URL: http://www.firstbasesoftware.com/man/man5/dictionaries.htm
Last modified: 12 September 1995
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NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

All dictionaries in the FirstBase system are represented as ascii files, with the exception of the index header dictionary which has some binary bytes of header information at the top. This means that most dictionaries in the FirstBase system can be printed or edited using standard UNIX tools.

While printing or catting a dictionary is fine, editing of a dictionary using a UNIX tool, as opposed to the provided FirstBase dictionary editors, is quite dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. In general, do not use a UNIX editor to edit a dictionary. Period.

Note that in all dictionaries, embedded blanks in the field names or in defaults, etc, are replaced with an underscore.

The following is a list of dictionary files that the FirstBase system will create and use for databases and data objects. Only the extensions are listed here -- the database and index names are presumably provided by the user.

ddict

the database dictionary - lists all fields and all information for a database, defaults, help files, choice files, locks, etc. Most every tool in the FirstBase system reads this file to determine the size and shape of the database. Created by using dbdbas(1).

Sometimes it is advantageous to have a single database dictionary file in one directory, and the actual data files in a different directory. To accomplish this, all FirstBase tools will understand the -dd argument line option which can be used as described. For example:

dbvedit -d dbase -dd /usr/lib/dict/data -i index

would invoke the database editor as if a dbase.ddict file existed in the current directory. See ddict(5) for a description of the database dictionary layout.

sdict

the screen dictionary - lists all fields that will be displayed when using the database editor dbedit(1). This dictionary provides the physical to logical mapping of a database to a screen. If not present, the entire ddict file is used. Created by using dbdscr(1).

vdict

the view dictionary - maps text and fields to the screen. For use only with the visual database editor, dbvedit(1). These dictionaries are created by using any standard text editor. See view(5) for more details.

idict

the index dictionary - lists all the fields in the applicable dictionary, as well as stores the index record and organized counts. This is the only dictionary file that contains non printable ascii characters -- the two needed index header numbers. The record count and the organized record count numbers are stored as binary. This dictionary type file is created by dbigen(1) itself -- users never interact with this file directly.

idicti

the index generator dictionary - lists all of the fields that the index generator dbigen(1) will use when making an index, as well as all of the selection criteria and the logical connectors used to create selective indexes. Created by dbdind(1). See idicti(5) for a description of the index dictionary file layout.

idictp

the printout generator dictionary - lists all of the attributes that the printout generator dbpgen(1) will use when creating a printout. Created by dbdprt(1).

idictl

the label generator dictionary - lists all of the attributes that the label generator dblgen(1) will use when creating a labels. Created by dbdlbl(1).

idictc

the conversion generator dictionary - lists all of the attributes that the conversion generator dbcgen(1) will use when creating a converted database. Created by dbdcnv(1).

idictu

the update generator dictionary - lists all of the attributes that the update generator dbugen(1) will use when updating a FirstBase database. Created by dbdupd(1).

auto

automatic index maintenance list. Created with any text editor. See autoindex(5).

SEE ALSO

FirstBase User's Guide and Reference Manual