Completed revision of text.

[idzebra-moved-to-github.git] / doc / administration.xml

<chapter id="administration">
 <!-- $Id: administration.xml,v 1.33 2006-05-02 12:55:18 mike Exp $ -->
 <title>Administrating Zebra</title>
 <!-- ### It's a bit daft that this chapter (which describes half of
          the configuration-file formats) is separated from
          "recordmodel-grs.xml" (which describes the other half) by the
          instructions on running zebraidx and zebrasrv.  Some careful
          re-ordering is required here.
 -->

 <para>
  Unlike many simpler retrieval systems, Zebra supports safe, incremental
  updates to an existing index.
 </para>
 
 <para>
  Normally, when Zebra modifies the index it reads a number of records
  that you specify.
  Depending on your specifications and on the contents of each record
  one the following events take place for each record:
  <variablelist>
   
   <varlistentry>
    <term>Insert</term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      The record is indexed as if it never occurred before.
      Either the Zebra system doesn't know how to identify the record or
      Zebra can identify the record but didn't find it to be already indexed.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
   <varlistentry>
    <term>Modify</term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      The record has already been indexed.
      In this case either the contents of the record or the location
      (file) of the record indicates that it has been indexed before.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
   <varlistentry>
    <term>Delete</term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      The record is deleted from the index. As in the
      update-case it must be able to identify the record.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>
 </para>
 
 <para>
  Please note that in both the modify- and delete- case the Zebra
  indexer must be able to generate a unique key that identifies the record 
  in question (more on this below).
 </para>
 
 <para>
  To administrate the Zebra retrieval system, you run the
  <literal>zebraidx</literal> program.
  This program supports a number of options which are preceded by a dash,
  and a few commands (not preceded by dash).
</para>
 
 <para>
  Both the Zebra administrative tool and the Z39.50 server share a
  set of index files and a global configuration file.
  The name of the configuration file defaults to
  <literal>zebra.cfg</literal>.
  The configuration file includes specifications on how to index
  various kinds of records and where the other configuration files
  are located. <literal>zebrasrv</literal> and <literal>zebraidx</literal>
  <emphasis>must</emphasis> be run in the directory where the
  configuration file lives unless you indicate the location of the 
  configuration file by option <literal>-c</literal>.
 </para>
 
 <sect1 id="record-types">
  <title>Record Types</title>
  
  <para>
   Indexing is a per-record process, in which either insert/modify/delete
   will occur. Before a record is indexed search keys are extracted from
   whatever might be the layout the original record (sgml,html,text, etc..).
   The Zebra system currently supports two fundamental types of records:
   structured and simple text.
   To specify a particular extraction process, use either the
   command line option <literal>-t</literal> or specify a
   <literal>recordType</literal> setting in the configuration file.
  </para>
  
 </sect1>
 
 <sect1 id="configuration-file">
  <title>The Zebra Configuration File</title>
  
  <para>
   The Zebra configuration file, read by <literal>zebraidx</literal> and
   <literal>zebrasrv</literal> defaults to <literal>zebra.cfg</literal>
   unless specified by <literal>-c</literal> option.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   You can edit the configuration file with a normal text editor.
   parameter names and values are separated by colons in the file. Lines
   starting with a hash sign (<literal>#</literal>) are
   treated as comments.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   If you manage different sets of records that share common
   characteristics, you can organize the configuration settings for each
   type into "groups".
   When <literal>zebraidx</literal> is run and you wish to address a
   given group you specify the group name with the <literal>-g</literal>
   option.
   In this case settings that have the group name as their prefix 
   will be used by <literal>zebraidx</literal>.
   If no <literal>-g</literal> option is specified, the settings
   without prefix are used.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   In the configuration file, the group name is placed before the option
   name itself, separated by a dot (.). For instance, to set the record type
   for group <literal>public</literal> to <literal>grs.sgml</literal>
   (the SGML-like format for structured records) you would write:
  </para>
  
  <para>
   <screen>
    public.recordType: grs.sgml
   </screen>   
  </para>
  
  <para>
   To set the default value of the record type to <literal>text</literal>
   write:
  </para>
  
  <para>
   <screen>
    recordType: text
   </screen>
  </para>
  
  <para>
   The available configuration settings are summarized below. They will be
   explained further in the following sections.
  </para>
  
  <!--
   FIXME - Didn't Adam make something to have multiple databases in multiple dirs...
  -->
  
  <para>
   <variablelist>
    
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
      <emphasis>group</emphasis>
      .recordType[<emphasis>.name</emphasis>]:
      <replaceable>type</replaceable>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies how records with the file extension
       <emphasis>name</emphasis> should be handled by the indexer.
       This option may also be specified as a command line option
       (<literal>-t</literal>). Note that if you do not specify a
       <emphasis>name</emphasis>, the setting applies to all files.
       In general, the record type specifier consists of the elements (each
       element separated by dot), <emphasis>fundamental-type</emphasis>,
       <emphasis>file-read-type</emphasis> and arguments. Currently, two
       fundamental types exist, <literal>text</literal> and
       <literal>grs</literal>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><emphasis>group</emphasis>.recordId: 
     <replaceable>record-id-spec</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies how the records are to be identified when updated. See
       <xref linkend="locating-records"/>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><emphasis>group</emphasis>.database:
     <replaceable>database</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies the Z39.50 database name.
       <!-- FIXME - now we can have multiple databases in one server. -H -->
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><emphasis>group</emphasis>.storeKeys:
     <replaceable>boolean</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies whether key information should be saved for a given
       group of records. If you plan to update/delete this type of
       records later this should be specified as 1; otherwise it
       should be 0 (default), to save register space.
       <!-- ### this is the first mention of "register" -->
       See <xref linkend="file-ids"/>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><emphasis>group</emphasis>.storeData:
      <replaceable>boolean</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies whether the records should be stored internally
       in the Zebra system files.
       If you want to maintain the raw records yourself,
       this option should be false (0).
       If you want Zebra to take care of the records for you, it
       should be true(1).
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <!-- ### probably a better place to define "register" -->
     <term>register: <replaceable>register-location</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies the location of the various register files that Zebra uses
       to represent your databases.
       See <xref linkend="register-location"/>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>shadow: <replaceable>register-location</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Enables the <emphasis>safe update</emphasis> facility of Zebra, and
       tells the system where to place the required, temporary files.
       See <xref linkend="shadow-registers"/>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>lockDir: <replaceable>directory</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Directory in which various lock files are stored.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>keyTmpDir: <replaceable>directory</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Directory in which temporary files used during zebraidx's update
       phase are stored. 
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>setTmpDir: <replaceable>directory</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies the directory that the server uses for temporary result sets.
       If not specified <literal>/tmp</literal> will be used.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>profilePath: <replaceable>path</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies a path of profile specification files. 
       The path is composed of one or more directories separated by
       colon. Similar to PATH for UNIX systems.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>attset: <replaceable>filename</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies the filename(s) of attribute set files for use in
       searching. At least the Bib-1 set should be loaded
       (<literal>bib1.att</literal>).
       The <literal>profilePath</literal> setting is used to look for
       the specified files.
       See <xref linkend="attset-files"/>
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>memMax: <replaceable>size</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies <replaceable>size</replaceable> of internal memory
       to use for the zebraidx program.
       The amount is given in megabytes - default is 4 (4 MB).
       The more memory, the faster large updates happen, up to about
       half the free memory available on the computer.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>tempfiles: <replaceable>Yes/Auto/No</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Tells zebra if it should use temporary files when indexing. The
       default is Auto, in which case zebra uses temporary files only
       if it would need more that <replaceable>memMax</replaceable> 
       megabytes of memory. This should be good for most uses.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term>root: <replaceable>dir</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies a directory base for Zebra. All relative paths
       given (in profilePath, register, shadow) are based on this
       directory. This setting is useful if your Zebra server
       is running in a different directory from where
       <literal>zebra.cfg</literal> is located.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term>passwd: <replaceable>file</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies a file with description of user accounts for Zebra.
       The format is similar to that known to Apache's htpasswd files
       and UNIX' passwd files. Non-empty lines not beginning with
       # are considered account lines. There is one account per-line.
       A line consists of fields separate by a single colon character.
       First field is username, second is password.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term>passwd.c: <replaceable>file</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies a file with description of user accounts for Zebra.
       File format is similar to that used by the passwd directive except
       that the password are encrypted. Use Apache's htpasswd or similar
       for maintenanace.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term>perm.<replaceable>user</replaceable>:
     <replaceable>permstring</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Specifies permissions (priviledge) for a user that are allowed
       to access Zebra via the passwd system. There are two kinds
       of permissions currently: read (r) and write(w). By default
       users not listed in a permission directive are given the read
       priviledge. To specify permissions for a user with no
       username, or Z39.50 anonymous style use
        <literal>anonymous</literal>. The permstring consists of
       a sequence of characters. Include character <literal>w</literal>
       for write/update access, <literal>r</literal> for read access.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term>dbaccess <replaceable>accessfile</replaceable></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Names a file which lists database subscriptions for individual users.
          The access file should consists of lines of the form <literal>username:
          dbnames</literal>, where dbnames is a list of database names, seprated by
          '+'. No whitespace is allowed in the database list.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

   </variablelist>
  </para>
  
 </sect1>
 
 <sect1 id="locating-records">
  <title>Locating Records</title>
  
  <para>
   The default behavior of the Zebra system is to reference the
   records from their original location, i.e. where they were found when you
   ran <literal>zebraidx</literal>.
   That is, when a client wishes to retrieve a record
   following a search operation, the files are accessed from the place
   where you originally put them - if you remove the files (without
   running <literal>zebraidx</literal> again, the server will return
   diagnostic number 14 (``System error in presenting records'') to
   the client.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   If your input files are not permanent - for example if you retrieve
   your records from an outside source, or if they were temporarily
   mounted on a CD-ROM drive,
   you may want Zebra to make an internal copy of them. To do this,
   you specify 1 (true) in the <literal>storeData</literal> setting. When
   the Z39.50 server retrieves the records they will be read from the
   internal file structures of the system.
  </para>
  
 </sect1>
 
 <sect1 id="simple-indexing">
  <title>Indexing with no Record IDs (Simple Indexing)</title>
  
  <para>
   If you have a set of records that are not expected to change over time
   you may can build your database without record IDs.
   This indexing method uses less space than the other methods and
   is simple to use. 
  </para>
  
  <para>
   To use this method, you simply omit the <literal>recordId</literal> entry
   for the group of files that you index. To add a set of records you use
   <literal>zebraidx</literal> with the <literal>update</literal> command. The
   <literal>update</literal> command will always add all of the records that it
   encounters to the index - whether they have already been indexed or
   not. If the set of indexed files change, you should delete all of the
   index files, and build a new index from scratch.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   Consider a system in which you have a group of text files called
   <literal>simple</literal>.
   That group of records should belong to a Z39.50 database called
   <literal>textbase</literal>.
   The following <literal>zebra.cfg</literal> file will suffice:
  </para>
  <para>
   
   <screen>
    profilePath: /usr/local/idzebra/tab
    attset: bib1.att
    simple.recordType: text
    simple.database: textbase
   </screen>

  </para>
  
  <para>
   Since the existing records in an index can not be addressed by their
   IDs, it is impossible to delete or modify records when using this method.
  </para>
  
 </sect1>
 
 <sect1 id="file-ids">
  <title>Indexing with File Record IDs</title>
  
  <para>
   If you have a set of files that regularly change over time: Old files
   are deleted, new ones are added, or existing files are modified, you
   can benefit from using the <emphasis>file ID</emphasis>
   indexing methodology.
   Examples of this type of database might include an index of WWW
   resources, or a USENET news spool area.
   Briefly speaking, the file key methodology uses the directory paths
   of the individual records as a unique identifier for each record.
   To perform indexing of a directory with file keys, again, you specify
   the top-level directory after the <literal>update</literal> command.
   The command will recursively traverse the directories and compare
   each one with whatever have been indexed before in that same directory.
   If a file is new (not in the previous version of the directory) it
   is inserted into the registers; if a file was already indexed and
   it has been modified since the last update, the index is also
   modified; if a file has been removed since the last
   visit, it is deleted from the index.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   The resulting system is easy to administrate. To delete a record you
   simply have to delete the corresponding file (say, with the
   <literal>rm</literal> command). And to add records you create new
   files (or directories with files). For your changes to take effect
   in the register you must run <literal>zebraidx update</literal> with
   the same directory root again. This mode of operation requires more
   disk space than simpler indexing methods, but it makes it easier for
   you to keep the index in sync with a frequently changing set of data.
   If you combine this system with the <emphasis>safe update</emphasis>
   facility (see below), you never have to take your server off-line for
   maintenance or register updating purposes.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   To enable indexing with pathname IDs, you must specify
   <literal>file</literal> as the value of <literal>recordId</literal>
   in the configuration file. In addition, you should set
   <literal>storeKeys</literal> to <literal>1</literal>, since the Zebra
   indexer must save additional information about the contents of each record
   in order to modify the indexes correctly at a later time.
  </para>
  
   <!--
    FIXME - There must be a simpler way to do this with Adams string tags -H
     -->

  <para>
   For example, to update records of group <literal>esdd</literal>
   located below
   <literal>/data1/records/</literal> you should type:
   <screen>
    $ zebraidx -g esdd update /data1/records
   </screen>
  </para>
  
  <para>
   The corresponding configuration file includes:
   <screen>
    esdd.recordId: file
    esdd.recordType: grs.sgml
    esdd.storeKeys: 1
   </screen>
  </para>
  
  <note>
   <para>You cannot start out with a group of records with simple
    indexing (no record IDs as in the previous section) and then later
    enable file record Ids. Zebra must know from the first time that you
    index the group that
    the files should be indexed with file record IDs.
   </para>
   </note>
  
  <para>
   You cannot explicitly delete records when using this method (using the
   <literal>delete</literal> command to <literal>zebraidx</literal>. Instead
   you have to delete the files from the file system (or move them to a
   different location)
   and then run <literal>zebraidx</literal> with the
   <literal>update</literal> command.
  </para>
  <!-- ### what happens if a file contains multiple records? -->
</sect1>
 
 <sect1 id="generic-ids">
  <title>Indexing with General Record IDs</title>
  
  <para>
   When using this method you construct an (almost) arbitrary, internal
   record key based on the contents of the record itself and other system
   information. If you have a group of records that explicitly associates
   an ID with each record, this method is convenient. For example, the
   record format may contain a title or a ID-number - unique within the group.
   In either case you specify the Z39.50 attribute set and use-attribute
   location in which this information is stored, and the system looks at
   that field to determine the identity of the record.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   As before, the record ID is defined by the <literal>recordId</literal>
   setting in the configuration file. The value of the record ID specification
   consists of one or more tokens separated by whitespace. The resulting
   ID is represented in the index by concatenating the tokens and
   separating them by ASCII value (1).
  </para>
  
  <para>
   There are three kinds of tokens:
   <variablelist>
    
    <varlistentry>
     <term>Internal record info</term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The token refers to a key that is
       extracted from the record. The syntax of this token is
       <literal>(</literal> <emphasis>set</emphasis> <literal>,</literal>
       <emphasis>use</emphasis> <literal>)</literal>,
       where <emphasis>set</emphasis> is the
       attribute set name <emphasis>use</emphasis> is the
       name or value of the attribute.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>System variable</term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The system variables are preceded by
       
       <screen>
        $
       </screen>
       and immediately followed by the system variable name, which
       may one of
       <variablelist>
        
        <varlistentry>
         <term>group</term>
         <listitem>
          <para>
           Group name.
          </para>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
         <term>database</term>
         <listitem>
          <para>
           Current database specified.
          </para>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
         <term>type</term>
         <listitem>
          <para>
           Record type.
          </para>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
       </variablelist>
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>Constant string</term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       A string used as part of the ID &mdash; surrounded
       by single- or double quotes.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>
  
  <para>
   For instance, the sample GILS records that come with the Zebra
   distribution contain a unique ID in the data tagged Control-Identifier.
   The data is mapped to the Bib-1 use attribute Identifier-standard
   (code 1007). To use this field as a record id, specify
   <literal>(bib1,Identifier-standard)</literal> as the value of the
   <literal>recordId</literal> in the configuration file.
   If you have other record types that uses the same field for a
   different purpose, you might add the record type
   (or group or database name) to the record id of the gils
   records as well, to prevent matches with other types of records.
   In this case the recordId might be set like this:
   
   <screen>
    gils.recordId: $type (bib1,Identifier-standard)
   </screen>
   
  </para>
  
  <para>
   (see <xref linkend="record-model-grs"/>
    for details of how the mapping between elements of your records and
    searchable attributes is established).
  </para>
  
  <para>
   As for the file record ID case described in the previous section,
   updating your system is simply a matter of running
   <literal>zebraidx</literal>
   with the <literal>update</literal> command. However, the update with general
   keys is considerably slower than with file record IDs, since all files
   visited must be (re)read to discover their IDs. 
  </para>
  
  <para>
   As you might expect, when using the general record IDs
   method, you can only add or modify existing records with the
   <literal>update</literal> command.
   If you wish to delete records, you must use the,
   <literal>delete</literal> command, with a directory as a parameter.
   This will remove all records that match the files below that root
   directory.
  </para>
  
 </sect1>
 
 <sect1 id="register-location">
  <title>Register Location</title>
  
  <para>
   Normally, the index files that form dictionaries, inverted
   files, record info, etc., are stored in the directory where you run
   <literal>zebraidx</literal>. If you wish to store these, possibly large,
   files somewhere else, you must add the <literal>register</literal>
   entry to the <literal>zebra.cfg</literal> file.
   Furthermore, the Zebra system allows its file
   structures to span multiple file systems, which is useful for
   managing very large databases. 
  </para>
  
  <para>
   The value of the <literal>register</literal> setting is a sequence
   of tokens. Each token takes the form:
   
   <screen>
    <emphasis>dir</emphasis><literal>:</literal><emphasis>size</emphasis>. 
   </screen>
   
   The <emphasis>dir</emphasis> specifies a directory in which index files
   will be stored and the <emphasis>size</emphasis> specifies the maximum
   size of all files in that directory. The Zebra indexer system fills
   each directory in the order specified and use the next specified
   directories as needed.
   The <emphasis>size</emphasis> is an integer followed by a qualifier
   code, 
   <literal>b</literal> for bytes,
   <literal>k</literal> for kilobytes.
   <literal>M</literal> for megabytes,
   <literal>G</literal> for gigabytes.
  </para>
  
  <para>
   For instance, if you have allocated two disks for your register, and
   the first disk is mounted
   on <literal>/d1</literal> and has 2GB of free space and the
   second, mounted on <literal>/d2</literal> has 3.6 GB, you could
   put this entry in your configuration file:
   
   <screen>
    register: /d1:2G /d2:3600M
   </screen>
   
  </para>
  
  <para>
   Note that Zebra does not verify that the amount of space specified is
   actually available on the directory (file system) specified - it is
   your responsibility to ensure that enough space is available, and that
   other applications do not attempt to use the free space. In a large
   production system, it is recommended that you allocate one or more
   file system exclusively to the Zebra register files.
  </para>
  
 </sect1>
 
 <sect1 id="shadow-registers">
  <title>Safe Updating - Using Shadow Registers</title>
  
  <sect2>
   <title>Description</title>
   
   <para>
    The Zebra server supports <emphasis>updating</emphasis> of the index
    structures. That is, you can add, modify, or remove records from
    databases managed by Zebra without rebuilding the entire index.
    Since this process involves modifying structured files with various
    references between blocks of data in the files, the update process
    is inherently sensitive to system crashes, or to process interruptions:
    Anything but a successfully completed update process will leave the
    register files in an unknown state, and you will essentially have no
    recourse but to re-index everything, or to restore the register files
    from a backup medium.
    Further, while the update process is active, users cannot be
    allowed to access the system, as the contents of the register files
    may change unpredictably.
   </para>
   
   <para>
    You can solve these problems by enabling the shadow register system in
    Zebra.
    During the updating procedure, <literal>zebraidx</literal> will temporarily
    write changes to the involved files in a set of "shadow
    files", without modifying the files that are accessed by the
    active server processes. If the update procedure is interrupted by a
    system crash or a signal, you simply repeat the procedure - the
    register files have not been changed or damaged, and the partially
    written shadow files are automatically deleted before the new updating
    procedure commences.
   </para>
   
   <para>
    At the end of the updating procedure (or in a separate operation, if
    you so desire), the system enters a "commit mode". First,
    any active server processes are forced to access those blocks that
    have been changed from the shadow files rather than from the main
    register files; the unmodified blocks are still accessed at their
    normal location (the shadow files are not a complete copy of the
    register files - they only contain those parts that have actually been
    modified). If the commit process is interrupted at any point during the
    commit process, the server processes will continue to access the
    shadow files until you can repeat the commit procedure and complete
    the writing of data to the main register files. You can perform
    multiple update operations to the registers before you commit the
    changes to the system files, or you can execute the commit operation
    at the end of each update operation. When the commit phase has
    completed successfully, any running server processes are instructed to
    switch their operations to the new, operational register, and the
    temporary shadow files are deleted.
   </para>
   
  </sect2>
  
  <sect2>
   <title>How to Use Shadow Register Files</title>
   
   <para>
    The first step is to allocate space on your system for the shadow
    files.
    You do this by adding a <literal>shadow</literal> entry to the
    <literal>zebra.cfg</literal> file.
    The syntax of the <literal>shadow</literal> entry is exactly the
    same as for the <literal>register</literal> entry
    (see <xref linkend="register-location"/>).
     The location of the shadow area should be
     <emphasis>different</emphasis> from the location of the main register
     area (if you have specified one - remember that if you provide no
     <literal>register</literal> setting, the default register area is the
     working directory of the server and indexing processes).
   </para>
   
   <para>
    The following excerpt from a <literal>zebra.cfg</literal> file shows
    one example of a setup that configures both the main register
    location and the shadow file area.
    Note that two directories or partitions have been set aside
    for the shadow file area. You can specify any number of directories
    for each of the file areas, but remember that there should be no
    overlaps between the directories used for the main registers and the
    shadow files, respectively.
   </para>
   <para>
    
    <screen>
     register: /d1:500M
     shadow: /scratch1:100M /scratch2:200M
    </screen>
    
   </para>
   
   <para>
    When shadow files are enabled, an extra command is available at the
    <literal>zebraidx</literal> command line.
    In order to make changes to the system take effect for the
    users, you'll have to submit a "commit" command after a
    (sequence of) update operation(s).
   </para>
   
   <para>
    
    <screen>
     $ zebraidx update /d1/records 
     $ zebraidx commit
    </screen>
    
   </para>
   
   <para>
    Or you can execute multiple updates before committing the changes:
   </para>
   
   <para>
    
    <screen>
     $ zebraidx -g books update /d1/records  /d2/more-records
     $ zebraidx -g fun update /d3/fun-records
     $ zebraidx commit
    </screen>
    
   </para>
   
   <para>
    If one of the update operations above had been interrupted, the commit
    operation on the last line would fail: <literal>zebraidx</literal>
    will not let you commit changes that would destroy the running register.
    You'll have to rerun all of the update operations since your last
    commit operation, before you can commit the new changes.
   </para>
   
   <para>
    Similarly, if the commit operation fails, <literal>zebraidx</literal>
    will not let you start a new update operation before you have
    successfully repeated the commit operation.
    The server processes will keep accessing the shadow files rather
    than the (possibly damaged) blocks of the main register files
    until the commit operation has successfully completed.
   </para>
   
   <para>
    You should be aware that update operations may take slightly longer
    when the shadow register system is enabled, since more file access
    operations are involved. Further, while the disk space required for
    the shadow register data is modest for a small update operation, you
    may prefer to disable the system if you are adding a very large number
    of records to an already very large database (we use the terms
    <emphasis>large</emphasis> and <emphasis>modest</emphasis>
    very loosely here, since every application will have a
    different perception of size).
    To update the system without the use of the the shadow files,
    simply run <literal>zebraidx</literal> with the <literal>-n</literal>
    option (note that you do not have to execute the
    <emphasis>commit</emphasis> command of <literal>zebraidx</literal>
    when you temporarily disable the use of the shadow registers in
    this fashion.
    Note also that, just as when the shadow registers are not enabled,
    server processes will be barred from accessing the main register
    while the update procedure takes place.
   </para>
   
  </sect2>
  
 </sect1>


 <sect1 id="administration-ranking">
  <title>Relevance Ranking and Sorting of Result Sets</title>

  <sect2>
   <title>Overview</title>
   <para>
    The default ordering of a result set is left up to the server,
    which inside Zebra means sorting in ascending document ID order. 
    This is not always the order humans want to browse the sometimes
    quite large hit sets. Ranking and sorting comes to the rescue.
   </para>

   <para> 
    In cases where a good presentation ordering can be computed at
    indexing time, we can use a fixed <literal>static ranking</literal>
    scheme, which is provided for the <literal>alvis</literal>
    indexing filter. This defines a fixed ordering of hit lists,
    independently of the query issued. 
   </para>

   <para>
    There are cases, however, where relevance of hit set documents is
    highly dependent on the query processed.
    Simply put, <literal>dynamic relevance ranking</literal> 
    sorts a set of retrieved 
    records such
    that those most likely to be relevant to your request are
    retrieved first. 
    Internally, Zebra retrieves all documents that satisfy your
    query, and re-orders the hit list to arrange them based on
    a measurement of similarity between your query and the content of
    each record. 
   </para>

   <para>
    Finally, there are situations where hit sets of documents should be
    <literal>sorted</literal> during query time according to the
    lexicographical ordering of certain sort indexes created at
    indexing time.
   </para>
  </sect2>


 <sect2 id="administration-ranking-static">
  <title>Static Ranking</title>
  
   <para>
    Zebra uses internally inverted indexes to look up term occurencies
    in documents. Multiple queries from different indexes can be
    combined by the binary boolean operations <literal>AND</literal>, 
    <literal>OR</literal> and/or <literal>NOT</literal> (which
    is in fact a binary <literal>AND NOT</literal> operation). 
    To ensure fast query execution
    speed, all indexes have to be sorted in the same order.
   </para>
   <para>
    The indexes are normally sorted according to document 
    <literal>ID</literal> in
    ascending order, and any query which does not invoke a special
    re-ranking function will therefore retrieve the result set in
    document 
    <literal>ID</literal>
    order.
   </para>
   <para>
    If one defines the 
    <screen>
    staticrank: 1 
    </screen> 
    directive in the main core Zebra config file, the internal document
    keys used for ordering are augmented by a preceeding integer, which
    contains the static rank of a given document, and the index lists
    are ordered 
    first by ascending static rank,
    then by ascending document <literal>ID</literal>.
    Zero
    is the ``best'' rank, as it occurs at the
    beginning of the list; higher numbers represent worse scores.
   </para>
   <para>
    The experimental <literal>alvis</literal> filter provides a
    directive to fetch static rank information out of the indexed XML
    records, thus making <emphasis>all</emphasis> hit sets orderd
    after <emphasis>ascending</emphasis> static
    rank, and for those doc's which have the same static rank, ordered
    after <emphasis>ascending</emphasis> doc <literal>ID</literal>.
    See <xref linkend="record-model-alvisxslt"/> for the gory details.
   </para>
    </sect2>


 <sect2 id="administration-ranking-dynamic">
  <title>Dynamic Ranking</title>
   <para>
    In order to fiddle with the static rank order, it is necessary to
    invoke additional re-ranking/re-ordering using dynamic
    ranking or score functions. These functions return positive
    integer scores, where <emphasis>highest</emphasis> score is 
    ``best'';
    hit sets are sorted according to
    <emphasis>decending</emphasis> 
    scores (in contrary
    to the index lists which are sorted according to
    ascending rank number and document ID).
   </para>
   <para>
    Dynamic ranking is enabled by a directive like one of the
    following in the zebra config file (use only one of these a time!):
    <screen> 
    rank: rank-1        # default TDF-IDF like
    rank: rank-static   # dummy do-nothing
    rank: zvrank        # configurable, experimental TDF-IDF like
    </screen>
    Notice that the <literal>rank-1</literal> and
    <literal>zvrank</literal> do not use the static rank 
    information in the list keys, and will produce the same ordering
    with or without static ranking enabled.
   </para>
   <para>
    The dummy <literal>rank-static</literal> reranking/scoring
    function returns just 
    <literal>score = max int - staticrank</literal>
    in order to preserve the static ordering of hit sets that would
    have been produced had it not been invoked.
    Obviously, to combine static and dynamic ranking usefully,
    it is necessary
    to make a new ranking 
    function; this is left
    as an exercise for the reader. 
   </para>


   <para>
    Dynamic ranking is done at query time rather than
    indexing time (this is why we
    call it ``dynamic ranking'' in the first place ...)
    It is invoked by adding
    the Bib-1 relation attribute with
    value ``relevance'' to the PQF query (that is,
    <literal>@attr&nbsp;2=102</literal>, see also  
    <ulink url="ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/z3950/defs/bib1.txt">
     The BIB-1 Attribute Set Semantics</ulink>). 
    To find all articles with the word <literal>Eoraptor</literal> in
    the title, and present them relevance ranked, issue the PQF query:
    <screen>
     @attr 2=102 @attr 1=4 Eoraptor
    </screen>
   </para>
 
   <para>
     The default <literal>rank-1</literal> ranking module implements a 
     TF-IDF (Term Frequecy over Inverse Document Frequency) like algorithm.
   </para>

   <warning>
     <para>
      Notice that <literal>dynamic ranking</literal> is not compatible
      with <literal>estimated hit sizes</literal>, as all documents in
      a hit set must be acessed to compute the correct placing in a
      ranking sorted list. Therefore the use attribute setting
      <literal>@attr&nbsp;2=102</literal> clashes with 
      <literal>@attr&nbsp;9=integer</literal>. 
     </para>
   </warning>  

   <para>
     It is possible to apply dynamic ranking on only parts of the PQF query:
     <screen>
     @and @attr 2=102 @attr 1=1010 Utah @attr 1=1018 Springer
     </screen>
     searches for all documents which have the term 'Utah' on the
     body of text, and which have the term 'Springer' in the publisher
     field, and sort them in the order of the relvance ranking made on
     the body-of-text index only. 
   </para>
    <para>
     Ranking weights may be used to pass a value to a ranking
     algorithm, using the non-standard BIB-1 attribute type 9.
     This allows one branch of a query to use one value while
     another branch uses a different one.  For example, we can search
     for <literal>utah</literal> in the title index with weight 30, as
     well as in the ``any'' index with weight 20:
     <screen>
     @attr 2=102 @or @attr 9=30 @attr 1=4 utah @attr 9=20 utah
     </screen>
    </para>
    <warning>
     <para>
      The ranking-weight feature is experimental. It may change in future
      releases of zebra, and is not production mature. 
     </para>
    </warning>
    
   <para>
     Notice that dynamic ranking can be enabled in sever side CQL
     query expansion by adding <literal>@attr&nbsp;2=102</literal> to
     the CQL config file. For example
     <screen>
      relationModifier.relevant         = 2=102
     </screen>
     invokes dynamic ranking each time a CQL query of the form 
    <screen>
     Z> querytype cql
     Z> f alvis.text =/relevant house
    </screen>
     is issued. Dynamic ranking can also be automatically used on
     specific CQL indexes by (for example) setting
     <screen>
      index.alvis.text                        = 1=text 2=102
     </screen>
     which then invokes dynamic ranking each time a CQL query of the form 
    <screen>
     Z> querytype cql
     Z> f alvis.text = house
    </screen>
     is issued.
   </para>

    </sect2>


 <sect2 id="administration-ranking-sorting">
  <title>Sorting</title>
   <para>
     Zebra sorts efficiently using special sorting indexes
     (type=<literal>s</literal>; so each sortable index must be known
     at indexing time, specified in the configuration of record
     indexing.  For example, to enable sorting according to the BIB-1
     <literal>Date/time-added-to-db</literal> field, one could add the line
     <screen>
        xelm /*/@created               Date/time-added-to-db:s
     </screen>
     to any <literal>.abs</literal> record-indexing configuration file.
     Similarily, one could add an indexing element of the form
     <screen><![CDATA[       
      <z:index name="date-modified" type="s">
       <xsl:value-of select="some/xpath"/>
      </z:index>
      ]]></screen>
     to any <literal>alvis</literal>-filter indexing stylesheet.
     </para>
     <para>
      Indexing can be specified at searching time using a query term
      carrying the non-standard
      BIB-1 attribute-type <literal>7</literal>.  This removes the
      need to send a Z39.50 <literal>Sort Request</literal>
      separately, and can dramatically improve latency when the client
      and server are on separate networks.
      The sorting part of the query is separate from the rest of the
      query - the actual search specification - and must be combined
      with it using OR.
     </para>
     <para>
      A sorting subquery needs two attributes: an index (such as a
      BIB-1 type-1 attribute) specifying which index to sort on, and a
      type-7 attribute whose value is be <literal>1</literal> for
      ascending sorting, or <literal>2</literal> for descending.  The
      term associated with the sorting attribute is the priority of
      the sort key, where <literal>0</literal> specifies the primary
      sort key, <literal>1</literal> the secondary sort key, and so
      on.
     </para>
    <para>For example, a search for water, sort by title (ascending),
    is expressed by the PQF query
     <screen>
     @or @attr 1=1016 water @attr 7=1 @attr 1=4 0
     </screen>
      whereas a search for water, sort by title ascending, 
     then date descending would be
     <screen>
     @or @or @attr 1=1016 water @attr 7=1 @attr 1=4 0 @attr 7=2 @attr 1=30 1
     </screen>
    </para>
    <para>
     Notice the fundamental differences between <literal>dynamic
     ranking</literal> and <literal>sorting</literal>: there can be
     only one ranking function defined and configured; but multiple
     sorting indexes can be specified dynamically at search
     time. Ranking does not need to use specific indexes, so
     dynamic ranking can be enabled and disabled without
     re-indexing; whereas, sorting indexes need to be
     defined before indexing.
     </para>

 </sect2>


 </sect1>

 <sect1 id="administration-extended-services">
  <title>Extended Services: Remote Insert, Update and Delete</title>
  
  <para>
    The extended services are not enabled by default in zebra - due to the
    fact that they modify the system.
    In order to allow anybody to update, use
    <screen>
    perm.anonymous: rw
    </screen>
    in the main zebra configuration file <filename>zebra.cfg</filename>.
    Or, even better, allow only updates for a particular admin user. For
    user <literal>admin</literal>, you could use:
    <screen>
     perm.admin: rw
     passwd: passwordfile
    </screen>
    And in <filename>passwordfile</filename>, specify users and
    passwords as colon seperated strings:
    <screen> 
     admin:secret
    </screen> 
   </para>
   <para>
    We can now start a yaz-client admin session and create a database:
   <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     $ yaz-client localhost:9999 -u admin/secret
     Z> adm-create
     ]]>
   </screen>
    Now the <literal>Default</literal> database was created,
    we can insert an XML file (esdd0006.grs
    from example/gils/records) and index it:
   <screen>  
    <![CDATA[
     Z> update insert 1 esdd0006.grs
     ]]>
   </screen>
    The 3rd parameter - <literal>1</literal> here -
      is the opaque record ID from <literal>Ext update</literal>.
      It a record ID that <emphasis>we</emphasis> assign to the record
    in question. If we do not 
    assign one, the usual rules for match apply (recordId: from zebra.cfg).
   </para>
   <para>
    Actually, we should have a way to specify "no opaque record id" for
    yaz-client's update command.. We'll fix that.
   </para>
   <para>
    The newly inserted record can be searched as usual:
    <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     Z> f utah
     Sent searchRequest.
     Received SearchResponse.
     Search was a success.
     Number of hits: 1, setno 1
     SearchResult-1: term=utah cnt=1
     records returned: 0
     Elapsed: 0.014179
     ]]>
    </screen>
   </para>
   <para>
    Let's delete the beast:
    <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     Z> update delete 1
     No last record (update ignored)
     Z> update delete 1 esdd0006.grs
     Got extended services response
     Status: done
     Elapsed: 0.072441
     Z> f utah
     Sent searchRequest.
     Received SearchResponse.
     Search was a success.
     Number of hits: 0, setno 2
     SearchResult-1: term=utah cnt=0
     records returned: 0
     Elapsed: 0.013610
     ]]>
     </screen>
    </para>
    <para>
    If shadow register is enabled in your
    <filename>zebra.cfg</filename>,
    you must run the adm-commit command
    <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     Z> adm-commit
     ]]>
    </screen>
     after each update session in order write your changes from the
     shadow to the life register space.
   </para>
   <para>
    Extended services are also available from the YAZ client layer. An
    example of an YAZ-PHP extended service transaction is given here:
    <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     $record = '<record><title>A fine specimen of a record</title></record>';

     $options = array('action' => 'recordInsert',
                      'syntax' => 'xml',
                      'record' => $record,
                      'databaseName' => 'mydatabase'
                     );

     yaz_es($yaz, 'update', $options);
     yaz_es($yaz, 'commit', array());
     yaz_wait();

     if ($error = yaz_error($yaz))
       echo "$error";
     ]]>
    </screen>  
    The <literal>action</literal> parameter can be any of 
    <literal>recordInsert</literal> (will fail if the record already exists),
    <literal>recordReplace</literal> (will fail if the record does not exist),
    <literal>recordDelete</literal> (will fail if the record does not
       exist), and
    <literal>specialUpdate</literal> (will insert or update the record
       as needed).
   </para>
   <para>
    If a record is inserted
    using the action  <literal>recordInsert</literal> 
    one can specify the optional
    <literal>recordIdOpaque</literal> parameter, which is a
    client-supplied, opaque record identifier. This identifier will
    replace zebra's own automagic identifier generation.  
   </para>
   <para>
    When using the action <literal>recordReplace</literal> or
    <literal>recordDelete</literal>, one must specify the additional 
    <literal>recordIdNumber</literal> parameter, which must be an
    existing Zebra internal system ID number. When retrieving existing
    records, the ID number is returned in the field
    <literal>/*/id:idzebra/localnumber</literal> in the namespace
    <literal>xmlns:id="http://www.indexdata.dk/zebra/"</literal>,
    where it can be picked up for later record updates or deletes. 
   </para>
 </sect1>


  <sect1 id="gfs-config">
   <title>YAZ Frontend Virtual Hosts</title>
    <para>
     <command>zebrasrv</command> uses the YAZ server frontend and does
     support multiple virtual servers behind multiple listening sockets.
    </para>
    &zebrasrv-virtual;
 
   <para>
    Section "Virtual Hosts" in the YAZ manual.
    <filename>http://www.indexdata.dk/yaz/doc/server.vhosts.tkl</filename>
   </para>
 </sect1>


  <sect1 id="administration-cql-to-pqf">
   <title>Server Side CQL to PQF Query Translation</title>
   <para>
    Using the
    <literal>&lt;cql2rpn&gt;l2rpn.txt&lt;/cql2rpn&gt;</literal>
      YAZ Frontend Virtual
    Hosts option, one can configure
    the YAZ Frontend CQL-to-PQF
    converter, specifying the interpretation of various 
    <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/cql/">CQL</ulink>
    indexes, relations, etc. in terms of Type-1 query attributes.
    <!-- The  yaz-client config file -->  
   </para>
   <para>
    For example, using server-side CQL-to-PQF conversion, one might
    query a zebra server like this:
    <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     yaz-client localhost:9999
     Z> querytype cql
     Z> find text=(plant and soil)
     ]]>
    </screen>
     and - if properly configured - even static relevance ranking can
     be performed using CQL query syntax:
    <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     Z> find text = /relevant (plant and soil)
     ]]>
     </screen>
   </para>

   <para>
    By the way, the same configuration can be used to 
    search using client-side CQL-to-PQF conversion:
    (the only difference is <literal>querytype cql2rpn</literal> 
    instead of 
    <literal>querytype cql</literal>, and the call specifying a local
    conversion file)
    <screen>
    <![CDATA[
     yaz-client -q local/cql2pqf.txt localhost:9999
     Z> querytype cql2rpn
     Z> find text=(plant and soil)
     ]]>
     </screen>
   </para>

   <para>
    Exhaustive information can be found in the
    Section "Specification of CQL to RPN mappings" in the YAZ manual.
    <ulink url="http://www.indexdata.dk/yaz/doc/tools.tkl#tools.cql.map">
     http://www.indexdata.dk/yaz/doc/tools.tkl#tools.cql.map</ulink>,
   and shall therefore not be repeated here.
   </para> 
  <!-- 
  <para>
    See 
      <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/zing/cql/dc-indexes.html">
      http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/zing/cql/dc-indexes.html</ulink>
    for the Maintenance Agency's work-in-progress mapping of Dublin Core
    indexes to Attribute Architecture (util, XD and BIB-2)
    attributes.
   </para>
   -->
 </sect1>


 
</chapter>

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