NAME

       exim_dbmbuild - Build a DBM file.

SYNOPSIS

       exim_dbmbuild [-nolc] [-nozero] [-noduperr] [-nowarn] inputfile|- outputfile

DESCRIPTION

       The  exim_dbmbuild program reads an input file containing keys and data in the format used
       by the lsearch lookup (see section 9.1).  It writes a DBM file using the lower-cased alias
       names  as  keys  and  the  remainder  of the information as data.  The lower-casing can be
       prevented by calling the program with the -nolc option.

       A terminating zero is included as part of the key string.  This is  expected  by  the  dbm
       lookup type.  However, if the option -nozero is given, exim_dbmbuild creates files without
       terminating zeroes in either the key strings or the data strings.  The dbmnz  lookup  type
       can be used with such files.

       The  program  requires  two  arguments:  the name of the input file (which can be a single
       hyphen to indicate the standard input), and the name of the output file.  It  creates  the
       output  under  a  temporary  name, and then renames it if all went well.  If the native DB
       interface is in use (USE_DB is set in a compile-time configuration file - this  is  common
       in  free  versions of Unix) the two file names must be different, because in this mode the
       Berkeley DB functions create a single output file  using  exactly  the  name  given.   For
       example,

         exim_dbmbuild /etc/aliases /etc/aliases.db

       reads the system alias file and creates a DBM version of it in /etc/aliases.db.

       In systems that use the ndbm routines (mostly proprietary versions of Unix), two files are
       used, with the suffixes .dir and .pag.  In this environment, the suffixes are added to the
       second  argument  of  exim_dbmbuild, so it can be the same as the first.  This is also the
       case when the Berkeley functions are used  in  compatibility  mode  (though  this  is  not
       recommended), because in that case it adds a .db suffix to the file name.

       If  a  duplicate  key is encountered, the program outputs a warning, and when it finishes,
       its return code is 1 rather than zero, unless the -noduperr option is used.   By  default,
       only  the  first  of  a  set of duplicates is used - this makes it compatible with lsearch
       lookups.  There is an option -lastdup which causes  it  to  use  the  data  for  the  last
       duplicate instead.  There is also an option -nowarn, which stops it listing duplicate keys
       to “stderr”.  For other errors, where it doesn't actually make a new file, the return code
       is 2.

BUGS

       This  manual  page  needs  a major re-work. If somebody knows better groff than us and has
       more experience in writing manual pages, any patches would be greatly appreciated.

SEE ALSO

       exim(8), /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/

AUTHOR

       This manual page was stitched together from  spec.txt  by  Andreas  Metzler  <ametzler  at
       downhill.at.eu.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).

                                          March 26, 2003                         EXIM_DBMBUILD(8)