Startup Info

Info about what happens when a process is created and how a DB is created

Creating a DataBase

When a DataBase is created (using the front end utility), many things will happen. The DataBase will be named by the user, and a directory with that name will be created. Within that directory will be three UNIX files: one for the DB (the tuples, indicies, etc..), one for the log, and one for the catalog.

Each of these must be specified. A naming convention for naming these files will be specified (maybe like this:
DataBase name = my_db
logfilename = my_db.log
dbname = my_db.data
catalogname = my_db.catalog )

Starting a Process

When a process is created, it needs to be able to find the correct UNIX file. So every DB object must be passed a name. Most likely, the user will create the process by typing "minirel my_db". Then the main function will parse the command line and append the string with ".log" and ".data" and start each of the DB objects.

Several objects need to be created when a process begins. If it is the first process, it must allocate shared memory. Other processes will then detect that the shared memory has been allocated and will attach to it when the SharedMemory class is instantiated.

The various managers must be instantiated as well. This may be done by the SharedMemory constructor.

Some of the values that are currently stored as "const int's" in "minirel.h" will NOT remain this way. Some may be specified at the command line or in some other fashion. At any rate, their instantiation will occur early and will not occur in the different managers.