Open-source Languages & Tools for z/OS

I have started a bash (4.3 with level 018). Then I run just cvs (which is 1.11.23 with level 0004) without any arguments and get
the usage information of cvs.

Then I do: ls -ltr and I get
$��(+葕 �����ˑ���_�)�
as last line. This seems to be the prompt which is garbled now.

Now, when I type anything it is garbled. Seems I am in ascii land. The shell is not usable any longer.

The problem cvs causes has nothing to do with bash.

As soon as the following is active

export _TAG_REDIR_OUT="txt"
export _CEE_RUNOPTS="FILETAG(AUTOCVT,AUTOTAG) POSIX(ON)"
export _TAG_REDIR_ERR="txt"
export _TAG_REDIR_IN="txt"
export _BPXK_AUTOCVT=“ON”

cvs kills the session no matter if am in /bin/sh or in a bash.

Further investigation shows that the setting of _CEE_RUNOPTS makes cvs kill the session.

Hi Manfred,

Yes, you are right. Bash-4.3 has enhanced ASCII support, CVS doesn’t. Actually, you shouldn’t use CVS over bash-4.3. If you want to run it over Bash-4.3, switch off this variable:

_BXPK_AUTOCVT=OFF

And switch it on, when you want to use other tools.

Hi Tatyana,

Turning off _BXPK_AUTOCVT doesn’t help. Still, cvs kills the session. Only not setting _CEE_RUNOPTS does help.

Could you please verify in your environment?

Thanks a lot, Manfred

Manfred,

Could you please verify in your environment?

It works the same in our environment. There are problems with output, when you combine tools with ASCII support and tools without. That’s why we recommend to use only tools with ASCII support.
We are not going to add ASCII support in CVS. Now git is our priority version control system.

Thanks,
Tatyana

Hi Tatyana,
It basically means that cvs is not usable as it is not easy to avoid using any of the other tools with ascii support.

Nevertheless, I agree that cvs is ancient, and git is the way to go.