SheerPower® 4GL
A Guide to the SheerPower Language
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Appendix N
Advanced Record Systems (ARS) Utilities

N.1 ARS Utilities Overview

Advanced Record Systems (ARS) is a high-speed and performance database engine integrated into SheerPower 4GL. The purpose of this appendix is to outline the various utilities available for ARS.

N.1.1 Accessing ARS Help Text

To access the Help for ARS, run the Command Prompt program and type in the utility name to view its help text: 


    ARS_UTILITY_NAME

UTILITY is the name of the ARS Utility to get help on. For example, to get help on ARSRESTORE, use the following command in the Command Prompt program: 


    arsrestore

The help text will display inside the Command Prompt program window:

N.2 ARSBACKUP - Backup ARS Database

DESCRIPTION:

This utility is used to backup ARS files and other files from one folder (directory) to another. It will perform a special backup of ARS files to a special file format with an extension of .ARS_BACKUP.

Any files that are not ARS will be copied to the new directory. The backup is done using many threads and is synchronized across all of the ARS files so that the data is synchronized exactly at the moment that the backup starts.

ARS also includes utilities to backup ARS tables in real time--- no need to stop or check-point applications in order to back them up and safe-keep the data. All data is synchronized and reliably backed up by ARS even while database tables are being written to. This allows for true 24/7 non-stop applications.

FORMAT:


Format #1: 
 
 ARSBACKUP infilespecs outfilepath [description] [flags] 
   infilespecs - comma seperated list of files to backup 
   outfilepath - directory to store the files in 
   description - OPTIONAL "Quoted string to save with backup" 
   flags       - OPTIONAL-  flags seperated by a : 
                 PROMPT to prompt user before starting jobs 
                 STATS  - to display stats after backup 



Format #2: 
 
 ARSBACKUP -include filewithspecs [description] [flags] 
   "-include"    - tells us to use a textfile for the filespecs 
   filewithspecs - name of textfile with infilespecs and outfilepaths 
   description   - OPTIONAL "Quoted string to save with backup" 
   flags         - OPTIONAL flags seperated by a : 
                   PROMPT - to prompt user before starting jobs 
                   STATS  - to display stats after backup

N.3 ARSCHK - Check ARS Database

DESCRIPTION:

This utility scans an ARS file looking for problems in the internal file structure and reports any errors as well as ARS statistics that are kept and/or derived from the scan.

FORMAT:


 ARSCHK file-to-check [NOCRC] [log-file] 
   file-to-check - File Specification of the file we want to check 
   NOCRC         - OPTIONAL 2nd parameter to disable CRC checks 
   log-file      - OPTIONAL 3rd parameter for filespec to log results to

N.4 ARSFIX - Fix ARS Database

DESCRIPTION:

This utility is designed to recover data from a corrupt ARS file. It scans an ARS file looking for records and then puts as many records as it can reasonably locate into an output file. It will report problems as if goes and tells the user the number of recovered records.

FORMAT:


Format #1: 
 
 ARSFIX filespecs [flags ...] 
   filespecs: wildcard filespecs to fix 
   flags:     OPTIONAL flags 
     -fastcrc:  Use FAST CRCs on new file 



Format #2: 
 
 ARSFIX filspec [fdlfile] [logfile] 
   filespec: filespec to fix 
   fdlfile:  OPTIONAL FDL Filespec to use for new file create 
   logfile:  OPTIONAL LOG Filespec for logging status to

N.5 ARSRESTORE - Restore ARS Database

DESCRIPTION:

This utility is used to restore ARS files and other files from one folder (directory) to another. It will interpret the special file format with for files with an extension of .ARS_BACKUP and restore them to ARS files. It just does a copy of files that are NOT ARS file to the new directory. The restore is done using LOTs of threads.

FORMAT:


Format #1: 
 
  ARSRESTORE infilespecs outfilepath [flag1 flag2 ...] 
    infilespecs: comma seperated list of files to restore 
    outfilepath: directory to store the files in 
    flags:       OPTIONAL flags 
      -continue:   continue record adds in spite of errors 
      -stats:      output stats from the restore 
      -nocrc:      Don't do CRC processing on new file 
      -fastcrc:    Use FAST CRCs on new file 



Format #2: 
 
Alternate Command Format: 
  ARSRESTORE -include filewithspecs [flag1 flag2 ...] 
    -include:      tells ARSRESTORE to use next param 
    filewithspecs: textfilespec with infilespecs and outfilepaths 
    flags:         OPTIONAL flags 
      -continue:     continue record adds in spite of errors 
      -stats:        output stats from the restore 
      -nocrc:        Don't do CRC processing on new file 
      -fastcrc:      Use FAST CRCs on new file

N.6 FDL2ARS - Create ARS from FDL

DESCRIPTION:

This utility creates an empty ARS file from the definition specification contained in an FDL (file definition language) file.

FORMAT:


 FDL2ARS fdl-file ars-file 
   fdl-file - FDL filespec containing ARS file structure 
   ars-file - ARS filespec to create

N.7 ARS2FDL - Create FDL from ARS

DESCRIPTION:

This utility takes an ARS file and creates a FDL file from it that contains the definition of how to create an equivalent ARS file from it including key structures.

FORMAT:


 ARS2FDL ars-file fdl-file 
   source-file - ARS file to get defintion from 
   fdl-file    - FDL filespec to receive ARS file structure definition

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