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From: Zefram <zefram@dcs.warwick.ac.uk>
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Subject: Re: Autoloading of compctl from dbm database file.
To: fclim@singnet.com.sg (Fung-Chai Lim)
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 14:17:52 +0000 (GMT)
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In-Reply-To: <9612011323.AA00468@fclim.singnet.com.sg> from "Fung-Chai Lim" at Dec 1, 96 09:22:43 pm
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X-US-Congress: Moronic fuckers
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>Having aliases and functions in the database can be useful.  Remember my
>example, putting
>	ZDBFILE=database
>	zdb -auf
>at the top of any shell script is enough to access aliases and functions.

. ~/.zshenv

has much the same effect.

>The compctl command is a complicated beast; I don't understand most of
>the doc on it.  The idea behind the global database is for a compctl guru
>to maintain it for the benefits of other users.

That's already possible.  At this site, I maintain a file of compctl
commands which is sourced by many people's .zshrc.  The only
differences between this file and a database would be the efficiency of
interpretation and ease of editing.

>I wonder if the *shell* will be corrupted when fetching data from a dbm
>file at a time when the file changes size.

Whether we use a database or not, the shell *must* cope with any binary
rubbish thrown at it.  (Modules, due to them containing machine code,
are a necessary exception.)

-zefram