xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/db/man/recno.3 (revision d710132b4b8ce7f7cccaaf660cb16aa16b4077a0)
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34.\"	@(#)recno.3	8.5 (Berkeley) 8/18/94
35.\"
36.Dd April 17, 2003
37.Dt RECNO 3
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm recno
41.Nd record number database access method
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In sys/types.h
44.In db.h
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The routine
47.Fn dbopen
48is the library interface to database files.
49One of the supported file formats is record number files.
50The general description of the database access methods is in
51.Xr dbopen 3 ,
52this manual page describes only the recno specific information.
53.Pp
54The record number data structure is either variable or fixed-length
55records stored in a flat-file format, accessed by the logical record
56number.
57The existence of record number five implies the existence of records
58one through four, and the deletion of record number one causes
59record number five to be renumbered to record number four, as well
60as the cursor, if positioned after record number one, to shift down
61one record.
62.Pp
63The recno access method specific data structure provided to
64.Fn dbopen
65is defined in the
66.Aq Pa db.h
67include file as follows:
68.Bd -literal
69typedef struct {
70	u_long flags;
71	u_int cachesize;
72	u_int psize;
73	int lorder;
74	size_t reclen;
75	u_char bval;
76	char *bfname;
77} RECNOINFO;
78.Ed
79.Pp
80The elements of this structure are defined as follows:
81.Bl -tag -width cachesizex
82.It Fa flags
83The flag value is specified by or'ing any of the following values:
84.Bl -tag -width R_FIXEDLENX -offset indent
85.It Dv R_FIXEDLEN
86The records are fixed-length, not byte delimited.
87The structure element
88.Fa reclen
89specifies the length of the record, and the structure element
90.Fa bval
91is used as the pad character.
92Any records, inserted into the database, that are less than
93.Fa reclen
94bytes long are automatically padded.
95.It Dv R_NOKEY
96In the interface specified by
97.Fn dbopen ,
98the sequential record retrieval fills in both the caller's key and
99data structures.
100If the
101.Dv R_NOKEY
102flag is specified, the cursor routines are not required to fill in the
103key structure.
104This permits applications to retrieve records at the end of files
105without reading all of the intervening records.
106.It Dv R_SNAPSHOT
107This flag requires that a snapshot of the file be taken when
108.Fn dbopen
109is called, instead of permitting any unmodified records to be read
110from the original file.
111.El
112.It Fa cachesize
113A suggested maximum size, in bytes, of the memory cache.
114This value is
115.Em only
116advisory, and the access method will allocate more memory rather than
117fail.
118If
119.Fa cachesize
120is 0 (no size is specified) a default cache is used.
121.It Fa psize
122The recno access method stores the in-memory copies of its records
123in a btree.
124This value is the size (in bytes) of the pages used for nodes in that
125tree.
126If
127.Fa psize
128is 0 (no page size is specified) a page size is chosen based on the
129underlying file system I/O block size.
130See
131.Xr btree 3
132for more information.
133.It Fa lorder
134The byte order for integers in the stored database metadata.
135The number should represent the order as an integer; for example,
136big endian order would be the number 4,321.
137If
138.Fa lorder
139is 0 (no order is specified) the current host order is used.
140.It Fa reclen
141The length of a fixed-length record.
142.It Fa bval
143The delimiting byte to be used to mark the end of a record for
144variable-length records, and the pad character for fixed-length
145records.
146If no value is specified, newlines
147.Pq Dq \en
148are used to mark the end of variable-length records and fixed-length
149records are padded with spaces.
150.It Fa bfname
151The recno access method stores the in-memory copies of its records
152in a btree.
153If bfname is
154.No non- Ns Dv NULL ,
155it specifies the name of the btree file, as if specified as the file
156name for a
157.Fn dbopen
158of a btree file.
159.El
160.Pp
161The data part of the key/data pair used by the recno access method
162is the same as other access methods.
163The key is different.
164The
165.Fa data
166field of the key should be a pointer to a memory location of type
167recno_t, as defined in the
168.Aq Pa db.h
169include file.
170This type is normally the largest unsigned integral type available to
171the implementation.
172The
173.Fa size
174field of the key should be the size of that type.
175.Pp
176Because there can be no meta-data associated with the underlying
177recno access method files, any changes made to the default values
178(e.g., fixed record length or byte separator value) must be explicitly
179specified each time the file is opened.
180.Pp
181In the interface specified by
182.Fn dbopen ,
183using the
184.Fa put
185interface to create a new record will cause the creation of multiple,
186empty records if the record number is more than one greater than the
187largest record currently in the database.
188.Sh ERRORS
189The
190.Nm
191access method routines may fail and set
192.Va errno
193for any of the errors specified for the library routine
194.Xr dbopen 3
195or the following:
196.Bl -tag -width Er
197.It Er EINVAL
198An attempt was made to add a record to a fixed-length database that
199was too large to fit.
200.El
201.Sh SEE ALSO
202.Xr btree 3 ,
203.Xr dbopen 3 ,
204.Xr hash 3 ,
205.Xr mpool 3
206.Pp
207.Rs
208.%T "Document Processing in a Relational Database System"
209.%A Michael Stonebraker
210.%A Heidi Stettner
211.%A Joseph Kalash
212.%A Antonin Guttman
213.%A Nadene Lynn
214.%J Memorandum No. UCB/ERL M82/32
215.%D May 1982
216.Re
217.Sh BUGS
218Only big and little endian byte order is supported.
219