A System Definition File is created using a GUI tool or text editor as described in

Editing a System

. After the initial load, the definitions may be maintained with the System Editor.

Alternatively, you may clone an existing System using the Console and then tailor it to your requirements using the System Editor. This chapter details the System Definition from the context of coding an SDF file, but the same keywords and parameters are equally applicable to the System Editor.

The System Definition File (SDF) contains four sections:

Each section is identified by a

Section:

keyword. Some sections may be empty if they are not required. For example, the

Files

section is not used when input data is read from database tables, known as User Source Tables (USTs).

The

System

section is used to define the System, ID-Tables, Loader-Definitions, Loader Jobs, Logical Files and Search-Definitions. The

User-Source-Table

section is used to define how to extract data from User tables to create the IIR Identity Table.

The

Files

and

Views

sections are used to define the layout of flat-input files, which are only used when data is not being read from the User’s database tables. The

Views

section may also contain input and output views used by Relate and other utilities.