The RSX-11 distribution in use is bqt's PiDP-11 distribution. It is a complete installation of RSX11M+ v4.6 with patches and updates you will not find in the original distribution. Each RSX-11 system has a minimum of two 8GB MSCP disks available, with DU0: being the system disk (SY:) and DU1: being a user data disk (US:). This should be more than enough but just in case all systems can accommodate plenty more storage.
Each system has a full suite of software including programming languages, debugging tools, games, and more. The full list of available software is here; generally speaking everything in this list should be installed, but I cannot promise I will be 100% current at all times. If something is available via RPM and you want it, just let me know!
First off, it is worth noting that there is a wonderful RSX-11 Guide for Users that will give you a much more holistic understanding of the system and make you much more comfortable overall. What follows is a very abridged version of that document that will cover just about the bare minimum. It is really recommended that you spend an hour or so reading through that guide instead of this one, it will save you much more time. This exists for the stubborn- and the VMS geeks. :)
VMS is the successor of RSX-11 after all, and if you are decently familiar with VMS you will have little trouble adjusting.
When you first log into an RSX-11 system you will be presented with the > prompt, which indicates that you are at an MCR (Monitor Console Routine) prompt. This is one of two command line interpreters available on RSX-11, but before concerning yourself with that you need to get logged in. This is accomplished via the HELLO command, which accepts a username as an argument. So, at the prompt, issue:
>hello user
Or, since RSX-11 commands can be abbreviated:
>hel user
The system will respond with a password prompt, and you will provide your password. Once accepted the system login banner will print and any commands in your LOGIN.CMD will execute before you are presented with your CLI prompt. It is also possible to authenticate with your username and password in one go:
>hel user/notreal!
Unless you have requested otherwise you will be dropped into the DCL (Digital Command Language) prompt, as indicated by the $. As mentioned before MCR is also available, but it is much less friendly to beginners and as such is not recommended unless you are an experienced RSX-11 user. Still, if you wish to give it a try, simply issue:
$ set mcr
Your prompt will change to the > chevron, and your prompt is now MCR. If you want to change back, just do the reverse:
>set /dcl=ti:
If necessary, you can also execute a command in MCR from DCL (or vice versa) by just prefacing the command with the desired interpreter:
$ mcr test
When you're all done, just tell the system bye and it will log you out.
When you log in, you will be in your UFD, or User File Directory. This is your personal named directory for all of your personal documents and code. RSX-11 does not have the concept of subdirectories; a valid directory entry can look like:
[200,200] .; using a uic, relative to current default LB:[LBD] .; a UFD, using a logical DU1:[USER] .; using a device name
This means that your UFD is a flat filesystem, a bucket that just has all of your files in it.
In general there won't be much reason for you to leave your user area, but you can use set default to do so- it is the equivalent of cd on a *nix system. When you change your default you are now working with files inside that directory. File specifications in FILES-11 are in 9.3 format, meaning a filename can be 1-9 alphanumeric characters and a file extension can be 0-3 alphanumeric characters, with a dot separator. File extensions are generally arbitrary (and optional), but there are some standards to help keep you organized:
ext | description ----|--------------------------------- BAS | BASIC source B2S | BASIC-PLUS-2 source CBL | COBOL source CMD | indirect command file FTN | FORTRAN-4 or -77 source LST | a listing file MAC | MACRO-11 source OBJ | an object (compiled source) OLB | an object library TSK | a task image (executable binary) TXT | plaintext
One nice feature of FILES-11 is that each file change is versioned, meaning that when you edit and save a file you are just creating a new version of that file. In RSX-11 a semicolon (;) indicates a file version, for example login.cmd;7 would indicate that there are 7 total revisions of the login.cmd file. The latest version is always the most recent version of the file. You can purge old versions quite easily; issue help purge.
You have access to a few editors, in order of functionality and general ease-of-use:
As mentioned, EDT will automatically start in line editing mode, but type c and hit enter at the prompt to enter character editing mode. It is possible to do this by default with a file called EDTINI.EDT in your UFD- this is covered here, among a few other useful tips.
Compiling and linking code will not be covered here, the page RSX11 Developer Connection will tell you what you need to know. A successful build will result in a TSK file, which can be executed with the RUN command.