ssdot.ini Configuration File

The ssdot.ini file is used to configure the settings of the SiteSearch Database Operations Tool (SSDOT), the Open SiteSearch Database Builder component used to access the database utility programs to build and manage searchable databases. The ssdot.ini file contains information pertaining to the directory structure of the SSDOT program (i.e., the location of the context-sensitive help files, the database backup files, and the dbs database directory), general operation commands, available disk space, and BER conversion methods. This file is set with default configurations when Database Builder is installed into your system. You will need to edit these default configurations if you are performing one of the following tasks:

• changing the default directory structure of the entire Open SiteSearch or Database Builder environment,
• adding a BER conversion program to SSDOT,
• moving the SSDOT program, or
• changing the name of the SSDOT environment as it is shown on the menu screens.

Refer to the Description section below to review the specific parts of the configuration file.

Description

The ssdot.ini file is broken down into five sections that configure the settings in the SSDOT program: Directories, Miscellaneous, Disk Space, BER Conversion, and individual conversion descriptions. The following tables describe each of the elements that make up the various sections within the ssdot.ini file. Refer to the ssdot.ini file example as you review the descriptions below to see how every element in the file fits into "the big picture."

[Directories]

exesdir	Defines the location of the exes directory in the SiteSearch environment. The exes directory stores the SSDOT system executable files and the ssdot.ini file that is used to run the program.
locksdir	Defines the location of the locks directory in the SiteSearch environment. When SSDOT is running a job on a database in the background, it locks the database to prevent making changes on a database before the current job is complete. The locks directory is used as a temporary directory to track which databases are locked at any moment.
jobsdir	Defines the location of the jobs directory in the SiteSearch environment. The jobs directory is used as a temporary storage place for information about active or completed jobs. Once a job has been completed and you have viewed the jobs listing, the temporary jobs file will be removed. To obtain information about previous jobs, you will need to view the database history log files.
infodir	Defines the location of the info directory in the SiteSearch environment. The info directory contains a database registration information file (dbname.reg, where dbname is the name of the database) for each registered database in the SSDOT environment. The appropriate dbname.reg file is used when SSDOT runs a job on a database.
dbsdir	Defines the location of the dbs directory in the SiteSearch environment. The dbs directory contains a subdirectory for each database. These individual database subdirectories in turn contain all of the information needed to build and maintain each database in SSDOT, including the database description (.dsc) file, the source data files, and the physical database files.
backdir	Defines the location of the backups directory in the SiteSearch environment. The backups directory stores all of the database backup volumes for registered databases in SSDOT.
helpdir	Defines the location of the help directory in the SiteSearch environment. The help directory contains all of the help files used in the SSDOT program to provide context-sensitive help to SSDOT clients.

[Miscellaneous]

envname	Identifies the SSDOT environment name. The value defined in the envname element is displayed in the "Environment:" heading in the SSDOT menu screens. This value is important if you have two SSDOT environments that you use when building and maintaining your databases (i.e., a test environment and a production environment). For more information about this definition, refer to Changing the Name of an SSDOT Environment.
nt	Indicates whether SSDOT is running under Windows NT. Allowable values are: 0     Running under a UNIX environment. 1   Running under a Windows NT environment.
colsperline	Sets the number of columns, or characters, per line on the SSDOT menu screens. The recommended and default value for colsperline is 72. If you adjust the value of colsperline you may lose information displayed on the SSDOT screens. By adjusting the value, you resize the screen, but not the font size of the characters themselves.
morecommand	Defines the UNIX command that the SSDOT program will use when you ask to view a system log file.
printcommand	Defines the UNIX command that the SSDOT program will use when it sends a log file to be printed.

[Disk Space]

Important: Do not change the values of the following items contained in the Disk Space section except for the active and command values. Any changes may cause errors in the performance of the SSDOT program and your SiteSearch databases.

active	Defines whether or not SSDOT will perform checks on the amount of free disk space before performing operations such as initializing, updating, or growing a database. A value of "true" means that SSDOT will check for free disk space. A value of "false" stops SSDOT from performing a check, meaning that you will be responsible for making sure there is enough free disk space before performing such space consuming processes as initialization and database growing.
command	Defines the UNIX command used by SSDOT to determine the amount of free disk space. In most cases, the appropriate command value is either "df -k" or "df." You can change the value of the command flag if neither "df -k" or "df" is appropriate for your system. Refer to the following for an example of what the output from this flag might look like: Filesystem kbytes used avail capacity Mounted on cypress:/ss3 4407296 3803688 603608 87% /ss3
regexp	Contains a regular UNIX expression against which the output of command (see above) is tested. regexp is also used to strip out table headers and other extraneous lines from the command output, so that the only remaining line is the line containing the actual disk space information. Refer to the example shown above in the command parameter. After the comparison has been made between the command output and the regexp value the following single line of output would remain: cypress:/ss3 4407296 3803688 603608 87% /ss3 The highlighted information contains the amount of used disk space that needs to be removed from the output.
startcol	Indicates how to extract the number of free blocks from the line of output that remains after SSDOT has used regexp to isolate a single line of information. startcol and endcol are used together to accomplish this task. startcol represents the starting point for the free blocks of disk space in this single line containing information, not only about disk space, but also about the number of available files and the name of the hard drive. Refer to the example in endcol below.
endcol	Indicates how to extract the number of free blocks from the line of output that remains after SSDOT has used regexp to isolate a single line of information. startcol and endcol are used together to accomplish this task. endcol represents the ending point of the free blocks of disk space. After the information is limited to one line with the regexp value, the startcol and endcol will mark the starting and ending points for the amount of used disk space highlighted in the regexp example shown above. These markers isolate the information so that only the used disk space value remains, as shown below. 3803688
blocksize	Is multiplied by the number contained in the single line of output between columns startcol and endcol. To find the number of free bytes, the program needs to know how many bytes are in a block. This information is stored in blocksize. The program then multiplies blocksize by the number of free blocks to get the number of free bytes. For instance, using the example above and the default blocksize of 1024, the available disk space would equal: 3894976512

[BER Conversion]

methodn

Defines the possible conversion methods that can be used to convert source data into ASN.1/BER format. The n variable contains a numerical value that will be used to label the BER conversion method defined in the database registration information. There is no limit to the number of conversion methods you can define, but they must be in numerical order to display correctly in SSDOT.

[methodname]

Important: The methodname section title MUST match the name variable described below and one of the conversion types defined in the BER Conversion section above.

name	Defines the name of the conversion method.
executable	Defines the location of the executable file that will run the conversion program, as well as any necessary parameters. SSDOT can prompt users for parameter values by using the parametern definition described below if the parameter is included with the executable definition.
parametern	Allows SSDOT to prompt the user for a specific parameter value before executing the conversion program. The n variable allows SSDOT to prompt for more than one parameter value by placing a numeric value on each parameter. The parameter notation must equal one of the parameters noted in the executable above. For example, examine the executable and parameter definitions for converting SGML data into BER [SGML] name=SGML executable = /ss/class/student/bin/sgmlconv -iSGML -dDTD -oBER parameter1=SGML message1=Enter the full name and path of the SGML file. parameter2=DTD message2=Enter the full name and path of the DTD file. Notice how the SGML and DTD parameters listed in the executable definition are defined in the parameter1 and parameter2 definitions. If parameters are defined in the actual conversion program and not by user input, do not define a parameter definition for that value. The conversion program in the example above defines the name of the outputted BER file, which does not need a parameter definition.
messagen	Contains the prompt that SSDOT will give the user to obtain the value for the corresponding parameter. The numerical value of n must be equal to the value of n in parametern above. Review the example in the parametern definition above to see how the defined system messages prompt for the necessary parameter value.

See Also

ssdot.ini File Example
Adding a BER Conversion Program to SSDOT
Moving the SSDOT Program
Changing the Name of an SSDOT Environment
Database Registration Information
The SiteSearch Database Operations Tool (SSDOT)