Provided by: libgetdata-doc_0.11.0-13_all bug

NAME

       dirfile-format — the dirfile database format specification file

DESCRIPTION

       The  dirfile  format  specification  fully  specifies the raw and derived time streams and
       auxiliary information for a dirfile(5) database.

       The format specification is contained in one or more case-sensitive text files located  in
       the  dirfile  tree.   Each  file is known as a fragment.  The primary fragment is the file
       called format located in the base dirfile directory.  This file may contain only  part  of
       the format specification, and may reference other fragments (using the /INCLUDE directive)
       containing  further  format  specification.   This  inclusion  mechanism  may  be   nested
       arbitrarily deep.

       The explicit text encoding of these files is not specified by these Standards, but it must
       be 7-bit ASCII compatible. Examples of acceptable  character  encodings  include  all  the
       ISO  8859  character  sets  (i.e.  Latin-1 through Latin-10, among others), as well as the
       UTF-8 encoding of Unicode and UCS.

       This document primarily describes the  latest  version  of  the  Standards  (Version  10);
       differences  with  previous versions are noted where relevant.  A complete list of changes
       between versions is given in the HISTORY section below.

SYNTAX

       The format specification is composed of field specification  lines  and  directive  lines,
       optionally  separated  by  blank  lines  or  lines  containing only whitespace.  Lines are
       separated by the line-feed character (0x0A).  Unless escaped (see below),  the  hash  mark
       (#)  is the comment delimiter; the comment delimiter, and any text following it to the end
       of the line, is ignored.

   Tokens
       Both field specification lines and directive lines consist of several tokens separated  by
       whitespace.   Whitespace  consists of one or more whitespace characters.  These are: space
       (0x20), horizontal tab (0x09), vertical tab (0x0B), form-feed (0x0C), and carriage  return
       (0x0D).   The  first token of a directive line is always a reserved word.  The first token
       of a field specification line is never a reserved word.   Any  amount  of  whitespace  may
       precede the first token on a line.

       Since tokens are separated by whitespace, to include a whitespace character in a token, it
       must either escaped by preceding it by a backslash character (\),  or  be  replaced  by  a
       character  escape  sequence  (see  below), or else the token must be enclosed in quotation
       marks (").  The quotation marks themselves are stripped from  the  token.  The  null-token
       (that is, the token consisting of zero characters) may be specified by a pair of quotation
       marks with nothing between them ("").  To include a literal quotation mark in a token,  it
       must  be  escaped (\").  Similarly, a hash mark may be included in a token by including it
       in a quoted token or else by escaping it (\#), otherwise the hash mark  is  understood  as
       the comment delimiter.

       It  is a syntax error to have a line which contains unmatched quotation marks, or in which
       the last character is the backslash character.

       Several characters when escaped by a preceding  backslash  character  are  interpreted  as
       special characters in tokens.  The character escape sequences are:

              \a     an alert (bell) character (ASCII 0x07 / U+0007)

              \b     a backspace character (ASCII 0x08 / U+0008)

              \e     an escape character (ASCII 0x1B / U+001B)

              \f     a form-feed character (ASCII 0x0C / U+000C)

              \n     a line-feed character (ASCII 0x0A / U+000A)

              \r     a carriage return character (ASCII 0x0D / U+000D)

              \t     a horizontal tab character (ASCII 0x09 / U+0009)

              \v     a vertical tab character (ASCII 0x0B / U+000B)

              \\     a backslash character (ASCII 0x5C / U+005C)

              \ooo   the single byte given by the octal number ooo (1 to 3 octal digits).

              \xhh   the  single  byte  given  by  the  hexadecimal number hh (1 or 2 hexadecimal
                     digits).

              \uhhhhhhh
                     the UTF-8 byte sequence  encoding  the  Unicode  code  point  given  by  the
                     hexadecimal number hhhhhhh (1 to 7 hexadecimal digits).

       Any other character which is escaped is interpreted as the character itself.  (i.e.  \c is
       interpreted as c; also, as pointed out above, \" and \# are interpreted as simply " and #,
       without their special meanings).

       No  token  may  contain  the  NULL character (ASCII 0x00 / U+0000).  Furthermore, although
       support is present to create UTF-8 byte sequences, tokens are not  required  to  be  valid
       UTF-8 sequences.  Any byte sequence not containing the NULL character forms a valid token.
       However, there may be further  restrictions  on  allowed  characters  for  a  token  in  a
       particular situation, (for example, when used as a field name).

       Standards Version 5 and earlier do not recognise the character escape sequences, nor allow
       quoting of tokens. As a result, they prohibit both whitespace and  the  comment  delimiter
       from being used in tokens.

DIRECTIVES

       There  are  ten  directives,  each specified by a different reserved word, which cannot be
       used as field names in the dirfile.  As of Standards Version 8, all reserved  words  start
       with  an  initial  forward  slash  (/),  to  distinguish them from field names.  Standards
       Versions 5, 6, and 7 permitted the  omission  of  the  initial  forward  slash,  while  in
       Standards  Version  4  and  earlier, reserved words may not have an initial forward slash.
       Like the rest of the format specification, directives are case sensitive.

       A number of the directives have fragment scope.  A  directive  with  fragment  scope  only
       applies  to  the  fragment in which it is present, plus any sub-fragments indicated by the
       /INCLUDE directive, but only if those sub-fragments don't  have  their  own  corresponding
       directive.   Directives  which  have fragment scope are: /ENCODING, /ENDIAN, /FRAMEOFFSET,
       and /PROTECT.  Because of these scoping rules, different portions of the dirfile may  have
       different encodings, endiannesses, frame offsets, or protection levels.

       If  a  directive  with  fragment scope appears more than once in a fragment, only the last
       such directive is honoured, with the exception that the  effect  of  a  directive  is  not
       propagated  to  sub-fragments  if  the  directive  line  appears after the sub-fragment is
       included.  The scoping rules of the remaining directives are discussed below.

       /ALIAS The /ALIAS directive defines an alternate name for a field defined elsewhere in the
              format  specification (called the "target").  Aliases may not be used as the parent
              field in a /META directive, but are in most other ways indistinguishable  from  the
              target's  original,  canonical  name.   Aliases may be chained (that is, the target
              name appearing in an /ALIAS directive may itself be an alias).  In this  case,  the
              new  alias  is  another  name  for  the  target's  own target.  Just as there is no
              requirement that the input fields of a derived field exist, it is not an error  for
              the target of an alias to not exist.  Syntax is:

                     /ALIAS <name> <target>

              A metafield alias may defined using the <parent-field>/<alias-name> syntax for name
              in the /ALIAS directive.  No restriction  is  placed  on  target;  specifically,  a
              metafield  alias  may  target a top-level field, or a metafield of with a different
              parent; conversely, a top-level alias may target a metafield.

              A metafield alias may never appear as the parent part of a  metafield  field  code,
              even if it refers to a top-level field.  That is, given the valid format:

                     aaaa RAW UINT8 1
                     aaaa/bbbb CONST FLOAT64 0.0
                     cccc RAW UINT8 1
                     /ALIAS cccc/dddd aaaa

              the  metafield  aaaa/bbbb  may  not  be  referred to as cccc/dddd/bbbb, even though
              cccc/dddd is a valid field code referring to aaaa.

              This is not true of top-level aliases: if eeee is an alias of ffff, then ffff/gggg,
              a metafield of ffff, may be referred to as eeee/gggg as well.

              The  /ALIAS  directive  has  no scope: it is processed immediately.  It appeared in
              Standards Version 9.

       /ENCODING
              The /ENCODING directive specifies the encoding scheme used to encode  binary  files
              in  the  dirfile.   The  encoding  scheme may be one of the predefined names listed
              below, which are described in more detail  in  dirfile-encoding(5),  or  any  other
              site-specific encoding scheme.  The predefined scheme names are:

              none   The dirfile is unencoded.

              bzip2  The dirfile is compressed using the bzip2 compression scheme.

              flac   The dirfile is compressed using the flac compression scheme.

              gzip   The dirfile is compressed using the gzip compression scheme.

              lzma   The dirfile is compressed using the LZMA compression scheme.

              slim   The dirfile is compressed using the slim compression scheme.

              sie    The dirfile is sample-index encoded (a variant of run-length encoding).

              text   The dirfile is text encoded.

              zzip   The  dirfile  is  compressed  and  encapsulated  using  the zzip compression
                     scheme.

              zzslim The dirfile is compressed and encapsulated using a combination of  the  zzip
                     and slim compression schemes.

              Implementations  should  fail  gracefully  when  encountering  an  unknown encoding
              scheme.  If no encoding scheme is specified, behaviour is implementation dependent.
              Syntax is:

                     /ENCODING <scheme> [<enc-datum>]

              The  enc-datum  token  provides  additional  data for certain encoding schemes; see
              dirfile-encoding(5) for details.  The form of enc-datum is not specified.

              The /ENCODING directive has fragment scope.  It appeared in  Standards  Version  6.
              The  predefined  schemes  sie,  zzip, and zzslim, and the optional enc-datum token,
              appeared in Standards Version 9; the predefined scheme lzma appeared  in  Standards
              Version 7; all other predefined schemes appeared in Standards Version 6.

       /ENDIAN
              The  /ENDIAN  directive  specifies  the endianness of the raw data in the database.
              The assumed endianness of raw  data  in  dirfiles  which  omit  this  directive  is
              implementation dependent.  Syntax is:

                     /ENDIAN ( big | little ) [ arm ]

              where  the  "arm"  token should be included if double precision floating point data
              are stored in the ARM middle-endian format.  The  /ENDIAN  directive  has  fragment
              scope.   It  appeared  in  Standards Version 5.  The optional arm token appeared in
              Standards Version 8.

       /FRAMEOFFSET
              The /FRAMEOFFSET directive specifies the frame number of the first frame for  which
              data exists in binary files associated with RAW fields.  Syntax is:

                     /FRAMEOFFSET <integer>

              The /FRAMEOFFSET directive has fragment scope.  It appeared in Standards Version 1.

       /HIDDEN
              The  /HIDDEN  directive  indicates  that  the  specified field name is hidden.  The
              difference (if any) between a field name which is hidden and one  that  is  not  is
              implementation  dependent.   Hiddenness  is  not  inherited  by  metafields  of the
              specified field.  Hiddenness applies to the name, not the field itself; it does not
              hide  all  aliases  of  the  field-name,  and  if field-name an alias, the alias is
              hidden, not its target.  Syntax is:

                     /HIDDEN <field-name>

              A /HIDDEN directive must appear  after  the  specification  of  field-name,  (which
              occurs  either  in  a  field specification line, or an /ALIAS directive, or a /META
              directive) in the same fragment.

              The /HIDDEN directive has no scope: it is processed immediately.   It  appeared  in
              Standards Version 9.

       /INCLUDE
              The  /INCLUDE  directive  specifies  another  file (called a fragment) to parse for
              additional format specification  for  the  dirfile.   The  inclusion  is  processed
              immediately,  before  the  fragment  containing  the /INCLUDE directive (the parent
              fragment) is parsed further.  RAW fields specified in  the  included  fragment  are
              located  in  the  directory  containing the fragment file, and not in the directory
              containing the parent fragment, and the binary file encoding may be  different  for
              each fragment.  The fragment may be specified either with an absolute path, or else
              a path relative to the directory containing the parent fragment.

              The /INCLUDE directive may optionally specify a prefix and/or suffix  to  apply  to
              field  names  defined in the included fragment.  If present, affixes are applied to
              all field-names (including aliases)  defined  in  the  included  fragment  and  any
              fragments  it  further  includes.   Affixes  nest,  with the affixes of the deepest
              inclusion innermost.  Affixes  are  not  applied  to  the  names  of  binary  files
              associated with RAW fields.  Syntax is:

                     /INCLUDE <file> [<namespace>.][<prefix>] [<suffix>]

              To specify only suffix, the null-token ("") may be used as prefix.

              A  namespace  may  also  be  specified in an /INCLUDE directive by prepending it to
              prefix.  The namespace and prefix are separated by a dot (.).  The dot is  required
              whenever  a  namespace is specified: if the prefix is empty, the third token should
              be just the namespace followed by a trailing dot.  If  a  namespace  is  specified,
              that  namespace,  relative  to the including fragment's root namespace, becomes the
              root namespace of the included fragment.  If  no  namespace  is  specified  in  the
              /INCLUDE  directive, then the current namespace (specified by a previous /NAMESPACE
              directive) is used as the root namespace of the included fragment.  That is, if the
              current namespace is current_space, then the statement:

                     /INCLUDE file newspace.

              is equivalent to

                     /NAMESPACE newspace
                     /INCLUDE file
                     /NAMESPACE current_space

              As a result, if no namespace is provided, and there has been no previous /NAMESPACE
              directive, the included fragment will have the same root namespace as the including
              fragment.

              The  /INCLUDE  directive has no scope: it is processed immediately.  It appeared in
              Standards Version 3.  The optional prefix and suffix appeared in Standards  Version
              9.  The optional namespace appeared in Standards Version 10.

       /META  The  /META  directive  specifies a metafield attached to a particular parent field.
              The field metadata may be of any allowed type except RAW.  Metafields are retrieved
              in  exactly  the  same  way  as  regular  field  data, but the field code specified
              consists of the parent and metafield names joined with a forward slash:

                     <parent-field>/<meta-field>

              META fields may not be specified before their parent field has been.  Syntax is:

                     /META <parent-field> {field specification line}

              The <parent-field> code may not be an alias.  As an illustration of this concept,

                     /META pfield meta CONST FLOAT64 3.291882

              provides a scalar metadatum called meta with value 3.291882 attached to  the  field
              pfield.    This  particular  metafield  may  be  referred  to  by  the  field  code
              "pfield/meta".  Note that different parent fields may have metafields with the same
              name,  since  all  references  to  metafields  must  include the parent field name.
              Metafields may not themselves have further sub-metafields.

              As an alternative to the /META directive, starting  with  Standards  Version  7,  a
              metafield may be specified by a standard field specification line, using

                     <parent-field>/<meta-field>

              as  the  field  name.   That  is,  the above example metafield could have also been
              specified as:

                     pfield/meta CONST FLOAT64 3.291882

              The /META directive has no scope: it is  processed  immediately.   It  appeared  in
              Standards Version 6.

       /NAMESPACE
              The         /NAMESPACE         directive         changes         the        current
              namespaceforsubsequentfieldspecificationlines.  Syntax is:

                     /NAMESPACE <subspace>

              The subspace specified is relative to the current fragment's  root  namespace.   If
              subspace  is the null-token ("") the current namespace will be set back to the root
              namespace.  Otherwise, the current namespace will be changed to  the  concatenation
              of the root namespace with subspace, with the two parts separated by a dot:

                     rootspace.subspace

              If rootspace is empty, the intervening dot is omitted, and the current namespace is
              simply subspace.

              By default, all field codes, both field names for newly specified fields, and field
              codes  used  as  inputs to fields or targets for aliases, are placed in the current
              namespace, unless they start with  an  initial  dot,  in  which  case  the  current
              namespace  is ignored, and they're placed instead in the fragment's root namespace.
              See the Namespaces section for further details.

              The /NAMESPACE directive has no  scope:  it  is  processed  immediately.   For  the
              effects  of  changing the current namespace on included fragments, see the /INCLUDE
              directive above.  The effects of a /NAMESPACE directive never propagate upwards  to
              parent fragments.  It appeared in Standards Version 10.

       /PROTECT
              The  /PROTECT  directive  specifies  the  advisory  protection level of the current
              fragment and of the RAW fields defined therein.   The  protection  level  indicates
              whether  writing  to the fragment, or the binary data on disk is permitted.  Syntax
              is:

                     /PROTECT <level>

              Four advisory protection levels are defined:

              none   No protection at all: data and metadata may be freely changed.  This is  the
                     default, if no /PROTECT directive is present.

              format The  dirfile  metadata is protected from change, but RAW data on disk may be
                     modified.

              data   The RAW data on disk is protected from change, but metadata may be modified.

              all    Both metadata and data on disk are protected from change.

              The /PROTECT directive has fragment scope.  It appeared in Standards Version 6.

       /REFERENCE
              The /REFERENCE directive specifies the name of the field to use  as  the  dirfile's
              reference  field  (see  dirfile(5)).   If no /REFERENCE directive is specified, the
              first RAW field encountered  is  used  as  the  reference  field.   The  /REFERENCE
              directive must specify a RAW field.  Syntax is:

                     /REFERENCE <field-code>

              The /REFERENCE directive has global scope: if multiple /REFERENCE directives appear
              in the dirfile metadata, only the last such is honoured.  It appeared in  Standards
              Version 6.

       /VERSION
              The /VERSION directive specifies the particular version of the Dirfile Standards to
              which the dirfile format  specification  conforms.   This  directive  should  occur
              before  any version dependent syntax is encountered.  As of Standards Version 6, no
              such syntax exists, and this  directive  is  provided  primarily  to  ease  forward
              compatibility.  Syntax is:

                     /VERSION <integer>

              The /VERSION directive has immediate scope: its effect is immediate, and it applies
              only to metadata below it, including and  propagating  downwards  to  sub-fragments
              after the directive.

              In  Standards Version 8 and earlier, its effect also propagates upwards back to the
              parent fragment, and affects subsequent metadata.  Starting with Standards  Version
              9,  this  no  longer  happens.  As a result, a /VERSION directive which indicates a
              version of 9 or later never propagates upwards; additionally,  /VERSION  directives
              found  in  subfragments included in a Version 9 or later fragment aren't propagated
              upwards into that fragment, regardless of the Version  of  the  subfragments.   The
              /VERSION directive appeared in Standards Version 5.

FIELD SPECIFICATION LINES

       Any  line which does not start with a reserved word is assumed to be a field specification
       line.  A field specification line consists of at least two tokens.  The first token is the
       field  name.  The second token is the field type.  Subsequent tokens are field parameters.
       The meaning and number these parameters depends on the field type specified.

   Field Names
       The first token in a field specification line is the field name.  The field name  consists
       of one or more characters, excluding both ASCII control characters (the bytes 0x01 through
       0x1F), and the characters

              &    /    ;    <    >    |    .

       which are reserved (but see below for the use of / to specify metafields).   The  dot  (.)
       is  allowed in Standards Version 5 and earlier.  The ampersand, semicolon, less-than sign,
       greater-than sign, and vertical line (& ; < > |) are allowed in Standards  Version  4  and
       earlier.   Furthermore,  due  to  the  lack  of an escape or quoting mechanism (see Tokens
       above), Standards Version 5 and earlier also prohibit whitespace and the comment delimiter
       (#) in field names.

       The  field  name  may  not be INDEX, which is a special, implicit field which contains the
       integer frame index.  Standards Version 5 and earlier also prohibit FILEFRAM, which was an
       alias  for  INDEX.   Field  names  are case sensitive.  Standards Version 3 and 4 restrict
       field names to 50 characters. Standards Version 2 and earlier restrict field names  to  16
       characters. Additionally, the filesystem may put restrictions on the length and acceptable
       characters of a RAW field name, regardless of Standards Version.

       Starting in Standards Version 7, if the field name beginning a  field  specification  line
       contains  exactly  one  forward  slash  character  (/),  the  line is assumed to specify a
       metafield.  See the /META directive above for further  details.   A  field  name  may  not
       contain more than one forward slash.

       Starting  in Standards Version 10, any field name may be preceded by a namespace tag.  The
       namespace tag and the field name are separated by a dot (.).  See the Namespaces  section,
       following, for details.

   Namespaces
       Beginning with Standards Version 10, every field in a Dirfile is contained in a namespace.
       Every namespace is identified by a namespace tag which consist of the same restricted  set
       of  characters used for field names.  Namespaces nest arbitrarily deep.  Subnamespaces are
       identified by concatenating all namespace tags, separating tags  by  dots  (.),  with  the
       outermost namespace leftmost:

                     topspace.subspace.subsubspace

       Each  fragment  has an immutable root namespace.  The root namespace of the primary format
       file is the null namespace, identified by the null-token  ("").   The  root  namespace  of
       other  fragments is specified when they are introduced (see the /INCLUDE directive).  Each
       fragment also has a current namespace which may be changed as often as  needed  using  the
       /NAMESPACE directive, and defaults to the root namespace.  The current namespace is always
       either the root namespace or else a subspace under the root namespace.

       If a field name or field code starts with a leading dot, then that name or code  is  taken
       to be relative to the fragment's root space.  If it does not start with a dot, it is taken
       to be relative to the current namespace.

       For example, if the both the root namespace and current namespace of a fragment start  off
       as rootspace, then:

              aaaa RAW UINT8 1
              .bbbb RAW UINT8 1
              cccc.dddd RAW UINT8 1
              .eeee.ffff RAW UINT8 1
              /NAMESPACE newspace
              gggg RAW UINT8 1
              .hhhh RAW UINT8 1
              iiii.jjjj RAW UINT8 1
              .kkkk.llll RAW UINT8 1

       specifies, respectively, the fields:

              rootspace.aaaa,
              rootspace.bbbb,
              rootspace.cccc.dddd,
              rootspace.eeee.ffff,
              rootspace.newspace.gggg,
              rootspace.hhhh,
              rootspace.newspace.iiii.jjjj, and
              rootspace.kkkk.llll.

       Note  that  a  field  may  specify deeper subspaces under either the root namespace or the
       current namespace (meaning it is never necessary to use the  /NAMESPACE  directive).  Note
       also  that there is no way for metadata in a given fragment to refer to fields outside the
       fragment's root space.

       There is one exception to this namespace scoping rule: the implicit INDEX vector is always
       in the null (top-level) namespace, and namespace tags specified with it, either explicitly
       or implicitly, even a fragment root namespace, are ignored.  So, in a fragment  with  root
       namespace rootspace, and current namespace rootspace.subspace,

              INDEX,
              .INDEX,
              namespace.INDEX, and
              .namespace.INDEX,

       all refer to the same INDEX field.

   Field Types
       There  are  eighteen  field  types.   Of  these, fourteen are of vector type (BIT, DIVIDE,
       INDIR, LINCOM, LINTERP, MPLEX, MULTIPLY, PHASE, POLYNOM, RAW,  RECIP,  SBIT,  SINDIR,  and
       WINDOW)  and  four  are  of scalar type (CARRAY, CONST, SARRAY, and STRING).  The thirteen
       vector field types other than RAW fields are also called derived fields, since they derive
       their  value  from one or more input vector fields.  Any other vector field may be used as
       an input vector, including the implicit INDEX field, but excluding SINDIR string vectors.

       Five of these derived fields (DIVIDE, LINCOM, MPLEX, MULTIPLY, and WINDOW) have more  than
       one  vector  input  field.   In  situations where these input fields have differing sample
       rates, the sample rate of the derived field is the same as the sample rate  of  the  first
       (left-most)  input  field  specified.   Furthermore,  the input fields are synchronised by
       aligning them on frame boundaries, assuming equally-spaced sampling  throughout  a  frame,
       and  using the last sample of each input field which did not occur after the sample of the
       derived field being computed.  That is, if the first and second input fields  have  sample
       rates  s1  and  s2, the derived field also has sample rate s1 and, for every sample of the
       derived field, n, the n'th sample of the first field is used (since  they  have  the  same
       sample rate by definition), and the sample number used of the second field, m, is computed
       as:

              m = floor((n * s2) / s1).

       Starting  in  Standards  Version  6,  certain  scalar  field  parameters  in   the   field
       specifications  may  be specified using CONST or CARRAY fields, instead of literal values.
       A list of parameters for which this is allowed is given  below  in  the  Field  Parameters
       section.

       The possible fields types are:

       BIT    The BIT vector field type extracts one or more bits out of an input vector field as
              an unsigned number.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> BIT <input> <first-bit> [<num-bits>]

              which specifies fieldname to be num-bits bits extracted from the input vector field
              input  starting with bit number first-bit (counting from the least-significant bit,
              which is numbered zero), after input has been converted from its native type to  an
              (endianness  corrected)  unsigned  64-bit  integer.   If num-bits is omitted, it is
              assumed to be one.

              The extracted bits are interpreted as an unsigned integer; the SBIT field type is a
              signed  version  of  this  field type.  The optional num-bits parameter appeared in
              Standards Version 1.

       CARRAY The CARRAY scalar field type is a list of constants fully specified in  the  format
              specification metadata.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> CARRAY <type> <value0> <value1> <value2> ...

              where  type  may  be any supported native data type (see the description of the RAW
              field type below), and value0, value1, &c. are the values of successive elements in
              the scalar list interpreted as indicated by type.  No limit is placed on the number
              of elements in a CARRAY.  (Note: despite being multivalued, this is not  considered
              a vector field since the elements of the CARRAY are not indexed by frames.)  CARRAY
              appeared in Standards Version 8.

       CONST  The  CONST  scalar  field  type  is  a  constant  fully  specified  in  the  format
              specification metadata.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> CONST <type> <value>

              where  type  may  be any supported native data type (see the description of the RAW
              field type below), and value is the numerical value of the constant interpreted  as
              indicated by type.  CONST appeared in Standards Version 6.

       DIVIDE The DIVIDE vector field type is the quotient of two vector fields.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> DIVIDE <field1> <field1>

              The derived field is computed as:

                     fieldname = field1 / field2.

              It was introduced in Standards Version 8.

       INDIR  The  INDIR  vector  field  type performs an indirect translation of a CARRAY scalar
              field to a derived vector field based on a vector index field.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> INDIR <index> <array>

              where index is the vector  field,  which  is  converted  to  an  integer  type,  if
              necessary, and array is the CARRAY field.  The nth sample of the INDIR field is the
              value of the mth element of array (counting from zero), where m is the value of the
              nth  sample  of  index.   When  index  is  not a valid element number of array, the
              corresponding value of the INDIR is implementation dependent.   INDIR  appeared  in
              Standards Version 10.

       LINCOM The  LINCOM  vector field type is the linear combination of one, two or three input
              vector fields.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> LINCOM [<n>] <field1> <a1> <b1> [<field2>  <a2>  <b2>  [<field3>
                     <a3> <b3>]]

              where n, if present, indicates the number of input vector fields (1, 2, or 3).  The
              derived field is computed as:

                     fieldname = (a1 * field1 + b1) + (a2 * field2 + b2) + (a3 * field3 + b3)

              with the field2 and field3 terms included only if specified.

              If n is not specified, the number  of  fields  is  determined  by  looking  at  the
              supplied  parameters.   Since  it  is  possible  to  create  a  field code which is
              identical to a literal number, the third token on the line is assumed to be n if it
              the  entire  token  can  be  parsed as a literal number using the rules outlined in
              strtod(3).  That is, if the field code specifying field1 could be  mistaken  for  a
              literal  number,  n must be specified to prevent ambiguity.  In standards Version 6
              and earlier, n is mandatory.

       LINTERP
              The LINTERP vector field type specifies a table look up  based  on  another  vector
              field.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> LINTERP <input> <table>

              where  input  is the input vector field for the table lookup, and table is the path
              to the lookup table file for the field.  If this path is relative, it is assumed to
              be  relative  to  the  directory  containing the fragment defining this field.  The
              lookup table file is an ASCII text file with two whitespace separated columns of  x
              and y values.  Values are linearly interpolated between the points specified in the
              lookup table.

       MPLEX  The MPLEX vector field type permits the multiplexing of  several  low  sample  rate
              fields into a single data field of higher sample rate.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> MPLEX <input> <index> <count> [<period>]

              where  input  is  the  input vector containing the multiplexed fields, index is the
              vector containing the mutliplex index, count is the value of  the  multiplex  index
              when the computed field is stored in input, and period, if present and non-zero, is
              the number of samples between successive occurrances of  the  value  count  in  the
              index  vector.   A  period of zero (or, equivalently, it's omission) indicates that
              either the value count is not equally spaced in the index vector, or else that  the
              spacing  is  unknown.   Both  count  and period are integers, and period may not be
              negative.

              At every sample n, the derived field is computed as:

                     fieldname[n] = (index == count) ? input[n] : fieldname[n - 1]

              The index vector is converted to an integer type for comparison.  The value of  the
              derived  field  before  the first sample where index equals count is implementation
              dependent.

              The values of count and period place no restrictions on values contained in  index.
              Specifically,  particular  values  of  index  (including count) need not be equally
              spaced (neither by period nor any other spacing); index need not ever take  on  the
              value  count  (in  which  case  the  value  of the entirety of the derived field is
              implementation dependent).  Different MPLEX field definitions which  use  the  same
              index vector may specify different periods.  MPLEX appeared in Standards Version 9.

       MULTIPLY
              The MULTIPLY vector field type is the product of two vector fields.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> MULTIPLY <field1> <field2>

              The derived field is computed as:

                     fieldname = field1 * field2.

              MULTIPLY appeared in Standards Version 2.

       PHASE  The PHASE vector field type shifts an input vector field by the specified number of
              samples.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> PHASE <input> <shift>

              which specifies fieldname to be the input vector field,  input,  shifted  by  shift
              samples.   A  positive  shift  indicates a forward shift, towards the end-of-field.
              Results  of  shifting  past  the  beginning-  or  end-of-field  is   implementation
              dependent.  PHASE appeared in Standards Version 4.

       POLYNOM
              The  POLYNOM  vector  field  type specifies a polynomial function of a single input
              vector field.  Syntax is:

                     <field_name> POLYNOM <input> <a0> <a1> [<a2> [<a3> [<a4> [<a5>]]]]

              where <input> is the input field code, and the order of the computed polynomial  is
              determined by how many co-efficients are present in the specification.  The derived
              field is computed as:

                     fieldname = a0 + a1 * input + a2 * input**2 + a3 * input**3 + a4 *  input**4
                     + a5 * input**5

              where  **  is  the element-wise exponentiation operator, and the higher order terms
              are computed only if the corresponding co-efficients  ai  are  specified.   POLYNOM
              appeared in Standards Version 7.

       RAW    The  RAW  vector  field type specifies raw time streams on disk.  In this case, the
              field name should correspond to the name of the file containing  the  time  stream.
              Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> RAW <type> <sample-rate>

              where  sample-rate  is  the number of samples per dirfile frame for the time stream
              and type is a token specifying the native data type:

                     UINT8  unsigned 8-bit integer

                     INT8   two's complement signed 8-bit integer

                     UINT16 unsigned 16-bit integer

                     INT16  two's complement signed 16-bit integer

                     UINT32 unsigned 32-bit integer

                     INT32  two's complement signed 32-bit integer

                     UINT64 unsigned 64-bit integer

                     INT64  two's complement signed 64-bit integer

                     FLOAT32
                            IEEE-754 standard 32-bit single precision floating point number

                     FLOAT64
                            IEEE-754 standard 64-bit double precision floating point number

                     COMPLEX64
                            a 64-bit complex number consisting of two  IEEE-754  standard  32-bit
                            single  precision  floating  point  numbers representing the real and
                            imaginary parts of the complex number (Standards Version 7 and later)

                     COMPLEX128
                            a 128-bit complex number consisting of two IEEE-754  standard  64-bit
                            double  precision  floating  point  numbers representing the real and
                            imaginary parts of  the  complex  number  (Standards  Version  7  and
                            later).

              For  more  information  on the storage of complex valued data, see dirfile(5).  Two
              additional type names  exist:  FLOAT  is  equivalent  to  FLOAT32,  and  DOUBLE  is
              equivalent to FLOAT64.  Standards Version 9 deprecates these two aliases, but still
              allows them.

              All these type names (except  those  for  complex  data,  which  came  later)  were
              introduced in Standards Version 5.  Earlier Standards Versions specified data types
              with single-character type aliases:

                     c      UINT8

                     u      UINT16

                     s      INT16

                     U      UINT32

                     i, S   INT32

                     f      FLOAT32

                     d      FLOAT64

              Types INT8, UINT64, INT64, COMPLEX64,  and  COMPLEX128  are  not  supported  before
              Standards  Version  5,  so  no single-character type aliases exist for these types.
              These single-character type aliases were deprecated  in  Standards  Version  5  and
              removed in Standards Version 8.

       RECIP  The RECIP vector field type computes the reciprocal of a single input vector field.
              Syntax is:

                     <field_name> RECIP <input> <dividend>

              where <input> is the input field code and <dividend> is  a  scalar  quantity.   The
              derived field is computed as:

                     fieldname = dividend / input.

              RECIP appeared in Standards Version 8.

       SARRAY The  SARRAY  scalar  field  type is a list of strings fully specified in the format
              file metadata.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> SARRAY <string0> <string1> <string2> ...

              Each string is a single token.  To include whitespace in a string,  enclose  it  in
              quotation  marks  ("),  or  else escape the whitespace with the backslash character
              (\).  No limit is placed on the number of elements in a SARRAY.  SARRAY appeared in
              Standards Version 10.

       SBIT   The  SBIT  vector field type extracts one or more bits out of an input vector field
              as a (two's-complement) signed number.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> SBIT <input> <first-bit> [<num-bits>]

              which specifies fieldname to be num-bits bits extracted from the input vector field
              input  starting with bit number first-bit (counting from the least-significant bit,
              which is numbered zero), after input has been converted from its native type to  an
              (endianness  corrected)  two's  complement  signed  64-bit integer.  If num-bits is
              omitted, it is assumed to be one.

              The extracted bits are interpreted as a two's  complement  signed  integer  of  the
              specified  width. (So, if num-bits is, for example, one, then the field can take on
              the value zero or negative one.)  The BIT field type is an unsigned version of this
              field type.  SBIT appeared in Standards Version 7.

       SINDIR The  SINDIR  vector  field type performs an indirect translation of a SARRAY scalar
              field to a derived vector field of strings based on a vector index  field.   Syntax
              is:

                     <fieldname> SINDIR <index> <array>

              where  index  is  the  vector  field,  which  is  converted  to an integer type, if
              necessary, and array is the SARRAY field.  The nth sample of the  SINDIR  field  is
              the  string  value of the mth element of array (counting from zero), where m is the
              value of the nth sample of index.  When index is not  a  valid  element  number  of
              array,  the  corresponding value of the SINDIR is implementation dependent.  SINDIR
              appeared in Standards Version 10.

       STRING The STRING scalar field type is a character string fully specified  in  the  format
              file metadata.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> STRING <string>

              where string is the string value of the field.  Note that string is a single token.
              To include whitespace in the string, enclose string in quotation marks ("), or else
              escape  the  whitespace  with  the  backslash  character  (\).   STRING appeared in
              Standards Version 6.

       WINDOW The WINDOW vector field type isolates a portion of  an  input  vector  based  on  a
              comparison.  Syntax is:

                     <fieldname> WINDOW <input> <check> <op> <threshold>

              where  input  is  the vector containing the data to extract, check is the vector on
              which to test the comparison,  threshold  is  the  value  against  which  check  is
              compared,  and  op  is  one  of  the  following  tokens  indicating  the particular
              comparison performed:

                     EQ     data are extracted where check, converted to a 64-bit signed integer,
                            equals threshold,

                     GE     data  are extracted where check, converted to a 64-bit floating-point
                            number, is greater than or equal to threshold,

                     GT     data are extracted where check, converted to a 64-bit  floating-point
                            number, is strictly greater than threshold,

                     LE     data  are extracted where check, converted to a 64-bit floating-point
                            number, is less than or equal to threshold,

                     LT     data are extracted where check, converted to a 64-bit  floating-point
                            number, is strictly less than threshold,

                     NE     data are extracted where check, converted to a 64-bit signed integer,
                            is not equal to threshold,

                     SET    data are extracted where at least one bit set in  threshold  is  also
                            set in check, when converted to a 64-bit unsigned integer,

                     CLR    data are extracted where at least one bit set in threshold is not set
                            in check, when converted to a 64-bit unsigned integer,

              The  storage  type  of  threshold  depends  on  the  operator,  and   follows   the
              interpretation of check.  It may never be complex valued.

              Outside  the  region  extracted,  the  value of the derived field is implementation
              dependent.

              Note: with the EQ operator, this derived field type is very similar  to  the  MPLEX
              field  type  above.  The primary difference is that MPLEX mandates the value of the
              derived field outside the extracted region, while WINDOW does not.  WINDOW appeared
              in Standards Version 9.

   Field Parameters
       All  input  vector  field parameters should be field codes (see below).  Additionally, the
       scalar field parameters listed may be either literal numbers or else the field code  of  a
       CONST  field  containing the value, or the field code of a CARRAY followed by a left angle
       bracket (<), then an non-negative integer used as the CARRAY element index, then  a  right
       angle bracket (>), that is:

              fieldcode<n>

       If  the  angle  brackets  and element index are omitted from a CARRAY field code used as a
       parameter, the first element in the field (index zero) is assumed.

       Field parameters which may be specified using a scalar field code are:

              BIT, SBIT
                     bitnum, numbits

              LINCOM any of the mi, or bi

              MPLEX  count, max

              PHASE  shift

              POLYNOM
                     any of the ai

              RAW    spf

              RECIP  dividend

              WINDOW threshold

       Since it is possible to create a field code which is identical  to  a  literal  number,  a
       parameter  is  assumed  to  be  the  field code of a scalar field only if the entire token
       cannot be parsed as a literal number using the rules outlined in strtod(3).  For  example,
       a  CONST field whose field code consists solely of digits can never be used as a parameter
       in a field specification line.

       Starting in Standards Version 7, literal complex number is specified as two real (floating
       point)  numbers  separated  by  a  semicolon  (;) with no intervening whitespace.  So, for
       example, the tokens

              1;0  0;1  4;0  0;5  9.313e2;74.1

       represent, respectively, the real unit, the imaginary unit,  the  real  number  four,  the
       imaginary  number  5i,  and  the  complex  number  931.3  +  74.1i.  Because the semicolon
       character cannot be used in field names, a complex valued literal can  never  be  mistaken
       for  a  field  code.   This  allows, among other things, the composition of complex valued
       fields from purely real input fields.  For example, a complex  valued  field,  z,  may  be
       created from a real valued field re, representing the real part of the complex number, and
       the real valued field im, representing the imaginary part of the complex number, with  the
       following LINCOM specification:

              z LINCOM re 1 0 im 0;1 0

       Starting  in  Standards  Version  9,  in  additional  to decimal notation, literal integer
       parameters may be specified as hexadecimal numbers, by  prefixing  the  number  (after  an
       optional '+' or '-' sign) with 0x or 0X, or as octal numbers, by prefixing the number with
       0, as described in strtol(3).  Similarly, floating point literal numbers (both purely real
       ones and components of complex literals) may be specified in hexadecimal by prefixing them
       with 0x or 0X, and using p or P as the binary exponent prefix, as  described  in  the  C99
       standard.   Both uppercase and lowercase hexadecimal digits may be used.  In cases where a
       literal floating point number may apear, the tokens INF or INFINITY,  optionally  preceded
       by  a '+' or '-' sign, and NAN, optionally immediately followed by '(', then a sequence of
       characters, then ')', and all disregarding  case,  will  be  interpreted  as  the  special
       floating point values explained in strtod(3).

   Field Codes
       When  specifying the input to a field, either as a scalar parameter, or as an input vector
       field to a non-RAW vector field, field codes are used.   A  field  code  consists  of,  in
       order:

       •   (since Standards Version 10:) optonally, a leading dot (.), indicating this field code
           is relative to the fragment's root namespace.  Without the leading dot, the field code
           is  taken  to  be  relative  to  the  current  namespace.   (See the discussion in the
           Namespaces section above for details.)

       •   (since Standards Version 10:) optionally, a non-null subnamespace followed  by  a  dot
           (.)   indicating a subspace under the current or root namespace.  The subnamespace may
           be made up of any number of namespace tags separated by dots, to nest  deeper  in  the
           namespace tree.

       •   (since  Standards  Version  6:) if the field in question is a metafield (see the /META
           directive above), the field name of the metafield's parent (which  may  be  an  alias)
           followed by a forward slash (/).

       •   a simple field name, possibly an alias, indicating a vector or scalar field

       •   (since  Standards  Version  7:)  optionally,  a  dot (.)  followed by a representation
           suffix.

       A representation suffix may be used used to extract a real number from  a  complex  value.
       The available suffixes (listed here with their preceding dot) and their meanings are:

       .a     the  argument  of  the  input, that is, the angle (in radians) between the positive
              real axis and the input.  The argument is in the range [-pi, pi], and a branch  cut
              exists  along  the  negative  real axis.  At the branch cut, -pi is returned if the
              imaginary part is -0, and pi is returned if the imaginary part is +0.  If the input
              is zero, zero is returned.

       .i     the  imaginary  part  of  the  input  (i.e.  the  projection  of the input onto the
              imaginary axis)

       .m     the modulus of the input (i.e. its absolue value).

       .r     the real part of the input (i.e. the projection of the input onto the real axis)

       .z     (since Standards Version 10:) the identity  representation:  it  returns  the  full
              complex  value,  equivalent  to  simply omitting the suffix completely.  It is only
              needed in certain cases to force the correct interpretation of a field code in  the
              presence of a namespace tag.  To wit, the field code

                     name.r

              may be interpreted as the real-part (via the .r representation suffix) of the field
              called name.  (if such a field exists).  To refer to a field called r in  the  name
              namespace, the field code must be written:

                     name.r.z

              NB:  The  first  interpretation only occurs with valid representation suffixes; the
              field code:

                     name.q

              is interpreted as the field q in the name namespace  because  .q  is  not  a  valid
              representation  suffix.   Furthermore,  ambiguity arises only if both fields "name"
              and "name.r" are defined.  if the field  "name"  does  not  exist,  but  the  field
              "name.r"  does,  then  the  original field code is not ambiguous.  This is the only
              representation suffix allowed on SARRAY, SINDIR, and STRING field codes.

       If the specified field is purely real, representations are calculated as if the  imaginary
       part were equal to +0.

HISTORY

       This document describes Versions 10 and earlier of the Dirfile Standards.

       Version  10  of  the  Standards  (January  2017) added the INDIR, SARRAY, and SINDIR field
       types, namespaces, the  /NAMESPACE  directive,  the  flac  encoding  scheme,  and  the  .z
       representation suffix.

       Version 9 of the Standards (April 2012) added the MPLEX and WINDOW field types, the /ALIAS
       and /HIDDEN directives, the affixes to  /INCLUDE,  the  sie,  zzip,  and  zzslim  encoding
       schemes, along with the optional enc_datum token to /ENCODING.  It permitted specification
       of integer literals in octal and hexadecimal.  Finally, it  deprecated  the  type  aliases
       FLOAT and DOUBLE.

       Version  8  of  the  Standards  (November  2010) added the DIVIDE, RECIP, and CARRAY field
       types, made the forward slash on  reserved  words  mandatory,  and  prohibited  using  the
       single-character  type aliases in the specification of RAW fields.  It also introduced the
       optional second (arm) token to the /ENDIAN directive.

       Version 7 of the Standards (October 2009) added the SBIT and POLYNOM field types, and  the
       directive-less  method  of  specifying  metafields.   It  also  introduced  the data types
       COMPLEX128 and COMPLEX64, along with the notion of representations, and the lzma  encoding
       scheme.  Finally, it made the number of fields parameter for LINCOM optional.

       Version  6  of  the  Standards  (October  2008)  added the /ENCODING, /META, /PROTECT, and
       /REFERENCE directives, and the CONST and STRING field types.  It permitted  whitespace  in
       tokens  and  introduced the character escape sequences. It allowed CONST fields to be used
       as parameters in field specification lines.  It also removed  FILEFRAM  as  an  alias  for
       INDEX, and prohibited .  but allowed # and \ in field names.

       Version  5  of  the Standards (August 2008) added VERSION and ENDIAN, slash demarcation of
       reserved words, and removed the restriction on field name length.  It introduced the  data
       types  INT8,  INT64, and UINT64, the new-style type specifiers, and increased the range of
       the BIT field type from 32 to 64 bits.  It also prohibited the characters &;<>\| in  field
       names.

       Version 4 of the Standards (October 2006) added the PHASE field type.

       Version  3  of the Standards (January 2006) added INCLUDE and increased the allowed length
       of a field name from 16 to 50 characters.

       Version 2 of the Standards (September 2005) added the MULTIPLY field type.

       Version 1 of the Standards (November 2004)  added  FRAMEOFFSET  and  the  optional  fourth
       argument to the BIT field type.

       Version  0  of the Standards (before March 2003) refers to the dirfile standards supported
       by the getdata(3) library originally introduced into the kst(1) sources,  which  contained
       support for all other features covered by this document.

AUTHORS

       The     dirfile     specification     was     developed     by     C.    B.    Netterfield
       <netterfield@astro.utoronto.ca>.

       Since Standards Version 3, the dirfile specification has been maintained by  D.  V.  Wiebe
       <getdata@ketiltrout.net>.

SEE ALSO

       dirfile(5), dirfile-encoding(5)