ATTRIBUTES(5,F)             AIX Technical Reference             ATTRIBUTES(5,F)



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attributes



PURPOSE

Describes an attribute file format.

DESCRIPTION

ASCII files are used to control some AIX utilities in order to simplify
installing, customizing, and maintaining the PS/2 and System/370.  A text
editor can be used to examine or change these files.  These files share an
attribute-structured format.

An attribute-structured file consists of one or more named stanzas, separated
by blank lines.  Each stanza begins with a name followed by a colon, and
contains assignments to keyword attributes.  The values assigned can be
alphanumeric strings or arbitrary character strings enclosed in double quotes.
The assignments can associate either a single value or a succession of values
with each attribute.

Note:  In the multibyte environment, all attribute-structured files distributed
       with your system contain only ASCII characters.  However, the library
       routines can handle multibyte characters, and provided that all parties
       who use the stanza values are operating in the same locale, multibyte
       characters can be used in these file stanzas.

The size limits for stanzas are: a maximum of 400 keywords per stanza, a
maximum of 4K bytes per stanza, and a maximum of 512 bytes per keyword.

Typically, the stanza name is the name of a device or service.  The attributes
describe the properties or handling of the named device or service.  The
meanings of the stanza names, attribute names, and values are specific to an
application.  Examples of this file type distributed with the system are
/etc/filesystems, /etc/ports, and /etc/qconfig.

The stanza name default can be used to specify default values for any
attributes.  These default assignments are implicitly included in every stanza
that follows.  A specified value overrides the default value.  A new default
stanza automatically cancels all previously specified default values.  The
syntax of a file of this type is:

       <file>           ::=  <stanza>
                        ::=  <file> <blank line> <stanza>
       <stanza>         ::=  <name>:
                        ::=  <name>:<assignments>
       <name>           ::=  file name or information similar in syntax
       <assignments>    ::=  <assignment>
                        ::=  <assignments> <assignment>
       <assignment>     ::=  <attribute>=<values>



Processed November 7, 1990      ATTRIBUTES(5,F)                               1

ATTRIBUTES(5,F)             AIX Technical Reference             ATTRIBUTES(5,F)



       <attribute>      ::=  string of alphanumeric characters
       <values>         ::=  <value>
                        ::=  <values>,<value>
       <value>          ::=  string of alphanumeric characters
                        ::=  "arbitrary characters"

Lines beginning with an * (asterisk) are considered to be comments and are
ignored.

Note:  Make sure that the values assigned to attribute keywords do not contain
       blanks unless they are enclosed in double quotes.

RELATED INFORMATION

In this book:  "cc.cfg,"  "connect.con,"  "filesystems," "master,"  "ports,"
"qconfig," "rasconf," and  "system."

AIX Guide to Multibyte Character Set (MBCS) Support.





































Processed November 7, 1990      ATTRIBUTES(5,F)                               2