Environment Settings
Whenever you want to run any component of PREDATOR, you must
first establish the environment variables needed by the system.
This is true of running the server, the clients or the DevStudio
workspace on WindowsNT.
On Windows NT:
- First run envvar.cmd once to create the virtual drives P: and Q:.
This can either be run from the command prompt or from the desktop.
- Edit the environment variables in P:\setvar.cmd if you haven't
already done so.
- From a command prompt, run P:\setvar.cmd to set the environment
variables.
- Then run the server, any client, or start the DevStudio workspace by
running Q:\nt_proj\startvc (or simply startvc which should be
in your path as specified by setvar.cmd).
- You will need to run P:\setvar.cmd separately in each command
shell from which you plan to use a component of the system.
On Sparc/Solaris:
- Appropriately edit the environment variables in the cshrc.setvar file if
you have not already done so.
- Source cshrc.setvar or add it to your .cshrc file.
Although the server is supposed to manage "disks" or "devices",
the current implementation supports virtual "disks" that are
mapped to files on the file system. Specifically, there are
two files that are used: defdisk and reldisk.
In addition, there is a log directory which is used to hold
log files. The location of these is specified by environment
variables defined in P:\setvar.cmd (Solaris: setvar.csh).
Many of the large data types (image, raster, audio, etc.) store
their data on the default device, or defdisk.
This is a choice made by the data type designer.
Relational data is stored in the reldisk.
Together, your reldisk and defdisk are where all of your data
is stored. If they are erased, your data is lost (in the event of
a crash, you can recover from the log files, as long as you do not delete
your defdisk and reldisk). In addition, your defdisk and
reldisk must always have been created in the
same server lifetime, and cannot ever be used apart safely. This is because
the reldisk contains records which may reference objects in the defdisk.
If one is deleted, the other must be deleted as well, and you should remove
your log files too. The command "cleandisk" accomplishes this task without
your having to manually delete any files.
The location of your reldisk and defdisk can have a large impact on the
performance of your server. If these files are located
remotely (on a fileserver over the network), disk I/Os will be very slow.
Likewise, the log files should be on a local device.
Mail user support: predator-support@cs.cornell.edu
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