4.2 The databases file

The databases configuration file is a site-wide configuration file containing the list of gnats databases that are available either on the host itself or remotely over the network, together with some parameters associated with each database.

The file contains one line for each database. For databases located on the host itself, each line consists of three fields separated by colons:

database name:short description of database:path/to/database

The first field is the database name. This is the name used to identify the database when invoking programs such as query-pr or send-pr, either by using the --database option of the program or by setting the GNATSDB environment variable to the name of the database. The second field is a short human-readable description of the database contents, and the final field is the directory where the database contents are kept.

For a database that is located across a network, but which should be accessible from this host, the entry for the database should look like this:

database name:short description of database::hostname:port

The first two fields are the same as for local databases, the third field is empty (notice the two adjacent : symbols, indicating an empty field), the fourth field is the hostname of the remote gnats server, and the fifth field is the port number that the remote gnats is running on.

If gnats was built with default options, the databases file will be located in the /usr/local/etc/gnats directory. However, if the option --enable-gnats-dblist-file was used during building of gnats, the databases file has the name and location given to this option. A sample databases file is installed together with gnats.

Note that if you add a new local database, you must create its data directory, including appropriate subdirectories and administrative files. This is best done using the mkdb tool, See mkdb.