VMS Help Ext File Specs  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    Extended File Specifications is a feature of OpenVMS Alpha
    Version 7.2 and later that allows the use of Windows-style
    file specifications.

    Extended File Specifications consists of two major components:

    o  An optional volume structure, ODS-5, which provides
       support for file names that are longer and have a greater
       range of legal characters than in previous versions of OpenVMS

    o  Support for deep directories

    Full Extended File Specifications functionality is available only
    on OpenVMS Version 7.2 (and later) on Alpha. For a description of
    Extended File Specifications functionality, see the OpenVMS Guide
    to Extended File Specifications. The following topic lists the
    Extended File Specifications functionality available on a VAX
    system.

  Additional Information (explode) :

• VAX and ODS-5