Record Management Services

Record Management Services (abbreviated RMS) are procedures in the VMS, RSTS/E, RT-11 and high-end RSX-11 operating systems that programs may call to process files and records within files. Its file formats and procedures are similar to those of the Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM) product offered by IBM for its mainframe computers and by other vendors for file and record management. VMS RMS is an integral part of the system software; its procedures run in executive mode. (RMS was not integrated into RT-11 and RSTS/E, but was available as a "layered product".)

RMS supports four record access methods:

• Sequential Access
• Relative Record Number Access
• Record File Address Access
• Indexed Access

RMS supports four record formats:

• Fixed length
• Variable length
• Variable record length with fixed-length control blocks
• Stream files (records separated by termination characters)
  • STREAM: Records terminated by CRLF
  • STREAM_CR: Records terminated by CR
  • STREAM_LF: Records terminated by LF

External links

• Official RMS documentation at HP
• Free HP BASIC demo programs showing how to use RMS

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.