  Debugging Application Failure? Log Files? 
 The Question is:
 
When a BASIC application crashes, and has open sequential files being used for
 output, these files show up as having blocks allocated, but their file size is
 0 (seen using DIR/SIZ=ALL). As far as VMS is concerned these files seem to
 have nothing in them.
I am wondering if there is a way to "close" these files, so that the file
 content is accessable.
 
 
 The Answer is :
 
  The upcoming OpenVMS V7.3-2 release will flush the contents of the
  RMS caches upon application exit; will effectively invoke the RMS
  rundown processing.
 
  Regardless, the OpenVMS Wizard would encourage you to incorporate
  a signal handler in your application; a routine which closes out
  critical files.  (This works on all releases.)  The OpenVMS Wizard
  would also encourage you to open log files with sharing enabled,
  as discussed in the OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
  Additionally, a log server application can be a useful addition.
 
  As for relocating the End Of File mark to access data which has
  been written to a file when the EOF has not been updated (the
  literal answer to the question posed), you can use the DCL command:
 
    SET FILE/END_OF_FILE
 
  The data at the end of the file may or may not be valid, and you
  may or may not see all of the data you might expect -- again, the
  OpenVMS Wizard recommends an application-specific signal handler.
 
  Topics (2078), (7826) and (8119) are related, and please see (2868)
  for a performance-related discussion of log files.  For details on
  debugging, please see (1661) and particularly (7552), and consider
  using the SS$_DEBUG dynamic invocation of the debugger and related;
  see topics (1017), (1314), (1661), (3031) and (4129).  (The dynamic
  debugger invocation can provide you with the call stack and related
  details upon incidence of an application failure.)
 
 Answer written or last revised on  19-MAY-2003 
