Skeletal instructions for using the contents of this tar file (for defgb 3.8. WJS. Nov 99) If tar file and all the tar files it contains (see below) have been unpacked into /jgofs_root/src/whatever, defgb can be built into the "standard" place (/jgofs_root/methods) using the standard build procedure cd /jgofs_root source build-env ./build The makefiles add the cc options -lm and -g to the CC string set up in build-env. You may need/want to change these. In some architectures, the extended line that begins with if ["($BUTTONIMAGESDIR)"] ... is too long and will cause make to fail. In this case, you can remove the half of the line that does not apply in your case. If (after executing the "source build-env" command, above) the command setenv | grep BUTTONIMAGESDIR produces output, your installation uses the "if" part of the make line. If there is no output, your installation uses the "else" part. The easiest edit is to leave in both the "if" and "else" sublines, but delete what's between the "if" and the "else" or between the "else" and the "endif". Files: This release includes a tar file for a version of outer which implements the abbreviated listing option (see outer_brev.doc) and several other features. The outer_switches.doc file describes this version of outer. By default, the defgb build procedure looks for outer in the same directory as the defgb distribution. If the outer you wish to use is elsewhere, please edit master_makefile.defgb appropriately. The new outer needs more files than the old. Again, by default, the defgb build looks for these files in the same directory as the defgb distribution. If they are not there, or not needed, please edit master_makefile.defgb appropriately. Both defgb and the new outer need the "path_info_routines" files. These are in a tar file in the outer tar file. If they are not unpacked into the defgb distribution directory, please edit master_makefile.defgb. This release includes the newest version of jdb.c, a routine normally taken from the jgofs.a library. This newest version is NOT used to build defgb using the default technique described above. A file called make_testdefgb_jdb.csh is included as a sample of how to use the distributed jdb.c. Please see "Building a test version", below. Building a test version: You can build a version of defgb in the distribution directory after appropriately editing the file make_testdefgb.csh. cd /jgofs_root/src/whatever source make_testdefgb.csh Incompatibilities with older versions of defgb: No incompatibilities with defgb 3.7. Please see documentation notes (below) for info about where "incompatibility histories" can be found. Notes: 1) All files are except the .tar file(s) are text. 2) The "switch" documentation discusses compilation options. The "param1" documentation discusses run-time options. Some are duplicated, so they can be set either way. In particular, if your node does not have the JGOFS "jdb" routines (or the http routines they call), you may need to set the READ_OBJECTS compilation switch to FALSE. The jdb routines are normally found in the library file /jgofs_root/src/lib/jgofs.a. Additionally, you will probably want to remove references to jgofs.a in the make file. 4) Documentation: There are presently no "user", "new feature", or "bug/incompatibilty" documents-sorry. Also, "JGOFS system" documentation is not present, and familiarity with the JGOFS system is assumed. JGOFS system documentation may be available via a WWW browser at http://puddle.mit.edu/datasys/jgsys.html. User, new feature and some incompatibility information can be found in the param1.doc file. It is organized as a reference document, but has some description that may be useful as a user document. Incompat- ibility information can be found at the end of the file. Incompatibility information can also be found at the end of the defgb_switches.doc file. The ultimate source of information about how things have changed is the revision section of the code of each module. Old revision sections are in the defgb_revision.doc file. The defgb_bugs.txt file describes some known problems as well as a "wish list", which by implication can explain some less-than-optimal behavior of the program varlist.doc is a discussion of how JGOFS object variable lists get made from strictly def-formatted input files and from more flexibly formatted input files. 5) Debugging suggestions: a) The defgb_errs.txt file contains the text of various error messages. Some messages have more information with them about what might cause the problem and/or which code module the message comes from. b) Try running the method interactively. The parameters on the command line are the parameters from the .objects file (but not comma separated). To see the text of what the html code will be, set the last 5 characters of the environment variable PATH_INFO to .html0 (the 0 is the level to display). You may need to quote some parameters on the command line that you do not need to quote in the .objects file. c) If the method works interactively but dies when run by the httpd server (and jgofs program serv), check for file access problems due to the switch between "you" running the interactive program and whatever username is running the httpd server. Scripts need the appropriate x access. If you have no luck, try setting up an error sink (see diagnostics optional file info in the .doc file-an appropriate command in an indirect file might be diagnostics = \ error_sink = defgb.err ) d) It may be possible to help diagnose performance problems by doing a function call trace, since this output is time stamped (see diagnostics optional file info in the .doc file-an appropriate command in an indirect file might be diagnostics = \ debug_sink = defgb.debug; trace_level = 40 )