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NAME

       BindRules - ShapeTools version bind rules

DESCRIPTION

       The  ShapeTools  version  binding  subsystem  (see vbind(1)) provides a
       mechanism for  expressing  general  version  bind  rules.  These  rules
       describe on an abstract level version properties, which will be matched
       against the properties of concrete versions  during  the  version  bind
       procedure.  The  goal  is  to  select one or more versions from a named
       history in order to provides access to  these  version(s).   A  version
       bind  operation  is always performed for exactly one history at a time.
       Version bind rules express something like

            Select the most recent saved version.
            If there is no saved version, select the busy version.

       ShapeTools however needs rules in a more formal notation to be able  to
       interpret  them.  Let’s  see, how the rule above is translated into the
       formal notation.

       Version bind rules consist of a list of attribute expressions evaluated
       one  after  another  until  one  of  the  expressions leads to a unique
       version identification. The expressions are  separated  by  semicolons,
       the  last  expression  ends with a period. The rule from above will now
       read:

            Select the most recent saved version ;
            Select the busy version .

       Each attribute expression consist of a list of predicates, separated by
       commas.  The predicates are evaluated from left to right resulting in a
       hit set, a set of versions fulfilling all predicates evaluated so  far.
       The  initial  hit set for an attribute expression contains all versions
       of the name to be bound. Each predicate  potentially  narrows  the  hit
       set. The predicates in our rule are:

            all saved versions , most recent version ;
            busy version .

       Remember,  that each predicate bases it’s selection on the hit set left
       by the predicate before. Hence exchanging the  two  predicates  in  the
       first  attribute expression may lead to different results. We will give
       more information on this topic in  the  section  about  the  evaluation
       algorithm below. We now reach the final form of ShapeTools version bind
       rules. The predicates must be taken from a list of predefined names and
       be equipped with arguments:

            ge (status, saved) , max (stime) ;
            eq (status, busy) .

       That’s  it  so  far.  This is a rule how ShapeTools understands it.  It
       does however illustrate just a small piece of the world of version bind
       rules. We will go on in this manual page with a detailed description of
       version bind rules divides into the sections

       RULE HEAD           Description of the structure of rule heads.

       EVALUATION ALGORITHM
                           The Algorithm how version bind rules are evaluated.

       NAME PATTERNS       Name  patterns  as  first  predicate  in  attribute
                           expressions.

       PREDICATES          List of valid predicates.

       ATTRIBUTES          A List of predefined attribute names and some  word
                           about  the  ordering relationship between attribute
                           values.

       EXPANSION           Description of the various types of expansion  such
                           as  parameter  substitution,  attribute  and  macro
                           expansion, and command substitution.

       LEXICAL STRUCTURE   Lexical  constraints  for  names  and  strings   in
                           version bind rules.

       TIPS, TRICKS, AND TRAPS
                           Some common problems.

       GRAMMAR             A complete grammar for version bind rules.

RULE HEAD

       A  version  bind  rule  consists  of  a  rule head and a rule body. The
       example above shows only the rule body. The rule head  defines  a  name
       for  the  rule  and  optionally  a parameter list. The name is a string
       consisting of any printable non-whitespace character except  colon  and
       parentheses.   It   is  followed  by  an  optional  parameter  list  in
       parentheses and a colon, delimiting the rule head. Multiple  parameters
       in the list are separated by comma. Examples are

            most_recently_released:

            from_release (release_name):

            last_released (library_path, include_path):

EVALUATION ALGORITHM

       The basic idea of the rule evaluation algorithm is, that in every state
       of processing a hit set  exists,  a  set  of  versions  reflecting  the
       current  rule  evaluation  result.  The hit set is initialized with all
       versions  of  the  given  name  at  the  beginning  of  each  attribute
       expression.  The  attribute  expressions  predicates are processed from
       left  to  right  in  the  order  they  occur.  Each  predicate  imposes
       requirements to the versions in the hit set and eliminates all versions
       not fulfilling these requirements.  So, the hit set becomes smaller and
       smaller  during  attribute  expression evaluation. The following figure
       illustrates this process together with the rule  most_recently_released
       defined above and the file foo existing as busy version and as versions
       1.0 through 1.2.

           Initial hit set:    ( foo[busy], foo[1.0], foo[1.1], foo[1.2] )

           Evaluate Predicate: ge (status, saved),

           New hit set:        ( foo[1.0], foo[1.1], foo[1.2] )

           Evaluate Predicate: max (stime);

           Final hit set:      ( foo[1.2] )

       When the hit set becomes empty, that is when no version meets  all  the
       predicates  evaluated  so  far,  the  attribute  expression  fails  and
       processing is finished immediately. All remaining predicates  will  not
       be  evaluated.  Even  remaining predicates without influence on the hit
       set (for example message predicates) will not be processed.  Processing
       continues   with  the  next  attribute  expression.  If  all  attribute
       expressions finish prematurely, the whole version binding fails. In the
       following  example, the first attribute expression fails and the second
       alternative leads to success.

           Initial hit set:    ( bar[busy] )

           Evaluate Predicate: ge (status, saved),

           New hit set (empty):( )

           Evaluate next attribute expression
           starting with initial hit set again:( bar[busy] )

           Evaluate Predicate: eq (status, busy);

           Final hit set:      ( bar[busy] )

       When evaluation reaches the end of an attribute expression without  the
       hit  set  being  empty,  two  cases  are  possible.  First, the hit set
       contains exactly one version and everything is fine.  This  is  usually
       the  desired state and rule evaluation returns the remaining version as
       bind result. Second, the hit set may contain more than one version.  In
       this  case,  the  evaluation  algorithm depends on the expected result.
       When a unique version binding is expected, this is treated  as  failure
       and  evaluation  goes on with the next attribute expression. Non-unique
       version binding regards this as success and returns the whole hit  set.

       Extending  the  hit set during evaluation of an attribute expression is
       not possible. This would be against the  nature  of  the  version  bind
       rules  and  would make them much more difficult to understand.  Hit set
       extension may only happen by letting the current  attribute  expression
       fail and begin with a new one and the maximum hit set.

       Failure of an attribute expression must not necessarily be caused by an
       empty hit set. It may also be caused by user interaction or by external
       constraints. The following rules exemplify user interaction:

           eq (state, busy), confirm (select busy version ?, y);
           ge (state, busy), max (version).

       where  the  user  will  be  asked  for  confirmation to select the busy
       version, and external constraints:

           exists (otto, 1.0), eq (state, busy);
           ge (state, busy), max (version).

       where selection of the busy version happens only, when version  1.0  of
       otto  exists (this example is somewhat silly).  Predicates like confirm
       and exists don’t care about the hit set. They provide  the  possibility
       to  impose external control on the evaluation of version bind rules. An
       attribute expression may be finished prematurely and  control  switches
       to the next one.

       There is another operator, the cut operator, that forces the whole bind
       operation to finish (and fail). Typically the cut  operator  stands  at
       the  end  of  an  attribute  expression  that should never succeed. The
       following is a typical example for use of this. Version binding  fails,
       if there is an update lock set on the most recent version.

           max (version), hasattr (locker), cut (history is locked !);
           max (version).

       The  cut operator accepts a string argument that will be written to the
       standard output.

NAME PATTERNS

       Each attribute expression may start with a pattern, against  which  the
       name  to  be  bound is matched. Only when the name matches the pattern,
       the corresponding attribute expression will be evaluated. If  not,  the
       attribute  expression  will be skipped.  When the pattern is omitted in
       the attribute expression (as in our example above), the  expression  is
       evaluated for each name.

       The  patterns  are  the  same as those recognized by sh(1) for filename
       generation on the command line. Magic cookies are:

       *       matching any string, including the empty string,

       ?       matching any single character,

       [c...]  matching any one of  the  characters  enclosed  in  the  square
               brackets,

       [l-r]   matching  any  character lexically between the left (l) and the
               right (r) character, inclusive, and

       [!c...]

       [!l-r]  matching any character not  recognized  by  their  counterparts
               above.

       A rule with name patterns for example looks like:

           xyyz.h, eq (version, 1.3);
           *.c,    eq (generation, 2), max (revision);
           *.h,    eq (generation, 3), max (revision).

       In  this  example,  version  binding  for  C  source files (most recent
       version from generation 2) is different from version binding for header
       files  (most  recent version from generation 3). Additionally, the name
       xyyz.h will always be bound to version 1.3.

       If the name to be bound is given together with a (absolute or relative)
       pathname,  this  will  not  be  cut  off. The match is always performed
       lexically for the whole name given. Hence, the name  pattern  may  also
       contain path names, like

           variant1/*, eq (alias, var1-1.4);
           variant2/*, eq (alias, var2-1.2);
           /usr/sample/include/*.h,max (revision).

       Usually,  the  version bind subsystem does not check, if different path
       prefixes in the name pattern and the given name to be bound lead to the
       same  location.  The  match is done lexically and must fit exactly.  An
       exception is, when the name pattern is given as network path name as in
       atnetwork(3).  A  network  pathname  consists  of the name of the host,
       controlling the  device  where  a  version  is  stored,  the  canonical
       pathname  to  the  version  and a version binding (e.g. version number,
       version alias, or date) either in brackets or separated from  the  name
       by an at (@) sign. Examples are

           desaster:/usr/sample/project/foo.c[1.0];
           desaster:/usr/sample/project/variant1/bar.c[var1-1.4];
           desaster:/usr/sample/project/xyyz.h@1.3;
           desaster:/usr/sample/project/bar.c@Fri Jun 18 13:40:58 MET DST 1993.

       Network  pathnames are mapped to canonical local pathnames before being
       processes and in this case, the given name to be  bound  will  also  be
       mapped to a canonical local pathname.

       The technique using network pathnames is especially useful when storing
       the result of a successful version selection persistently.  This  makes
       the  version  selection  easily reproducible from anywhere in the local
       areas network. shape(1) uses this mechanism when generating  its  bound
       configuration threads.

PREDICATES

       This  is  the  complete list of valid predicate names and a synopsis of
       their  arguments.  The  list  is  divided  into  several  parts,   each
       describing a certain class of predicates.

       The first class are predicates working independently on each element of
       the current hit set. They impose certain requirements to the attributes
       of each version and eliminate those, not fulfilling the requirements.

       eq (attrName,attrValue)
              The  named  attribute  must exist in the versions attribute list
              and it must have exactly the given value. When the corresponding
              version  attribute  has  multiple  values,  at  least one of the
              values must match exactly.

       hasattr (attrName)
              The named attribute must exist in the versions  attribute  list.
              When  applied  to a standard attribute, hasattr requires a value
              to be associated with the standard attribute. In  case  of  user
              defined attributes, the attribute value is not regarded.

       ne (attrName,attrValue)
              The  named  attribute,  when  existing in the versions attribute
              buffer, must not  have  the  given  attribute  value.  When  the
              attribute  does  not exist, everything is fine. If the attribute
              has multiple values, it is required, that  none  of  the  values
              matches the given attrValue.

       {ge,gt,le,lt} (attrName,attrValue)
              The  named  version attribute must have a value, that is greater
              or equal / greater than / less or equal / less  than  the  given
              attribute  value. The named attribute must exist in the versions
              attribute buffer, otherwise the version is eliminated  from  the
              hit  set.  For  attributes with multiple values, only one of the
              values must meet the required property.

       The second class are predicates that do not operate on  single  version
       but  rather  on  the  complete  hit set. They express relations between
       different  versions  in  the  hit  set  and  base  their  selection  on
       comparison  of  different  versions.   Usually,  they are used to get a
       unique version binding, by ordering the hit set and  selecting  one  of
       the extremes.

       min (attrName)
              Retain  the  version(s)  with  the  lowest  value  for the named
              attribute in the hit set. String values are compared  literally,
              others  "naturally"  (see the list of known attributes below for
              an explanation  of  that).   Versions  not  carrying  the  named
              attribute  or having no value associated with the attribute name
              are eliminated from the hit set.

       max (attrName)
              Retain the version(s) with  the  highest  value  for  the  named
              attribute  in the hit set. String values are compared literally,
              others "naturally" (see the list of known attributes  below  for
              an  explanation  of  that).   Versions  not  carrying  the named
              attribute or having no value associated with the attribute  name
              are eliminated from the hit set.

       The  next two predicate groups have no direct influence on the hit set.
       They can invalidate the hit set and cause the rule evaluation to go  on
       with  the  next  attribute expression, but they do never modify the hit
       set. These  predicates  are  activated,  when  the  evaluation  of  the
       attribute  expression reaches them, i.e. when the hit set is not empty.

       msg (msgString)
              Print the given  message  to  standard  output  and  retain  the
              current hit set.

       cut (msgString)
              Force  the  current  rule  binding  to  fail and print the given
              message to  standard  output.  Printing  is  omitted,  when  the
              message  string is empty. Rule processing is stopped immediately
              and the returned hit set is empty.

       confirm (msgString,expectedAnswer)
              Ask the user for confirmation to go on with  the  evaluation  of
              the  current  attribute  expression. The given message string is
              printed to standard output with the expected answer appended  in
              square  brackets.  After that, user input is read. When the user
              confirms the expected answer  (empty  input)  or  his/her  input
              matches the expected answer, evaluation of the current attribute
              expression  continues.  Otherwise,  the  current  hit   set   is
              invalidated  and  processing  goes  on  with  the next attribute
              expression.

       bindrule (ruleName)
              Abort evaluation of current attribute expression and  switch  to
              another  version  bind  rule. This predicate makes only sense as
              last  predicate  in  an  attribute  expression,   as   following
              predicates  will  never  be  evaluated. Evaluation of the target
              rule  (ruleName)  happens  as  if  the  rule  has  been  invoked
              directly, no influence on the initial hit set is taken. When the
              target rule fails, the evaluation algorithm switches back to the
              source rule and goes on with the next attribute expression.

       The  last  predicate  group  are external constraints. Their task is to
       influence the evaluation process by examining  conditions  outside  the
       handled  version history. Each of the following predicates has either a
       positive or a negative result. Positive results have no effect  on  the
       hit  set  and the evaluation process, while negative results invalidate
       the hit set and cause evaluation to  go  on  with  the  next  attribute
       expression.

       exists (name[binding])
              Version  binding  with  the given name (usually another one than
              the current target name) and the given version binding must lead
              to  at  least  one  version.  The  result  is not required to be
              unique.

       existsnot (name[binding])
              Version binding with the given name and rule must fail.

       existsuniq (name[binding])
              Version binding with the given name and  rule  must  lead  to  a
              unique selection.

       condexpr (program,expression)
              An external program, named in the program argument, is activated
              to evaluate the  given  expression.  The  expression  string  is
              written  to  the  standard input of the external program. A zero
              result code is considered to be positive, all others negative.

OBSOLETE PREDICATE NAMES

       There are a number of known predicate names from former versions of the
       bind  rules  machinery. They are internally mapped to the new predicate
       names. These names are obsolete and should not be used any longer.

       Obsolete     name   mapped      to      -   cut      attr            eq
       attrex          hasattr      attrge          ge      attrgt          gt
       attrle          le        attrlt          lt        attrmax         max
       attrmin         min      attrnot         ne      condex          exists
       condnot         existsnot conduniq        existsuniq

ATTRIBUTES

       All predicates with effect on the contents  of  the  hit  set  work  on
       version  attributes.  These  attributes  are either standard attributes
       with a defined meaning or user defined attributes.  The following is  a
       list  of  attribute  names recognized as standard attributes. All other
       names are considered to be user defined attributes.

       alias      Version alias name (symbolic version identification name).

       atime      The date of last access (read  or  write)  to  the  versions
                  contents.

       author     The version author in the form username@domain.

       cachekey   A  unique  key  for  cached versions built from the creation
                  date, the id of the creating process  and  a  serial  number
                  (e.g.  740148430.18469.6).

       ctime      The  date  of  the last status change. This date is updated,
                  when an attribute is added or deleted, or an attribute value
                  is changed.

       generation
                  The generation number. The value for this attribute is plain
                  numeric.

       host       The name of the host from where the  version  was  accessed.
                  This  attribute  may have different values at one time, when
                  the version is accessed from different hosts.

       locker     The user who has set a lock on the concerned  version.  This
                  attribute  has  an  empty value, when no lock is active. The
                  attribute value is given in the form username@domain.

       ltime      The date of last lock change (set or give up  update  lock).
                  This  has  an  empty  value is empty, when there was never a
                  lock set on the version.

       mtime      The date of the last modification of the versions  contents.

       name       The  name  (without  suffix) of the version. For example foo
                  for foo.c.

       owner      The version owner in the form username@domain.

       revision   The revision number. As for generation, only numeric  values
                  are accepted.

       size       The size of the versions contents in bytes.

       status     The  version  status.  This is one of busy, saved, proposed,
                  published, accessed, or frozen.

       stime      The save date. This attribute has an empty  value  for  busy
                  versions.

       syspath    The   absolute   pathname  through  which  the  version  was
                  accessed. This attribute may have different  values  at  one
                  time,  when  the  version is accessed by different pathnames
                  (e.g. symbolic links).

       type       The suffix part of the versions name.  For  example  fc  for
                  foo.c.

       version    The  version  number  in  the  form  generation.revision.  A
                  special value is  the  string  busy  instead  of  a  version
                  number.  As busy versions have no version number, this value
                  is used for identifying the busy version of a history.

       Some predicates (like ge  or  max)  require  an  ordering  relationship
       between  attribute  values. For user defined attributes, ordering bases
       on  alphabetical  (ASCII)  comparison  of  the  values.  User   defined
       attributes  with multiple values are compared by their first values, if
       these are identical by their second values  and  so  on.  No  value  is
       considered smaller than any other value. For example

               attr1 = anton                  attr2 = berta
                       berta   is smaller than        anton
                       karl

       but
               attr1 = anton                  attr2 = anton
                       berta   is bigger than         berta
                       karl

       For some of the standard attributes listed above, we need special
       regulations.

       Version numbers (generation.revision)
                  are ordered by generation number first and revision number secondary
                  (e.g. 1.2 is smaller than 2.1). Busy is smaller than
                  any version number.

       Alias Names
                  are ordered by the version numbers (see above) of the identified
                  versions.

       Cache keys are ordered by simple text comparison. This has the effect that the
                  youngest cache key is considered the biggest.

       Version states
                  are ordered in the sequence as listed above. Busy is the lowest
                  and frozen the highest state.

       User attributes
                  The order of user attributes bases on alphabetical comparison of the
                  string username@domain.

       Time attributes
                  Time comparison assumes older dates to be smaller than newer ones.

EXPANSION

       During  evaluation  of  version  bind  rules,  four  different kinds of
       expansion are possible. These are   parameter  substitution,  attribute
       expansion, external macro expansion and command substitution. Expansion
       happens, when a magic pattern is found in the rule text, starting  with
       either  a  dollar  sign ($) or, in case of command substitution, with a
       backward quote character (‘).

       Generally, expansion in version bind rules happens only within patterns
       and  within  predicate  arguments.  Bind rule syntax or predicate names
       cannot  be  introduced  by  substituted  strings.   Expansions  outside
       patterns  and  predicate  arguments  are ignored and usually lead to an
       error message.

   Parameter Substitution
       A parameter substitution string is usually introduced by the pattern $_
       followed by the parameter name (an exception is $+ as shown below). The
       parameter name is optionally  delimited  by  a  dollar  sign.  This  is
       necessary,  when  there  is  no  whitespace  character  following.  The
       parameter name may be any of the names specified in the  rule  head  or
       one of the following predefined names.

       $_rule$       The current rule name.

       $_target$ or $+
                     The current target file name to be bound.

       $_parameter$  Any other parameter.

       A parameter may have the same name as a citeable attribute (see below).
       In this case, the parameter  citation  hides  the  attribute  citation.
       There  is  no  way  to  cite the value of an attribute when there is an
       equally named rule parameter. The reserved names rule, target, and hits
       are not allowed as parameter names.

   Attribute Expansion
       An   attribute   expansion   string  looks  exactly  like  a  parameter
       substitution string. It is introduced by the pattern $_ followed by the
       attribute  name  which is optionally delimited by a dollar sign, when a
       non-whitespace character follows immediately. Attribute  names  may  be
       built  of  any  printable  characters except ’#’.  Besides, it makes no
       sense to cite attributes with an equal  sign  (’=’)  in  the  attribute
       name, as the Attributed Filesystem (AtFS) doesn’t allow this.

       The  value  by  which  the  attribute expansion string will be replaced
       depends on the current state of processing. This  may  cause  different
       values  to  be  inserted  for the same citation in different processing
       states. Attribute expansion happens as late as  possible,  it  is  done
       right  before  the  evaluation  of  the concerned pattern or predicate.
       With  one  exception,  $_hits$,  attribute  expansions  will  only   be
       substituted, if the current hit set cardinality is 1.

       $_hits$ or $=
                     The  number of versions satisfying the binding conditions
                     expressed so far (the cardinality of the hit  set).  This
                     value continuously changes during rule evaluation.

       $_attribute$  The  value  of  any  attribute  of  a  uniquely  selected
                     version.

       Attribute citations may  be  overloaded  by  parameter  citations  (see
       above).

   External Macro Expansion
       External  macros  are  evaluated  by an external macro processor. If no
       such macro processor is available, external  macros  remain  unchanged.
       They have the form:

       $C     where  C  is  any printable non-whitespace character except ’+’,
              ’=’, ’_’, ’:’, or ’#’

       $(macroName) or ${macroName}
              Macro names may not contain ’#’  characters.  Other  limitations
              may  be  imposed by the external macro definition and processing
              facility.

   Command Substitution
       A command enclosed in back quotes occuring in a bind rule  quotes  will
       be  replaced  by  its  output. No modifications are done to the command
       output, hence it may contain newline characters.

LEXICAL STRUCTURE

       There are some  characters  with  special  meaning  when  occurring  in
       version  bind  rules.  These  are the syntactical characters colon (:),
       comma, (,), semicolon (;), period (.), and parentheses (( and  )),  the
       comment  symbol  (#),  the  dollar  sign  ($)  or  the  back  quote (‘)
       introducing expansion strings ($), quotes (" and  ’),  and  the  escape
       symbol (\).

       Comments   are  handled  somewhat  rigorously.  A  comment  symbol  (#)
       occurring anywhere in the rule name or rule body has effect as long  as
       it is not escaped by a backslash (\) character. Comments range from the
       comment symbol (inclusive) to the end of the line.  Newline  characters
       within   comments  may  also  be  escaped  by  a  backslash  character,
       continuing the comment on the next line.

       Nesting of parentheses and quotes is not supported.

       The following is a list of lexical  constraints  for  each  part  of  a
       version bind rule.

       Rule names and rule parameters
               Rule   names   may  consist  of  any  printable  non-whitespace
               character except colon and parentheses. The leftmost  colon  or
               opening parentheses delimits the rule name.
               Rule   parameter  names  follow  the  same  lexical  rule,  but
               additionally must not contain comma characters, as this in  the
               delimiter between parameters.

       Patterns
               In  principle,  name  patterns  may  consist  of  any printable
               character.  Comma and semicolon characters occurring in a  name
               pattern  must  be  escaped  by  a backslash character. A period
               occurring in a name pattern needs not to be escaped as long  as
               it  is not the last character (ignoring trailing whitespace) in
               the rule body. Period as last character is always considered to
               be  end  of  rule  sign.   Name  patterns  may contain macro or
               parameter citations and command substitutions.

       Predicates
               Each predicate name must be one of the  reserved  names  listed
               previously  in  this  paper. Predicate arguments consist of any
               printable character including whitespace. Comma, parenthesis or
               quoting  characters must be escaped. Any argument may be quoted
               by single or double quotes. Quoting exceeds line limits.
               Predicate arguments may contain macro, attribute  or  parameter
               citations  leaded  by  a  dollar sign, or command substitutions
               enclosed in back quotes. When quoted in single  quotes,  dollar
               signs and back quotes occurring in a predicate argument are not
               taken by their special meaning and no citations happen.  Double
               quotes do not hide citations.

TIPS, TRICKS, AND TRAPS

       Why doesnt the bind rule select version xyz although I think it should
       ?. An important facility to find an answer  to  this  question  is  the
       trace  option  provided by the vbind(1) command. It shows the evolution
       of the hit set during rule evaluation.

       Typing errors  in  standard  attribute  names  may  lead  to  confusing
       situations.  They  cannot be recognized by the evaluation machinery, as
       any unknown  attribute  name  is  considered  to  be  an  user  defined
       attribute.

       A  minus sign (-) as first character in an alternative is considered as
       part of the pattern and not as (old style) cut operator.  Hence
               -; (- as pattern)
       and
               ,-; (default pattern followed by cut)
       make a big difference. We recommend the use of cut() in any  case.  The
       short form (-) is supported only for compatibility with older versions.

GRAMMAR

       bind_rule ::= bind_rule_head :[-] bind_rule_body .

       bind_rule_head ::= rule_name | rule_name ( rule_arg_list ) .

       rule_arg_list: rule_name { , arg_name }* .

       bind_rule_body ::= attr_expression { ; attr_expression}* . .

       attr_expression ::=name_pattern { , predicate }* |
                        predicate { , predicate }* | .

       name_pattern ::= { <any printable character or whitespace> }+

       predicate ::=   attr_value_predicate ( attr_name , string ) |
                attr_name_predicate ( attr_name ) |
                bind_rule_predicate ( rule_name ) |
                msg_predicate ( string ) |
                msg_answer_predicate ( string , string ) |
                cond_rule_predicate ( string , bind_rule_head ) |
                cond_expr_predicate ( string , string ) |
                cut_predicate.

       attr_value_predicate ::= eq | ge | gt | le | lt | ne .

       attr_name_predicate ::= hasattr | max | min .

       bind_rule_predicate ::= bindrule .

       msg_predicate ::= cut | msg .

       msg_answer_predicate ::= confirm .

       cond_rule_predicate ::= exists | existsnot | existsuniq .

       cond_expr_predicate ::= condexpr .

       cut_predicate ::= - .

       attr_name ::=   arg_name | author | atime | ctime | generation |
                       locker | ltime | mtime | owner |
                       revision | size | state | stime | version .

       rule_name ::= { <any printable character except colon and parentheses }+ .

       arg_name ::= { <any printable character except comma, colon and parentheses }+ .

       string ::= { <any printable character or whitespace> } .

FILES

       $SHAPETOOLS/BindRules

SEE ALSO

       vbind(1), vadm(1), atnetwork(3), shape(1)

AUTHOR

       Andreas.Lampen@cs.tu-berlin.de