refdba - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

refdba - the administration client of RefDB

SYNOPSIS

Interactive mode:

refdba [-c pager-command] [-e log-destination] [-f stdin] [-h] [-i IP-address]
[-l log-level] [-L log-file] [-p port] [-q] [-T time] [-u name] [-v] [-V]
[-w password] [-x] [-y confdir]
Non-Interactive mode:

Batch mode:

refdba -C command [-c pager-command] [-e log-destination] [-f stdin] [-i IP-address]
[-l log-level] [-L log-file] [-p port] [-q] [-T time] [-u name] [-w password] [-x]
[-y confdir]

DESCRIPTION

refdba is a command-line client providing the commands to administer RefDB(7) databases,
users, and styles. refdba can be started in an interactive mode, providing a command
prompt. Type ? or help to see a list of available commands. Alternatively you can start
refdba in non-interactive mode. refdba will execute the requested command and return. In
this mode refdba will accept input on stdin for a variety of commands, allowing Unix
piping.

OPTIONS

-c pager-command
The command line of the pager that is to be used. Instead of a pager you can of course
specify any valid command that accepts data on stdin. Use "stdout" to request data
output to stdout. This is the default, but you may want to specify it on the command
line if you need to temporarily override a default pager setting in your configuration
file.

-C command
The command to be run in non-interactive mode. You can supply all options and
parameters that the command accepts on the refdba command line.

-e log-destination
log-destination can have the values 0, 1, or 2, or the equivalent strings stderr,
syslog, or file, respectively. This value specifies where the log information goes to.
0 (zero) means the messages are sent to stderr. They are immediately available on the
screen but they may interfere with command output. 1 will send the output to the
syslog facility. Keep in mind that syslog must be configured to accept log messages
from user programs, see the syslog(8) man page for further information. Unix-like
systems usually save these messages in /var/log/user.log. 2 will send the messages to
a custom log file which can be specified with the -L option.

-f stdin
Read data from stdin. refdbc usually knows when it should read from stdin. However, a
few commands use data supplied in the command line but also allow to read from a file.
Use this option to force refdbc to read from stdin in addition to values supplied on
the command line.

-h
Displays help and usage screen, then exits.

-i IP-address
Set the IP address of the box which is running the application server refdbd(1).
Instead of the IP address you can also specify the hostname as long as it can be
properly resolved by your system.

-l log-level
Specify the priority up to which events are logged. This is either a number between 0
and 7 or one of the strings emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug,
respectively (see also Log level definitions). -1 disables logging completely. A low
log level like 0 means that only the most critical messages are logged. A higher log
level means that less critical events are logged as well. 7 will include debug
messages. The latter can be verbose and abundant, so you want to avoid this log level
unless you need to track down problems.

-L log-file
Specify the full path to a log file that will receive the log messages. Typically this
would be /var/log/refdba.

-p port
Set the port of the box which is running the application server.

-q
Start without reading the configuration files. The client will use the compile-time
defaults for all values that you do not set with command-line switches. Useful for
debugging config files.

-T time
Set the timeout for client/application server dialogue in seconds. A connection with
unsuccessful read or write attempts will be considered as dead and taken down after
this amount of time has elapsed.

-u name
Set the username for the database access. Note: This username need not be identical to
the login name of the user. This is the username required to access the database
server.

-v
Prints version and copyright information, then exits.

-V
Switches to verbose mode.

-w password
Set the password for the database access. Note: This password need not be identical to
the login password of the user. This is the password required to access the database
server.

-x
Send passwords unencrypted.

-y confdir
Specify the directory where the global configuration files are Note: By default, all
RefDB applications look for their configuration files in a directory that is specified
during the configure step when building the package. That is, you don't need the -y
option unless you use precompiled binaries in unusual locations, e.g. by relocating a
rpm package.

DIAGNOSTICS

The exit code is 0 if all went fine. It will be 1 if the command (when run in batch mode)
or the last command (when run in interactive mode) returned an error, or if there was a
general error condition during startup like a lack of available memory.

CONFIGURATION

refdba evaluates the refdbarc configuration file at startup to initialize itself.

Table 1. refdbarc
┌───────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│Variable │ Default │ Comment │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│logfile │ /var/log/refdba.log │ The full path of a │
│ │ │ custom log file. This is │
│ │ │ used only if logdest is │
│ │ │ set appropriately. If │
│ │ │ you start refdba from │
│ │ │ the command line as a │
│ │ │ regular user, you should │
│ │ │ specify a file that you │
│ │ │ have write access to │
│ │ │ (you may not be allowed │
│ │ │ to create │
│ │ │ /var/log/refdb.log or │
│ │ │ write to this file as a │
│ │ │ regular user). │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│logdest │ 2 │ The destination of the │
│ │ │ log information. 0 = │
│ │ │ print to stderr (this is │
│ │ │ mainly intended for │
│ │ │ debugging, as it may │
│ │ │ visually interfere with │
│ │ │ command output); 1 = use │
│ │ │ the syslog facility; 2 = │
│ │ │ use a custom logfile. │
│ │ │ The latter needs a │
│ │ │ proper setting of │
│ │ │ logfile. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│loglevel │ 6 │ The log level up to │
│ │ │ which messages will be │
│ │ │ logged. A low setting │
│ │ │ (0) allows only the most │
│ │ │ important messages, a │
│ │ │ high setting (7) allows │
│ │ │ all messages including │
│ │ │ debug messages. -1 means │
│ │ │ nothing will be logged. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│pager │ stdout │ The command line of a │
│ │ │ pager that accepts the │
│ │ │ output of refdb on stdin │
│ │ │ to allow scrolling and │
│ │ │ other nifty things. │
│ │ │ “stdout” sends the data │
│ │ │ to stdout. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│passwd │ * │ The password which is │
│ │ │ used for authentication │
│ │ │ with the database │
│ │ │ server. It is │
│ │ │ potentially evil to │
│ │ │ store unencrypted │
│ │ │ passwords in disk files. │
│ │ │ At least make sure that │
│ │ │ the configuration file │
│ │ │ is not readable for │
│ │ │ anyone else. The default │
│ │ │ setting causes refdba to │
│ │ │ ask for your password │
│ │ │ interactively. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│port │ 9734 │ The port on which refdbd │
│ │ │ listens. Change this for │
│ │ │ all clients and the │
│ │ │ server if this value │
│ │ │ interferes with another │
│ │ │ program using this port. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│serverip │ 127.0.0.1 │ The IP address or │
│ │ │ hostname of the machine │
│ │ │ where refdbd runs. Use │
│ │ │ the default (localhost) │
│ │ │ address if the clients │
│ │ │ and refdbd run on the │
│ │ │ same machine. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│timeout │ 180 │ The timeout in seconds. │
│ │ │ After this time has │
│ │ │ elapsed, a stalled │
│ │ │ connection is taken │
│ │ │ down. Increase this │
│ │ │ value if you encounter │
│ │ │ frequent timeout errors │
│ │ │ due to high network │
│ │ │ traffic or refdbd │
│ │ │ overload. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│username │ login name │ The username which is │
│ │ │ used for authentication │
│ │ │ with the database │
│ │ │ server. This may be │
│ │ │ different from the login │
│ │ │ name of the user. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│verbose │ f │ Set this to t if you │
│ │ │ prefer verbose error │
│ │ │ messages. │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│no_encrypt │ f │ If set to 't', passwords │
│ │ │ are transmitted │
│ │ │ unencrypted. The default │
│ │ │ is to encrypt passwords. │
└───────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

COMMANDS

All commands consist of a single word which specifies the command. This may be followed by
arguments and/or switches. The general syntax rules of the getopts library apply.

addstyle
Synopsis
addstyle [-c command] [-h] [[-o filename] | [-O filename]] {style-file...}

Description
Adds one or more bibliography style specifications from the input file(s).

Options
-c command
Specifies a command that will receive the output instead of the default pager.
This may be a different pager, any command that takes input on stdin, or the
string “stdout” to send the data to stdout without using a pager.

-h
Displays the online help about the addstyle command.

-o filename
Write the output to filename instead of to stdout.

-O filename
Append the output to filename instead of writing it to stdout.

style-file
All other arguments are interpreted as the names of files containing style
specifications.

Example
refdba:
addstyle j.biol.chem.xml pharmacol.rev.xml

This will add the style specifications contained in the files j.biol.chem.xml and
pharmacol.rev.xml to the bibliography style database.

adduser
Synopsis
adduser {-d database} [-h] {-H host-IP} [-R] [-W password] {[-f file] | [username...]}

Description
Grants access rights to a refdb database to the given users. Specify the database with
the -d option.

Note
If a user is not yet known to the database server, refdb will create an account
with the default access rights (=none). If you do not specify a password for the
new user with the -W option (see below), the user will have access to the database
server with the default password "refdb". In most cases this is not a good thing.

A new user will automatically get access to the internal refdb database refdb.

Some database engines like SQLite do not support access control. The adduser
command is not supported with these engines and will just return an explanatory
message.

-d database
Specifies the reference database for which the access rights should apply.

-f file
Reads a whitespace-separated list of usernames from file.

-h
Displays the online help about the adduser command.

-H hostname
hostname specifies the host the refdb application server runs on. If it runs on
the same machine as the database server, you may specify “localhost” as hostname.
Use “%” as hostname to allow access from all addresses except localhost.
Otherwise, the hostname argument can be either a hostname, an IP address, or a
subnet that specifies one or more computers to allow access from. You can add the
same user several times with different hostnames.

Note
This option is only supported by MySQL. It is ignored if you use PostgreSQL as
your database server. Please see the PostgreSQL documentation for help on how
to manipulate host-based access control with the pg_hba.conf file.

-R
Use this option to grant read-only access for the user. By default, users are
granted read/write access. Users with read-only access can basically only retrieve
references and notes.

-W password
Set the password for a new user. The password is encrypted before transferring it
to the application server. If the user already exists, his password will be
changed accordingly.

username
All other arguments are interpreted as usernames. If neither a username argument
nor an input file is specified, refdba attempts to read a whitespace-separated
list of names from stdin. To force refdba to read from stdin in addition to
explicitly named users, use the -f stdin option.

Examples
refdba:
adduser -d db1 -N newpassjim

This will grant access to the database db1 for the new user jim. refdbd runs on the
same computer as the database server (if you leave out the -H option, localhost is
assumed). "jim" will have to provide "newpass" as a password when starting one of the
refdb clients.

refdba:
adduser -d db1 -H mono.mycomp.com jim jane

This will grant access to the database db1 for the users jim and jane. refdbd runs on
the computer with the name "mono.mycomp.com". If "jim" and "jane" are already known to
the database server, they will keep their existing passwords. If not, they will have
to use the default password "refdb".

Alternatives on sites with restricted database server access
If you as the refdb administrator do not have GRANT permission on your database
server, the adduser command is bound to fail. As a security-minded person your
database administrator might refuse to run refdba regardless of how often you ensure
him it doesn't contain malicious code. He'll want to do it the hard way, and this is
what he needs to do:

· If you use MySQL as your database server, each new user needs at least entries in
the mysql.user and mysql.db tables. Your database administrator might have set up
his own rules, but in general the mysql.user table should grant no privileges to
the user, whereas the mysql.db table should grant INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE
permissions to each user for the refdb database and SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE,
DELETE, CREATE, DROP privileges for each reference database the user should have
access to. Make sure to mention that the Host field in mysql.user must contain the
name or address of the box that runs refdbd, which is not necessarily identical
with the workstation of the user.

· If you prefer PostgreSQL instead, things are a little simpler. When you create a
refdb database, a new group will be created to manage access to this database. All
your database administrator needs to do is to add the new user to the groups
refdbuser (granting access to the common refdb database) and <dbname>user, where
<dbname> is the name of the reference database the user should be allowed to
access.

addword
Synopsis
addword [-h] {[-f file] | [word...]...}

Description
Most bibliography styles use standardized abbreviations of the journal names. Most
data sources specify these abbreviations without dots, as in "Mol Cell Biol". If the
words are to be abbreviated with dots (as in "Mol. Cell Biol.") in the bibliography,
refdb needs to know which tokens in the abbreviated name are indeed abbreviated (e.g.
"Mol."), and which are full words (e.g. "Cell"). To this end, refdb keeps a list of
reserved words which are known not to be abbreviations of something else. refdb ships
with a fairly complete list of such words, but if you detect errors or omissions, the
addword command comes in handy.

Options
-f file
Read a whitespace-separated list of journal title words from file.

-h
Displays the online help about the addword command.

word
All other arguments are interpreted as reserved words. If neither a word list nor
an input file is specified, refdba attempts to read a whitespace-separated list of
words from stdin. To force refdba to read from stdin in addition to explicitly
listed words, use the -f stdin option.

Note
refdb will convert all reserved words to uppercase internally, so it does not
matter which case you provide these words in.

Example
refdba:
addword -f wordlist FOO BAR

This will add all reserved words in the file wordlist as well as the words "FOO" and
"BAR" to the list of reserved words.

confserv
Synopsis
confserv {command} [value]

Description
Configures the application server while it is running and does some tricks with the
refdb helper databases as well. Some of the commands modify variables that can be set
as command line arguments or with the init file. See Running the refdbd daemon for
more information about these variables.

Note
This command will only reconfigure refdbd transiently. All changes are lost when
the application server is restarted. To make permantent changes to the
configuration, edit the init-file or change the command-line parameters in the
script that starts refdbd. Please note also that remote administration must be
enabled for this command to work.

The following commands are available:

stop
Stops the application server.

Note
This command affects only the refdbd parent process. Any children that may be
currently serving clients will continue to do so until they are done.

ping
Checks whether the application server is still alive and well. If this is the
case, it will report the process IDs of the child that handles your query and of
the parent. If not, the connection will time out with no response.

serverip value
Sets the database server IP address to value.

timeout value
Sets the timeout in seconds to value.

logdest value
Sets the destination of log output to value. Possible values are 0 (stderr), 1
(the system syslog facility), 2 (a private log file as defined by logfile).

logfile value
Sets the filename of the log file to value.

loglevel value
Sets the maximum level of messages to be logged to value. 0 means that only
critical errors will be logged, 7 means that all messages including the extremely
verbose debug messages will be logged. -1 disables logging completely.

Example
refdba: confserv loglevel 7

This will set the log level to 7. This temporary change will only be effective until
refdbd is restarted.

createdb
Synopsis
createdb [-E encoding] [-h] {dbname...}

Description
Creates a new database with the name dbname. Several databases may be specified in a
single call of this command.

Options
-E encoding
Select a character encoding for the new database. This is currently only supported
by MySQL and PostgreSQL. If you use a different engine, this option is ignored.
Please see the documentation of your database engine installation for available
encodings. The value passed with the -E option should be the IANA[1] encoding
name. If you do not use this option, the new database will use the default
encoding of the database server unless your refdbdrc configuration file sets a
default with a "db_encoding" entry.

-h
Displays the online help about the createdb command.

name
The name of the reference database. The name must not contain a colon (':') or a
dash ('-') due to the citation formats in documents using RefDB. The allowed
characters may be further restricted by the database engine you use. The database
name should also be considered case-insensitive, i.e. don't try to create a
database "mybase" if you already have one called "MYBASE". Also, avoid using names
which are SQL reserved words as this is doomed to fail. Unfortunately, this
includes the all too convenient name "references". Try "refs" or "biblio" instead.

Tip
Prepend a constant string like “rd” to all refdb database names. This speeds
up retrieving refdb databases with the listdb command if your database engine
manages additional, non-RefDB databases. Use a simple regular expression like
“rd%” to restrict your search to RefDB databases.

Example
refdba:
createdb db1 -E UTF-8 db2

This will create the databases db1 and db2 with the character encoding UTF-8.

Using SQL scripts to create databases
refdb contains two plain-text SQL scripts (installed in /usr/local/share/refdb/sql) to
create database tables just like the createdb command does. These scripts are
preferable to the command in these cases:

· You do not have database administrator permissions and have to ask your admin to
create the databases for you. Your admin might prefer to run the script as he can
easily find out what it is going to do.

· You want to integrate refdb with an existing or a custom database system. In that
case you want the refdb-specific tables in an existing database in addition to
non-refdb tables.

The following procedures are equivalent to running the createdb command. If you want
to add the tables to an existing database, please adapt the scripts and/or the
procedures accordingly.

· If you're running MySQL, use the following commands (provide additional options
like username and password as required):

#~
mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE dbname"

#~
mysql dbname < empty.mysql.dump

· If you're using PostgreSQL, the following sequence should work (again, provide
additional options like username and password as required):

#~
sed 's/refdbtest/dbname/g' < empty.pgsql.dump.in > empty.pgsql.dump

#~
psql template1 < empty.pgsql.dump

The empty.pgsql.dump.in script contains the commands to create a database and to set
appropriate access rights for a new group of database users. Therefore it is a good
idea to replace the string "refdbtest" with the intended name of your new database.
The sed command in the first line does just this. You may also edit a few more things,
like the encoding. The second command actually creates the database, a new group,
grants privileges to this group, and creates all necessary tables and sequences.
template1 is a PostgreSQL system database. The psql command requires the name of an
existing database as an argument, but in this case you could use any other existing
database just as well.

deletedb
Synopsis
deletedb [-h] {dbname...}

Description
Deletes the database with the name dbname. Several databases may be specified in a
single call of this command.

Caution
The database structure and the data will be gone, really gone, so be careful with
this command. Think twice and, if in doubt, at least make a backup first to avoid
extensive hairpulling.

Options
-h
Displays a brief usage message and returns to the prompt.

dbname
The name of the database to be deleted.

Example
refdba:
deletedb db1 db2

This will delete the databases db1 and db2.

deletestyle
Synopsis
deletestyle [-h] {unix-regexp}

Description
Deletes the bibliography styles whose names match the Unix regular expression
unix-regexp.

Note
Some database engines, like SQLite, do not support Unix-style regular expressions.
Use SQL regular expressions instead.

Options
-h
Displays a brief usage message and returns to the prompt.

unix-regexp
The remaining arguments are interpreted as a regular expression which specifies
the style or styles to be deleted.

Example
refdba:
deletestyle J\..*

This will delete all bibliography styles that start with “J.”.

deleteuser
Synopsis
deleteuser {-d database} [-h] {-H host-IP} {-R} {[-f file] | [username...]}

Description
Revokes access rights to a refdb database from the given users.

Note
Some database engines like SQLite do not support access control. The adduser
command is not supported with these engines and will just return an explanatory
message.

refdb will only revoke the access rights to the specified database. It will revoke
neither access rights to the internal database refdb, nor will it revoke database
server access. You can revoke access to the internal database by specifying
"refdb" with the -d option. To revoke access to the database server, please use
the command line utilities of your database server.

Options
-d database
Specify the name of the database.

-f filename
Read the usernames from filename

-h
Displays the online help about the deleteuser command.

-H hostname
Specify the hostname or IP address for which to modify the access rights. This
must be the same name that you used for a previous call to adduser.

Note
This option is only supported by MySQL. It is ignored if you useother database
engines.

-R
Revokes read-only access.

username
All other arguments are interpreted as usernames. If neither a username argument
nor an input file is specified, refdba attempts to read a whitespace-separated
list of names from stdin. To force refdba to read from stdin in addition to
explicitly named users, use the -f stdin option.

Examples
refdba:
deleteuser -d -H % db1jim

This will revoke the access to the database db1 for the user jim for all but local
connections.

deleteword
Synopsis
deleteword [-h] {[-f file] | [word...]...}

Description
This command performs the reverse operation of addword. The specified reserved words
will be removed from the list.

Options
-f
Read a whitespace-separated list of words from file.

-h
Displays the online help about the addword command.

word
All other arguments are interpreted as reserved words. If neither a word list nor
an input file is specified, refdba attempts to read a whitespace-separated list of
words from stdin. To force refdba to read from stdin in addition to explicitly
listed words, use the -f stdin option.

Note
refdb will convert all reserved words to uppercase internally, so it does not
matter in which case you provide these words.

Example
refdba:
deleteword -f wordlist FOO BAR

This will delete all reserved words in the file wordlist as well as the words "FOO"
and "BAR" from the list of reserved words.

getstyle
Synopsis
getstyle [-c] [-h] [[-o] | [-O]] {style...}

Description
Retrieves one or more bibliography style specifications from the database and formats
them as an XML file.

Options
-c command
Specify a command that will receive the output instead of the default pager. This
may be a different pager, any command that takes input on stdin, or the string
“stdout” to send the data to stdout without using a pager.

-h
Displays the online help about the getstyle command.

-o
Write the output to a file instead of to stdout.

-O
Append the output to a file instead of writing it to stdout

Warning
Be careful with the append (-O) option. refdb will output the processing
instructions, the doctype line, and one CITESTYLE element for each
individually requested style. If you concatenate the results of several
getstyle calls, the resulting XML file will not be well-formed without further
processing. In order to write several styles into a single XML file, use a
single getstyle call and list all required styles as arguments. This will
output the styles wrapped in a STYLESET element, resulting in a valid XML
file.

style
All other arguments are interpreted as the names of bibliography styles.

Example
refdba:
getstyle -o j.biol.chem.xml J.Biol.Chem.

This will write the style specification stored under the style name "J.Biol.Chem." to
the file j.biol.chem.xml.

help
Synopsis
help

?

Description
Displays a brief summary of the available commands.

Example
refdba:
help

listdb
Synopsis
listdb [-h] [database-regexp]

Description
Lists all available databases if no argument is specified. If database-regexp is
specified, only the databases matching this expression will be listed.

Note
In order to tell refdb reference databases apart from other databases maintained
by your database server, refdbd has to peek into each database returned by the
database server. Depending on the number of available databases this may take some
time. Therefore it may be a good idea to use a common prefix for all refdb
databases as explained in the section about the createdb command.

Options
-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

database-regexp
A valid SQL regular expression which limits the output to matching database names.

Example
refdba:
listdb db%

This will list all databases with names that start with the string “db”.

liststyle
Synopsis
liststyle [-h] [style-regexp]

Description
Lists all available bibliography styles that match style-regexp. If no argument is
given, all available styles will be listed. This may or may not be what you want.

Options
-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

style-regexp
A valid Unix regular expression which limits the output to matching style names.

Note
Some database engines, like SQLite, do not support Unix-style regular
expressions. Use SQL regular expressions instead.

Example
refdba:
liststyle ^J.*

This will list all bibliography styles that start with a capital “J”.

listuser
Synopsis
listuser {-d database} [-h] [name-regexp]

Description
Lists all available users of the specified database that match name-regexp. If no
argument is given, all available users will be listed. This may or may not be what you
want.

Options
-d database
Specify the database name.

-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

name-regexp
A valid Unix regular expression which limits the output to matching database user
names.

Note
Some database engines, like SQLite, do not support Unix-style regular
expressions. Use SQL regular expressions instead.

Example
refdba:
listuser -d refs ^mo.*

This will list all users of the database "refs" whose names start with “mo”.

listword
Synopsis
listword [-h] {word-regexp}

Description
Lists all available reserved journal words that match unix-regexp. If no argument is
given, all available words will be listed. This may or may not be what you want.

Note
Keep in mind that the journal words are uppercased internally. You should write
your unix-regexp using all caps accordingly.

Options
-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

word-regexp
A valid Unix regular expression which limits the output to matching journal title
words.

Note
Some database engines, like SQLite, do not support Unix-style regular
expressions. Use SQL regular expressions instead.

Note
For a brief description of the purpose of reserved words, see the addword
command.

Example
refdba:
listword ^BIO.*

This will list all reserved journal words that start with “BIO”.

scankw
Synopsis
scankw {-d database} [-h]

Description
This command schedules a full keyword scan in the database specified with the -d
option. The abstract field as well as all title fields of all references found in the
database are scanned for the presence of all keywords available in the database. If a
match is found and the keyword is not yet associated with that reference, the keyword
is added to that reference. As the time required to perform this operation increases
with both the number of references and the number of keywords, the keyword scan is
performed in the background and the command returns immediately on the client side.
See the server log for the results.

As this command will cause a huge number of database accesses it is best scheduled to
run automatically as a cron job at a time of low use, either nightly or on weekends.

Please note the difference between the full keyword scan and the automatic keyword
scan which can be requested by the refdbd command line switch -K or the corresponding
configuration variable keyword_scan. The full keyword scan is "retrospective", i.e. it
will add keywords that were added later to previously existing references. The
automatic keyword scan will only add existing keywords to newly added references, thus
causing less impact on the database performance while users are likely to access the
database.

Options
-d database
Specify the database name.

-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

set
Synopsis
set [-h] [varname] [varvalue]

Description
The set command displays or modifies the values of configuration variables.

If you call set without any arguments, it will display a list of all configuration
variables with their current values.

If you call set with one argument, it will display the current value of this
particular variable.

If you call set with two arguments, it will set the variable (first argument) to the
new value (second argument) for the current session. To specify an empty value, use
two quotation marks like this:"".

Note
For obvious reasons, set will never display the current password although you can
certainly change the password with this command. To make sure no one else sees the
new password that you enter, run the command set passwd *. You will then be asked
to enter a password which will not be echoed on the screen.

This command is not available in batch mode, use the command line switches
instead. In the interactive mode, the changes to the configuration variables are
limited to the current session. If you want to change the values permanently, you
should rather edit one of the configuration files.

Options
-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

varname
The name of the variable whose value should be displayed or set.

varvalue
The new value of the variable to be set.

Example
refdba:
set timeout 90

This command will set the timeout to 90 seconds for the current session.

verbose
Synopsis
verbose [-h]

Description
Toggles the verbose mode on or off. If the verbose mode is on, the error messages and
warnings may be some more comprehensible.

Options
-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

Example
refdba:
verbose

Depending on the previous setting, this will toggle the verbose mode on or off.

viewstat
Synopsis
viewstat [-h]

Description
Shows the version numbers of the libdbi driver used to connect to your database server
as well as the version information of that server. It also shows the current values of
the variables that can be modified with confserv.

Options
-h
Displays a help message explaining the listdb command.

Example
refdba:
viewstat

This will print some connection statistics and informations on the screen.

Use refdba online using onworks.net services