NAME

mdbDir - List of data in a database directory.

DESCRIPTION

The m17n library loads a list of definitions of data of the m17n database from files of name 'mdb.dir' in each database directory at initialization time. The plist format of this file is as follows:

MDB-DIR ::= DEFINITION *
DEFINITION ::= '(' TAG0 [ TAG1 [ TAG2 [ TAG3 ] ] ] FILE [ VERSION ]')'
TAGn ::= SYMBOL
FILE ::= MTEXT
VERSION ::= MTEXT

If TAG0 is neither `charset' nor `char-table', and TAGn (n > 0) is a symbol `*', FILE can contain a wildcard charater, and all files matching FILE accoding to the rules used by the shell are the target of database files. In that case, each file must contain SELF-DEFINITION which is a plist element providing the actual TAGn values by the form:

SELF-DEFINITION ::= '(' TAG0 TAG1 TAG2 TAG3 [ VERSION ] ')'

For instance, if a database directory contains these files:

zh-py.mim:
(input-method zh py)
ko-han2.mim:
(input-method ko han2)

these lines in 'mdb.dir':

(input-method zh py "zh-py.mim")
(input-method ko han2 "ko-han2.mim")

can be shortened to this single line:

(input-method * "*.mim")

VERSION is a required version number of the m17n library. The format is 'XX.YY.ZZ' where XX is a major version number, YY is a minor version number, and ZZ is a patch level.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2001 Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA)
Copyright (C) 2001-2011 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html>.