technical data

Setting System Time
6.7 Choosing Languages, and Date and Time Formats
6.7.2 Invoking LIB$DT_STARTUP.COM
The SYS$MANAGER:LIB$DT_STARTUP.COM command procedure defines the
possible choices for the following logicals:
• SYS$LANGUAGES
The system loads the languages you have selected using the
SYS$LANGUAGES (plural) logical.
Users can later select their own choice of languages by defining the
SYS$LANGUAGE (singular) logical, as explained in Section 6.7.4.
• LIB$DT_FORMAT
The system loads output formats that you can then use to specify default
system formats.
Users can later define their own formats, as explained in Section 6.7.4.
To invoke the command procedure, enter the following command:
$ @SYS$MANAGER:LIB$DT_STARTUP
If the translation of SYS$LANGUAGES fails, then English is used. If the
translation of LIB$DT_FORMAT or any logical name relating to format fails, the
OpenVMS standard ($ASCTIM) representation of the date and time is used, that
is, dd-mmm-yyyy hh:mm:ss.cc.
6.7.3 Defining System Default Date and Time Formats
To define default date and time formats, you can use either user-defined formats,
which are shown in Table 6–2, or predefined formats, which are shown in
Table 6–3 and Table 6–4.
To select a format for a date, time, or both, you must define the LIB$DT_
FORMAT logical name using the following logicals:
• LIB$DATE_FORMAT_nnn, where nnn ranges from 001 to 040
• LIB$TIME_FORMAT_nnn, where nnn ranges from 001 to 020
The order in which these logical names appear in the definition of LIB$DT_
FORMAT determines the order in which they are output. A single space is
inserted into the output string between the two elements if the definition specifies
that both are output. For example, to define systemwide formats:
$ DEFINE/SYSTEM LIB$DT_FORMAT LIB$DATE_FORMAT_006, LIB$TIME_FORMAT_012
This definition causes the date to be displayed systemwide in the specified format,
followed by a space and the time in the specified format. For example:
13 JAN 97 9:13 AM
Section 6.7.4 explains how users can select their own date and time formats to be
displayed for their process.
Setting System Time 6–19