--- Walter Murray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Although the file system on Unix does not manage records as such,
> your program can still do so.  In other words, if your program
> defines a record length of 100 bytes, each READ you do will retrieve
> the next 100 bytes of data from the file.  The file system may not
> regard that as a record, but you really don't need it to; you are
> responsible for managing your own data.

i hope everyone reads what walter wrote....twice!

i remember when i was in college...and one of our assignments was to
write a (c) program to write records to a file (on a unix system).  i'm
thinking...sure, no problem, this is simple.  however, the rest of the
guys in class were freaking because the concept of a 'record' was
utterly foreign to them.  once someone (probably me) said -- you're
just writing stuff out in N-byte chunks, little lights came on and
folks quit stressing.

a couple of thoughts
1) this isn't all that different than managing data in a data segment
(for those that remember that :-)
2) you better have a lot of confidence in whatever is producing your
data (whether it's you (one of your programs) or someone else) because
without a 'rigid' record concept, it's real easy to get garbage.
(think rigorous field initialization, eh?)

hth          - d

=====
Donna Garverick     Sr. System Programmer
dgarverick -at- longs -dot- com
925-210-6631        Longs Drug Stores

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.
"Ulysses", A. Tennyson

>>>MY opinions, not Longs Drug Stores'<<<

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