source: trunk/gsdl/packages/yaz/README.yaz@ 1343

Copyright (C) 1995-2000, Index Data ApS.
See the file LICENSE for details.

Compilation and installation instructions for YAZ 
  $Id: README.yaz 1343 2000-08-03 03:12:39Z johnmcp $

The primary output of the source here is the lib/libyaz.a library,
which contains support functions for implementing the server or client
role of Z39.50/SR.

Windows programmers: refer to the file windows.txt which describes how
to build the software using Microsoft Visual C++.

On Unix, GNU configure is used to configure YAZ and generate Makefiles.
Type "./configure", then "make" to build YAZ.

Two test-programs of interest are generated when you type 'make' at the
top level: ztest/yaz-ztest and client/yaz-client. Ztest is a dummy
database server which returns canned responses to all queries. It's good
for verifying that the protocol works ok, and ztest.c shows an
implementation of a 'backend' interface.

yaz-client is a linemode Z39.50 client. It supports a fair amount of the
functionality of Z39.50v2/SR, but some things you need to enable or
disable by recompilation. Its primary purpose is to excersise the
package, and verify that the protocol works OK. It can be started by
typing

  yaz-client tcp:<hostname>:<port>[/<database>]

at the UNIX prompt, to connect to a Z39.50 server.

Use '?' to get a list of the available commands.

The current query language for the find command is a bit awkward, but
functional:

 query     ::= ['@attrset' <attribute-set>] rpn
 rpn       ::= complex | simple | attr rpn
 complex   ::= operator rpn rpn
 operator  ::= '@and' | '@or' | '@not' | '@prox' proximity
 simple    ::= term | set.
 term      ::= <word> | '"' <term> ... '"'.
 set       ::= '@set' <setname>.
 attr      ::= '@attr' [<attribute-set>] <number> '=' <number>.
 proximity ::= exclusion distance ordered relation which unit
 exclusion ::= '1' | '0' | 'void'
 distance  ::= <number>
 ordered   ::= '1' | '0'
 relation  ::= <number>
 which     ::= 'known' | 'private'
 unit      ::= <number>

Eg.:

 Andersen

 "Hans Andersen"

 @and @attr 1=1 andersen @attr 1=4 @attr 4=2 duckling

 @attrset Bib-1 @and @attr GILS 2=2008 Washington @attr 1=21 weather

The sort command takes a sequence of sort specifications. A sort
specification holds a field (sort criteria) and is followed by flags.
If the sort critieria includes = it is assumed that the sort SortKey
is of type sortAttributes using Bib-1. The integer before the = is
the attribute type and the integer following the = is the attribute
value. If no = is in the SortKey it is treated as a sortfield-type
of type InternationalString. Flags observed are s (sort case
sensitive), i (sort case insensitive), < (ascending), > (descending).
Eg.:
   1=4   i<                  (use is title, insensitive, ascending).
   Title s>                  (String Title, sensitive, descending).

The directories:

doc     - Documentation.

util    - Various little utility functions. Logging, memory debugging,
    primitive ISO 2709 presentation for the yaz-client, etc. You'll
    find the ASN.1 Compiler for YAZ here as well (yc.tcl).

odr - Open Data Representation. This module implements the BER
    encoding rules. Documentation is found in the files odr-use.man
    and odr.txt.

asn     - This module implements the Z39.50/SR protocol. The best way
    to find out how it works is to look in the sample
    client/server code in server/seshigh.c. The interface is still
        wholly described by the file proto.h which defines structure
        and type definitions for each of the types introduced in the
        protocol specification.

z39.50  - This module implements the Z39.50 protocol. This module
        does the same job as the 'asn' module except that the source
        files are auto-generated using an YAZ' ASN.1 Compiler (YC).

zutil   - This module implements a collection of Z39.50 utilities, such
        as query parsing, EXTERNAL handling, etc.

ill     - This module implements the ISO ILL protocol.

comstack - This module implements the transport transparency
    stack (COMSTACK). The comstack implements a generic interface
    for exchanging BER-encoded records over a network. It supports
    the 'American' mode of exchanging the records straight over
    TCP/IP, and uses Peter Furniss' XTIMOSI package over RFC1006.
    Look for documentation in the file comstack.man.

rfc1006 - Xtimosi requires an implementation of the OSI transport
    layer with an XTI-based API. Some systems (HP and DEC,
    notably) provide this. For others, we provide an
    implementation of the RFC1006 protocol (which is what
    ISODE-based implementations often use). This module is not
    needed if you don't use xtimosi, and it's not included in the
    libyaz.a library.

server  - This is the implementation of the server frontend. It
    provides event-handling and server managament functions,
    and calls the backend primitives (best documentation of these
    is in the file include/backend.h).

client  - A demonstration client. If we come upon a good design for a
    higher level client API, that will live here.

ztest   - A demonstration server that implements a backend.

include - The various header files.

lib     - The libraries. Primarily libyaz.a. The makefile gathers the
          libraries from previous modules into libyaz.a.

To get more information or assistance, send mail to [email protected].

We maintain a mailing-list for the purpose of announcing new versions of
the software, bug-reports, discussion etc. You can sign up by sending
mail to [email protected] and include the following command
command in your email:
    subscribe yaz-l