Files and file formats

Every file has a specific file format. The possible file formats are described here.

Every kind of file consists of records containing fields. Which fields you can use, depends on the kind of file. How you put these fields in the file, depends on the file format. All fields in the INDUCKS system are listed here. With every field is mentioned where you can use it, and how exactly it should look like (the syntax of the field).

Some fields don't occur in input files, but only in internal files and output files.

We store the INDUCKS input files in a fixed directory structure, in a system called CVS. Advanced indexers have direct access to CVS, other indexers send their data to one of the advanced indexers.

The next table gives an overview which input files are in INDUCKS, and in which format they are.

Kind	File(s)	Subdirectory	Format	Contains
DBI	*.dbi	issues/xx	DBI	DBI files. The subdirectory name per country is specified in the file auxil/countries.dbx.
DBI	w.dbi	issues/us	Western	DBI file for USA before 1985.
DBS	*.dbs	stories	DBS	Story files for storycodes starting with AR, D, E, F, G, H, K, S, U, and X. And story files for storycodes that are meant to be temporary, starting with S, Y, and Z
DBS	*.fsb	stories/fsb	FSB	Story files for storycodes starting with I
DBS	y.dbs z.dbs	stories	DBS_newspaper	Story files for storycodes starting with Y and Z (the newspaper strips)
DBS	movies.dbs	stories	DBS_movies	Story files for movies (storycodes start with QM)
DBL	persons.dbl persons8.dbl	legends	DBL_human	Contains information about persons, as used in the fields plot, writ, art, ink, creatorref, and plot, writ, art, ink, creatorref Also contains information about other persons, but only if they have an abbreviation, as used in the fields trans, col, let, isstrans, isscol, isslet, and inx. Persons that have a name which cannot be written in Latin-1, are in persons8.dbl (in UTF-8). The other ones are in persons.dbl.
DBL	heroes.dbl	legends	DBL_char	Contains information about characters, as used in the fields hero, app, xapp and hero, app, xapp
DBL	subserie.dbl	legends	DBL_subs	Information about subseries, as used in the fields ser and ser
DBL	universe.dbl	legends	DBL_char	Universes to which the characters belong, as used in the field universe in the file heroes.dbl.
DBH	creators.dbh studios.dbh	legends	Caret-separated	More information about creators and the studios they are connected to.
DBL	heroes-*.dbl subserie-*.dbl countries-*.dbl languages-*.dbl	legends	Caret-separated	Translations of characters, subseries, countries, and languages in various languages. The abbreviation of the language is part of the filename.
DBX	countries.dbx languages.dbx oldcodes.dbx equivs.dbx	auxil	Caret-separated	General information about countries, languages, old storycodes, equivs. countries.dbx includes the filenames, subdirectories, and formats of the DBI files. languages.dbx includes the formats of the translation DBL files.
DBX	producers.dbx	auxil	Caret-separated	Information about producers: this file contains the filenames and formats of the DBS files.
DBX	dbsnames.dbx	auxil	Caret-separated	Information about the standard story output files.
DBX	websites.dbx	auxil	Caret-separated	External websites where we want to link to in INDUCKS. This file contains the filenames of the DBP files in the auxil directory.
DBP	*.dbp	auxil	WebUrl	Details about webpages on an external website.
DBX	scansites.dbx	scans	Caret-separated	External websites where we want use images from in INDUCKS. This file contains the filenames of the DBP files in the scans directory.
DBP	*.dbp	scans	Image	Details about scans on an external website.