Changes like these are expected to be included in the next version of mtools for VMS, which is expected to be version 3.9.10b.
/ftp/mtools/mtools-3_9_10a_vms/patchlevel.c
/ftp/mtools/mtools-3_9_10a_vms/unixdir.c
/ftp/mtools/mtools-3_9_10a_vms/vms.c
/ftp/mtools/mtools-3_9_10a_vms/vms.h
Previously, mtools could fail with confusing error messages when a VMS file specification including a directory was used for an image file ("-i"). For example:
$ mtools -c mdir -i [-]FLOP.IMG :: *** Dummy fork() *** Pipe read error: no such file or directory
For some (unknown) reason, mtools attempts to do a UNIX-style wildcard expansion on the image file specification, and the method used fails on VMS. With this change, this wildcard expansion is not attempted on VMS.
/ftp/mtools/mtools-3_9_10a_vms/expand.c
/ftp/mtools/mtools-3_9_10a_vms/patchlevel.c