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NAME
CDS/ISIS manual appendix F, G and H
DESCRIPTION
This is partial scan of CDS/ISIS manual (appendix F, G and H, pages 257-272) which is than converted to
text using OCR and proofread. However, there might be mistakes, and any corrections sent to
"dpavlin@rot13.org" will be greatly appreciated.
This digital version is made because current version available in ditial form doesn't contain details
about CDS/ISIS file format and was essential in making Biblio::Isis module.
This extract of manual has been produced in compliance with section (d) of WinIsis LICENCE for receiving
institution/person which say:
The receiving institution/person may:
(d) Print/reproduce the CDS/ISIS manuals or portions thereof,
provided that such copies reproduce the copyright notice;
CDS/ISIS Files
This section describes the various files of the CDS/ISIS system, the file naming conventions and the file
extensions used for each type of file. All CDS/ISIS files have standard names as follows:
nnnnnn.eee
where:
"nnnnnn" is the file name (all file names, except program names, are limited to a maximum of 6
characters)
".eee" is the file extension identifying a particular type of file.
Files marked with "*" are ASCII files which you may display or print. The other files are binary files.
A. System files
System files are common to all CDS/ISIS users and include the various executable programs as well as
system menus, worksheets and message files provided by Unesco as well as additional ones which you may
create.
CDS/ISIS Program
The name of the program file, as supplied by Unesco is
ISIS.EXE
Depending on the release and/or target computer, there may also be one or more overlay files. These, if
present, have the extension "OVL". Check the contents of your system diskettes or tape to see whether
overlay files are present.
System menus and worksheets
All system menus and worksheets have the file extension FMT and the names are built as follows:
pctnnn.FMT
where:
"p" is the page number (A for the first page, B for the second, etc.)
"c" is the language code (e.g. E for English), which must be one of those provided for in the
language selection menu xXLNG.
"t" is X for menus and Y for system worksheets
"nnn" is a unique identifier
For example the full name of the English version of the menu xXGEN is "AEXGEN.FMT".
The page number is transparent to the CDS/ISIS user. Like the file extension the page number is
automatically provided by the system. Therefore when a CDS/ISIS program prompts you to enter a menu or
worksheet name you must not include the page number. Furthermore as file names are restricted to 6
characters, menus and worksheets names may not be longer than 5 characters.
System menus and worksheets may only have one page.
The language code is mandatory for system menus and standard system worksheets. For example if you want
to link a HELP menu to the system menu EXGEN, its name must begin with the letter E.
The X convention is only enforced for standard system menus. It is a good practice, however, to use the
same convention for menus that you create, and to avoid creating worksheets (including data entry
worksheets) with X in this position, that is with names like xXxxx.
Furthermore, if a data base name contains X or Y in the second position, then the corresponding data
entry worksheets will be created in the system worksheet directory (parameter 2 of "SYSPAR.PAR") rather
then the data base directory. Although this will not prevent normal operation of the data base, it is not
recommended.
System messages files
System messages and prompts are stored in standard CDS/ISIS data bases. All corresponding data base
files (see below) are required when updating a message file, but only the Master file is used to display
messages.
There must be a message data base for each language supported through the language selection menu xXLNG.
The data base name assigned to message data bases is xMSG (where x is the language code).
System tables
System tables are used by CDS/ISIS to define character sets. Two are required at present:
"ISISUC.TAB"*
defines lower to upper-case translation
"ISISAC.TAB"*
defines the alphabetic characters.
System print and work files
Certain CDS/ISIS print functions do not send the output directly to the printer but store it on a disk
file from which you may then print it at a convenient time. These files have all the file extension "LST"
and are reused each time the corresponding function is executed.
In addition CDS/ISIS creates temporary work files which are normally automatically discarded at the end
of the session. If the session terminates abnormally, however, they will not be deleted. A case of
abnormal termination would be a power failure while you are using a CDS/ISIS program. Also these files,
however, are reused each time, so that you do not normally need to delete them manually. Work files all
have the extension "TMP".
The print and work files created by CDS/ISIS are given below:
"IFLIST.LST"*
Inverted file listing file (produced by ISISINV)
"WSLIST.LST"*
Worksheet/menu listing file (produced by ISISUTL)
"xMSG.LST"*
System messages listing file (produced by ISISUTL)
"x.LST"*
Printed output (produced by ISISPRT when printing no print file name is supplied)
"SORTIO.TMP"
Sort work file 1
"SORTII.TMP"
Sort work file 2
"SORTI2.TMP"
Sort work file 3
"SORTI3.TMP"
Sort work file 4
"SORT20.TMP"
Sort work file 5
"SORT2I.TMP"
Sort work file 6
"SORT22.TMP"
Sort work file 7
"SORT23.TMP"
Sort work file 8
"TRACE.TMP"*
Trace file created by certain programs
"ATSF.TMP"
Temporary storage for hit lists created during retrieval
"ATSQ.TMP"
Temporary storage for search expressions
B. Data Base files
1. mandatory files, which must always be present. These are normally established when the data base is
defined by means of the ISISDEF services and should never be deleted;
2. auxiliary files created by the system whenever certain functions are performed. These can
periodically be deleted when they are no longer needed.
3. user files created by the data base user (such as display formats), which are fully under the user's
responsibility.
Each data base consists of a number of physically distinct files as indicated below. There are three
categories of data base files:
In the following description "xxxxxx" is the 1-6 character data base name.
Mandatory data base files
"xxxxxx.FDT"*
Field Definition Table
"xxxxxx.FST"*
Field Select Table for Inverted file
"xxxxxx.FMT"*
Default data entry worksheet (where p is the page number).
Note that the data base name is truncated to 5 characters if necessary
"xxxxxx.PFT"*
Default display format
"xxxxxx.MST"
Master file
"xxxxxx.XRF"
Crossreference file (Master file index)
"xxxxxx.CNT"
B*tree (search term dictionary) control file
"xxxxxx.N01"
B*tree Nodes (for terms up to 10 characters long)
"xxxxxx.L01"
B*tree Leafs (for terms up to 10 characters long)
"xxxxxx.N02"
B*tree Nodes (for terms longer than 10 characters)
"xxxxxx.L02"
B*tree Leafs (for terms longer than 10 characters)
"xxxxxx.IFP"
Inverted file postings
"xxxxxx.ANY"*
ANY file
Auxiliary files
"xxxxx.STW"*
Stopword file used during inverted file generation
"xxxxxx.LN1"*
Unsorted Link file (short terms)
"xxxxxx.LN2"*
Unsorted Link file (long terms)
"xxxxxx.LKl"*
Sorted Link file (short terms)
"xxxxxx.LK2"*
Sorted Link file (long terms)
"xxxxxx.BKP"
Master file backup
"xxxxxx.XHF"
Hit file index
"xxxxxx.HIT"
Hit file
"xxxxxx.SRT"*
Sort convertion table (see "Uppercase conversion table (1SISUC.TAB)" on page 227)
User files
"yyyyyy.FST"*
Field Select tables used for sorting
"yyyyyy.PFT"*
Additional display formats
"yyyyyy.FMT"*
Additional data entry worksheets
"yyyyyy.STW"*
Additional stopword files
"yyyyyy.SAV"
Save files created during retrieval
The name of user files is fully under user control. However, in order to avoid possible name conflicts it
is advisable to establish some standard conventions to be followed by all CDS/ISIS users at a given site,
such as for example to define "yyyyyy" as follows:
xxxyyy
where:
"xxx"
is a data base identifier (which could be the first three letters of the data base name if no two
data bases names are allowed to begin with the same three letters)
"yyy"
a user chosen name.
Master file structure and record format
A. Master file record format
The Master record is a variable length record consisting of three sections: a fixed length leader; a
directory; and the variable length data fields.
Leader format
The leader consists of the following 7 integers (fields marked with * are 31-bit signed integers):
"MFN"*
Master file number
"MFRL"
Record length (always an even number)
"MFBWB"*
Backward pointer - Block number
"MFBWP"
Backward pointer - Offset
"BASE"
Offset to variable fields (this is the combined length of the Leader and Directory part of the
record, in bytes)
"NVF"
Number of fields in the record (i.e. number of directory entries)
"STATUS"
Logical deletion indicator (0=record active; 1=record marked for deletion)
"MFBWB" and "MFBWP" are initially set to 0 when the record is created. They are subsequently updated each
time the record itself is updated (see below).
Directory format
The directory is a table indicating the record contents. There is one directory entry for each field
present in, the record (i.e. the directory has exactly NVF entries). Each directory entry consists of 3
integers:
"TAG"
Field Tag
"POS"
Offset to first character position of field in the variable field section (the first field has
"POS=0")
"LEN"
Field length in bytes
The total directory length in bytes is therefore "6*NVF"; the "BASE" field in the leader is always:
"18+6*NVF".
Variable fields
This section contains the data fields (in the order indicated by the directory). Data fields are placed
one after the other, with no separating characters.
B. Control record
The first record in the Master file is a control record which the system maintains automatically. This is
never accessible to the ISIS user. Its contents are as follows (fields marked with "*" are 31-bit signed
integers):
"CTLMFN"*
always 0
"NXTMFN"*
MFN to be assigned to the next record created in the data base
"NXTMFB"*
Last block number allocated to the Master file (first block is 1)
"NXTMFP"
Offset to next available position in last block
"MFTYPE"
always 0 for user data base file (1 for system message files)
(the last four fields are used for statistics during backup/restore).
C. Master file block format
The Master file records are stored consecutively, one after the other, each record occupying exactly
"MFRL" bytes. The file is stored as physical blocks of 512 bytes. A record may begin at any word boundary
between 0-498 (no record begins between 500-510) and may span over two or more blocks.
As the Master file is created and/or updated, the system maintains an index indicating the position of
each record. The index is stored in the Crossreference file (".XRF")
D. Crossreference file
The "XRF" file is organized as a table of pointers to the Master file. The first pointer corresponds to
MFN 1, the second to MFN 2, etc.
Each pointer consists of two fields:
"RECCNT"*
"MFCXX1"*
"MFCXX2"*
"MFCXX3"*
"XRFMFB"
(21 bits) Block number of Master file block containing the record
"XRFMFP"
(11 bits) Offset in block of first character position of Master record (first block position is 0)
which are stored in a 31-bit signed integer (4 bytes) as follows:
pointer = XRFMFB * 2048 + XRFMFP
(giving therefore a maximum Master file size of 500 Megabytes).
Each block of the "XRF" file is 512 bytes and contains 127 pointers. The first field in each block
("XRFPOS") is a 31-bit signed integer whose absolute value is the "XRF" block number. A negative "XRFPOS"
indicates the last block.
Deleted records are indicated as follows:
"XRFMFB < 0" and "XRFMFP > 0"
logically deleted record (in this case "ABS(XRFMFB)" is the correct block pointer and "XRFMFP" is the
offset of the record, which can therefore still be retrieved)
"XRFMFB = -1" and "XRFMFP = 0"
physically deleted record
"XRFMFB = 0" and "XRFMFP = 0"
inexistent record (all records beyond the highest "MFN" assigned in the data base)
E. Master file updating technique
Creation of new records
New records are always added at the end of the Master file, at the position indicated by the fields
"NXTMFB"/"NXTMFP" in the Master file control record. The "MFN" to be assigned is also obtained from the
field "NXTMFN" in the control record.
After adding the record, "NXTMFN" is increased by 1 and "NXTMFB"/"NXTMFP" are updated to point to the
next available position. In addition a new pointer is created in the "XRF" file and the "XRFMFP" field
corresponding to the record is increased by 1024 to indicate that this is a new record to be inverted
(after the inversion of the record 1024 is subtracted from "XRFMFP").
Update of existing records
Whenever you update a record (i.e., you call it in data entry and exit with option X from the editor) the
system writes the record back to the Master file. Where it is written depends on the status of the record
when it was initially read.
There was no inverted file update pending for the record
This condition is indicated by the following:
On "XRF" "XRFMFP < 512" and
On "MST" "MFBWB = 0" and "MFBWP = 0"
In this case, the record is always rewritten at the end of the Master file (as if it were a new record)
as indicated by "NXTMFB"/"NXTMFP" in the control record. In the new version of the record "MFBWB"/"MFBWP"
are set to point to the old version of the record, while in the "XRF" file the pointer points to the new
version. In addition 512 is added to "XRFMFP" to indicate that an inverted file update is pending. When
the inverted file is updated, the old version of the record is used to determine the postings to be
deleted and the new version is used to add the new postings. After the update of the Inverted file, 512
is subtracted from "XRFMFP", and "MFBWB"/"MFBWP" are reset to 0.
An inverted file update was pending
This condition is indicated by the following:
On "XRF" "XRFMFP > 512" and
On "MST" "MFBWB > 0"
In this case "MFBWB"/"MFBWP" point to the version of the record which is currently reflected in the
Inverted file. If possible, i.e. if the record length was not increased, the record is written back at
its original location, otherwise it is written at the end of the file. In both cases, "MFBWB"/"MFBWP" are
not changed.
Deletion of records
Record deletion is treated as an update, with the following additional markings:
On "XRF" "XRFMFB" is negative
On "MST" "STATUS" is set to 1
F. Master file reorganization
As indicated above, as Master file records are updated the "MST" file grows in size and there will be
lost space in the file which cannot be used. The reorganization facilities allow this space to be
reclaimed by recompacting the file.
During the backup phase a Master file backup file is created (".BKP"). The structure and format of this
file is the same as the Master file (".MST"), except that a Crossreference file is not required as all
the records are adjacent. Records marked for deletion are not backed up. Because only the latest copy of
each record is backed up, the system does not allow you to perform a backup whenever an Inverted file
update is pending for one or more records.
During the restore phase the backup file is read sequentially and the program recreates the "MST" and
"XRF" file. At this point alt records which were marked for logical deletion (before the backup) are now
marked as physically deleted (by setting "XRFMFB = -1" and "XRFMFP = 0". Deleted records are detected by
checking holes in the "MFN" numbering.
Inverted file structure and record formats
A. Introduction
The CDS/ISIS Inverted file consists of six physical files, five of which contain the dictionary of
searchable terms (organized as a B*tree) and the sixth contains the list of postings associated with each
term. In order to optimize disk storage, two separate B*trees are maintained, one for terms of up to 10
characters (stored in files ".N01"/".L01") and one for terms longer than 10 characters, up to a maximum
of 30 characters (stored in files ".N02"/".L02"). The file "CNT" contains control fields for both
B*trees. In each B*tree the file ".N0x" contains the nodes of the tree and the ".L0x" file contains the
leafs. The leaf records point to the postings file ".IFP".
The relationship between the various files is schematically represented in Figure 67.
The physical relationship between these six files is a pointer, which represents the relative address of
the record being pointed to. A relative address is the ordinal record number of a record in a given file
(i.e. the first record is record number 1, the second is record number 2, etc.). The file ".CNT" points
to the file ".N0x", ".N0x" points to ".L0x", and ".L0x" points to ".IFP". Because the ".IFP" is a packed
file, the pointer from ".L0x" to ".IFP" has two components: the block number and the offset within the
block, each expressed as an integer.
B. Format of ".CNT" file
This file contain two 26-byte fixed length records (one for each B*tree) each containing 10 integers as
follows (fields marked with * are 31-bit signed integers):
"IDTYPE"
B*tree type (1 for ".N01"/".L01", 2 for ".N02"/".L02")
"ORDN"
Nodes order (each ".N0x" record contains at most "2*ORDN" keys)
"ORDF"
Leafs order (each ".L0x" record contains at most "2*ORDF" keys)
"N" Number of memory buffers allocated for nodes
"K" Number of buffers allocated to lst level index ("K < N")
"LIV"
Current number of index levels
"POSRX"*
Pointer to Root record in ".N0x"
"NMAXPOS"*
Next available position in ".N0x" file
"FMAXPOS"*
Next available position in ".L0x" file
"ABNORMAL"
Formal B*tree normality indicator (0 if B*tree is abnormal, 1 if B*tree is normal). A B*tree is
abnormal if the nodes file ".N0x" contains only the Root.
"ORDN", "ORDF", "N" and "K" are fixed for a given generated system. Currently these values are set as
follows:
"ORDN = 5"; "ORDF = 5"; "N = 15"; "K = 5" for both B*trees
+--------------+
| Root address |
+-------|------+
| .CNT file
| -------------
| .N0x file
+-----------V--------+
| Key1 Key2 ... Keyn | Root
+---|-------------|--+
| |
+-----+ +------+
| |
+----------V----------+ +---------V----------+ 1st level
| Key1 Key2 ... Keyn | ... | Key1 Key2 ... Keyn | index
+--|------------------+ +-----------------|--+
| :
: +-------+
| |
+--V------------------+ +---------V----------+ last level
| Key1 Key2 ... Keyn | ... | Key1 Key2 ... Keyn | index
+---------|-----------+ +---------|----------+
| |
| | -------------
| | .L0x file
+---------V-----------+ +---------V----------+
| Key1 Key2 ... Keyn | ... | Key1 Key2 ... Keyn |
+--|------------------+ +--------------------+
|
| -------------
| .IPF file
+--V----------------------------------+
| P1 P2 P3 ..................... Pn |
+-------------------------------------+
Figure 67: Inverted file structure
The other values are set as required when the B*trees are generated.
C. Format of ".N0x" files
These files contain the indexes) of the dictionary of searchable terms (".N01" for terms shorter than 11
characters and ".N02" for terms longer than 10 characters). The ".N0x" file records have the following
format (fields marked with * are 31-bit signed integers):
"POS"*
an integer indicating the relative record number (1 for the first record, 2 for the second record,
etc.)
"OCK"
an integer indicating the number of active keys in the record ( "1 <= OCK <= 2*ORDN" )
"IT"
an integer indicating the type of B*tree (1 for ".N01", 2 for ".N02")
"IDX"
an array of "ORDN" entries ("OCK" of which are active), each having the following format:
"KEY"
a fixed length character string of length ".LEx" ("LE1 =10", "LE2 = 30")
"PUNT"
a pointer to the ".N0x" record (if "PUNT > 0") or ".L0x" record (if "PUNT < 0") whose "IDX(1).KEY
= KEY". "PUNT = 0" indicates an inactive entry. A positive "PUNT" indicates a branch to a
hierarchically lower level index. The lowest level index ("PUNT < 0") points the leafs in the
".L0x" file.
D. Format of ".L0x" files
These files contain the full dictionary of searchable terms (".L01" for terms shorter than 11 characters
and ".L02" for terms longer than 10 characters). The ".L0x" file records have the following format
(fields marked with "*" are 31-bit signed integers):
"POS"*
an integer indicating the relative record number (1 for the first record, 2 for the second record,
etc.)
"OCK"
an integer indicating the number of active keys in the record ("1 < OCK <= 2*ORDF")
"IT"
an integer indicating the type of B*tree (1 for ".N01", 2 for ".N02")
"PS"*
is the immediate successor of "IDX[OCK].KEY" in this record (this is used to speed up sequential
access to the file)
"IDX"
an array of "ORDN" entries ("OCK" of which are active), each having the following format:
"KEY"
a fixed length character string of length "LEx" ("LE1=10", "LE2=30")
"INFO"
a pointer to the ".IFP" record where the list of postings associated with "KEY" begins. This
pointer consists of two 31-bit signed integers as follows:
"INFO[1]"*
relative block number in ".IFP"
"INFO[2]"*
offset (word number relative to 0) to postings list
E. Format of ".IFP" file
This file contains the list of postings for each dictionary term. Each list of postings has the format
indicated below. The file is structured in blocks of 512 characters, where (for an initially loaded and
compacted file) the lists of postings for each term are adjacent, except as noted below.
The general format of each block is:
"IFPBLK"
a 31-bit signed integer indicating the Block number of this block (blocks are numbered from 1)
"IFPREC"
An array of 127 31-bit signed integers
"IFPREC[1]" and "FPREC[2]" of the first block are a pointer to the next available position in the ".IFP"
file.
Pointers from ".L0x" to ".IFP" and pointers within ".IFP" consist of two 31-bit signed integers: the
first integer is a block number, and the second integer is a word offset in "IFPREC" (e.g. the offset to
the first word in "IFPREC" is 0). The list of postings associated with the first search term will
therefore start at 1/0.
Each list of postings consists of a header (5 double-words) followed by the actual list of postings (8
bytes for each posting). The header has the following format (each field is a 31-bit signed integer):
"IFPNXTB"*
Pointer to next segment (Block number)
"IFPNXTP"*
Pointer to next segment (offset)
"IFPTOTP"*
Total number of postings (accurate only in first segment)
"IFPSEGP"*
Number of postings in this segment ("IFPSEGP <= IFPTOTP")
"IFPSEGC"*
Segment capacity (i.e. number of postings which can be stored in this segment)
Each posting is a 64-bit string partitioned as follows:
"PMFN"
(24 bits) Master file number
"PTAG"
(16 bits) Field identifier (assigned from the "FST")
"POCC"
(8 bits) Occurrence number
"PCNT"
(16 bits) Term sequence number in field
Each field is stored in a strict left-to-right sequence with leading zeros added if necessary to adjust
the corresponding bit string to the right (this allows comparisons of two postings as character strings).
The list of postings is stored in ascending "PMFN"/"PTAG"/"POCC"/"PCNT" sequence. When the inverted file
is loaded sequentially (e.g. after a full inverted file generation with ISISINV), each list consists of
one or more adjacent segments. If "IFPTOT <= 32768" then: "IFPNXTB/IFPNXTP = 0/0" and "IFPTOT = IFPSEGP =
IFPSEGC".
As updates are performed, additional segments may be created whenever new postings must be added. In this
case a new segment with capacity "IFPTOTP" is created and linked to other segments (through the pointer
"IFPNXTB"/"IFPNXTP") in such a way that the sequence "PMFN"/"PTAG"/"POCC"/"PCNT" is maintained. Whenever
such a split occurs the postings of the segment where the new posting should have been inserted are
equally distributed between this segment and the newly created segment. New segments are always written
at the end of the file (which is maintained in "IFPREC[1]"/"IFPREC[2]" of the first ".IFP" block.
For example, assume that a new posting "Px" has to be inserted between "P2" and "P3" in the following
list:
+----------------------------+
| 0 0 5 5 5 | P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 |
+----------------------------+
after the split (and assuming that the next available position in ".IFP" is 3/4) the list of postings
will consist of the following two segments:
+----------------------------+
| 3 4 5 3 5 | P2 P2 Px -- -- |
+--|-------------------------+
|
+--V-------------------------+
| 0 0 5 3 5 | P3 P4 P5 -- -- |
+----------------------------+
In this situation, no new segment will be created until either segment becomes again full.
As mentioned above, the posting lists are normally stored one after the other. However, in order to
facilitate access to the ".IFP" file the segments are stored in such a way that:
1. the header and the first posting in each list (28 bytes) are never split between two blocks.
2. a posting is never split between two blocks; if there is not enough room in the current block the
whole posting is stored in the next block.
LICENCE
UNESCO has developed and owns the intellectual property of the CDS/ISIS software (in whole or in part,
including all files and documentation, from here on referred to as CDS/ISIS) for the storage and
retrieval of information.
For complete text of licence visit <http://www.unesco.org/isis/files/winisislicense.html>.
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