FORCE
                    A nicer way to stop a program

               Written by Marc Shannon (SYNFUL@DRYCAS)



     FORCE is a program which  allows  users  to  kill  off  executing
programs   without   killing  the  whole  process.   It  is  currently
distributed as an extension to the STOP command (STOP/FORCE)  but  can
easily be made into a separate command (FORCE).

     It is especially useful in long complicated batch jobs where  one
program  seems  to  be  looping,  but  there are others in the command
procedure...The owner of the batch job can STOP/FORCE/ID=nn it (with a
possible  /ERROR=nn for notation in the log file) so it would continue
with the rest of the commands.

     Also (and this is where I like it) sometimes EMACS seems to  lock
up  with no excuse after I've been editing for a LONG time...I can use
FORCE to kill off the EMACS by sending it a bogus  error  code  so  it
will force a checkpoint of all the files I was working on.

     The FORCE package comes with 5 files:

     - FORCE.FOR   source code for the actual program
     - STOP.CLD    modified command defintion for STOP (adding /FORCE)
     - STOP.HLP    modified help file (adding necessary online info)
     - FORCE.RNO   RUNOFF source of this document
     - FORCE.MEM   easily printable documentation

     To install FORCE, I recommend the  following  procedure  (from  a
suitably privileged account):

   $ FORTRAN/NODEBUG/NOCHECK/OPTIMIZE FORCE
   $ LINK/NODEBUG/NOTRACE FORCE/EXECUTABLE=SYS$SYSTEM
   $ SET COMMAND/TABLES=SYS$LIBRARY:DCLTABLES -
   _$ /OUTPUT=SYS$LIBRARY:DCLTABLES STOP
   $ LIBRARY/HELP SYS$HELP:HELPLIB STOP
   $ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:INSTALL
   INSTALL> SYS$LIBRARY:DCLTABLES/DELETE
   INSTALL> SYS$LIBRARY:DCLTABLES/OPEN/HEADER/SHARE

     Note that these are  only  suggested  installation  commands  and
system  managers  may feel free to place a simplified SET COMMAND STOP
in the system login to avoid modifying the  DCLTABLES  or  make  other
changes to the above procedure as desired.

     Any questions should be sent to SYNFUL@DRYCAS.Bitnet.