NAME

ab_cardcatalog - directory of available AnswerBooks

SYNOPSIS

$HOME/.ab_cardcatalog, $AB_CARDCATALOG

DESCRIPTION

AnswerBook card catalogs serve as directories for listing and locating AnswerBooks on the local system and on the network. The AnswerBook programs navigator(1), docviewer(1), and others depend on card catalogs to list and find all available AnswerBooks.

A card catalog file contains entries for one or more AnswerBooks. Each entry provides information on the AnswerBook's title, id, version number, and the location of its component files.

Use the ab_admin(1) utility to add, delete, modify, or query AnswerBook entries in a card catalog file. Card catalog files are not intended for hand-editing, though they are ASCII files.

AnswerBook programs that use card catalogs typically consult several of them, if necessary, in order to locate the entry for a given AnswerBook. In particular:

$HOME/.ab_cardcatalog

entries for personal AnswerBooks

$AB_CARDCATALOG

shared, network-wide AnswerBooks

When an AnswerBook package is installed on a machine, the installation software will create a separate card catalog file for that particular AnswerBook. If that AnswerBook is to be shared among users in a network, its card catalog entry should be added to the network-wide card catalog file so that it will be generally available. See ab_admin(1) or the Software and AnswerBook Packages Administration Guide for more information on sharing AnswerBooks on the network.

FORMAT

Each AnswerBook entry in a card catalog file contains the following fields:

title

AnswerBook title

id

AnswerBook id

version

AnswerBook version number (optional)

pspath

Full path name of directory containing AnswerBook's PostScript files

tocpath

Full path name of directory containing AnswerBook's Table of Contents databases

indexpath

Full path name of directory containing search index files

The "version" field is optional and serves mainly to distinguish two AnswerBooks that have the same id but different content. All other fields are mandatory

The format of an entry is a set of colon-separated "field name=value" pairs. Entries can span more than one line by terminating each line with a backslash character ('\'). Blank lines and comment lines (those beginning with '#') are ignored.

The first line of a card catalog file must be the string

#<Card Catalog> version 1

which is the "magic number" for card catalog files. See binder(1) for more information on magic numbers.

Here is a sample card catalog file:

#<Card Catalog> version 1

#

# Sample card catalog entry for My AnswerBook
#
title=Title of My AnswerBook: \
id=MyAB: \
pspath=/net/my_server/export/AnswerBooks/MyAB/ps: \
tocpath=/net/my_server/export/AnswerBooks/MyAB/toc: \
indexpath=/net/my_server/export/AnswerBooks/MyAB/index

#

# Sample card catalog entry for Your AnswerBook
#
title=Title of Your AnswerBook: \
id=YourAB: \
pspath=/net/your_server/export/AnswerBooks/YourAB/ps: \
tocpath=/net/your_server/export/AnswerBooks/YourAB/toc: \
indexpath=/net/your_server/export/AnswerBooks/YourAB/index

SEE ALSO

ab_admin(1), answerbook(1), docviewer(1), navigator(1), viewprint(1)

NOTES

Pre-Solaris 2.2 AnswerBooks use the old-style "bookinfo" mechanism, which has been superseded by card catalogs. The bookinfo files for these AnswerBooks should be converted to card catalog files using ab_admin(1) in order to work in OpenWindows Version 3.2 or higher.

AnswerBook is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., licensed to SunSoft, Inc.