Product Documentation

FairCom ISAM for C

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Portable Data Through UNIFRMAT Support

The UNIFRMAT feature enables c-tree to store data in a byte order that is not native to the environment in which it is operating. When UNIFRMAT is defined on a HIGH_LOW platform, (Motorola 68000 processors, Sun Sparc Processors, and others), FairCom Servers or c-tree standalone applications will store data and index files in LOW_HIGH format, thus allowing interchangeable databases between these and LOW_HIGH platforms.

Conversely, when UNIFRMAT is defined on a LOW_HIGH platform, (Intel 80x86 processors, Alpha, and others), c-tree will store data in HIGH_LOW format, allowing it to be readable on HIGH_LOW platforms.

The general rule for UNIFRMAT starting with c-tree V7.12 is:

  1. Do not define UNIFRMAT on platforms with which you wish to operate in the native byte-order format.
  2. Define UNIFRMAT on any platforms which you wish to support opposite byte ordering.

Note: To determine whether your CPU is storing binary data in LOW_HIGH or HIGH_LOW byte order, compile and execute cttest

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