LifeLines Documentation: LifeLines Version 3.0.2
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MISCELLANEOUS UTILITIES

If you choose the miscellaneous utilities operation, LifeLines displays the utilities menu: 
What utility do you want to perform?
  s Save the database in a GEDCOM file
  r Read in data from a GEDCOM file
  k Find a person's key value
  i Identify a person from key value
  d Show database statistics
  m Show memory statistics
  e Edit the place abbreviation file
  o Edit the user options file
  q Return to the main menu

s Save the database in a GEDCOM file.

This command saves the complete LifeLines database in a GEDCOM file. All person, family, event, source and user-defined records are stored. This command may be used to periodically back up your database. When you use this command, LifeLines asks you for the name of the file. If you have defined the LLARCHIVE shell variable, LifeLines will store the file in the directory named in the variable.

r Read in data from a GEDCOM file.

This command allows you restore a complete database from a GEDCOM file. When you select this command, LifeLines asks you for the name of the GEDCOM file. This command can also be used to import data from a GEDCOM file to an existing database. When LifeLines performs this command, it first reads the entire GEDCOM file and checks it for validity. If there are problems in the file, LifeLines describes them, writing them to the file err.log, and does not add any records to the database. If there are no problems, LifeLines adds all the records found in the file to the database (only header and trailer records are not stored in the database).

k Find a person's key value.

This command finds the internal key value of a person.

i Identify a person from key value.

This command identifies the person that has a particular internal key value.

d Show database statistics.

This command summarizes the contents of the current database. It displays the number of person, family, source, event and other records in the database.

m Show memory statistics.

This command is used by the author for debugging.

e Edit the place abbreviation file.

This command allows you to edit the place abbreviations file. This file defines the abbreviations that are used by LifeLines when it creates lists of persons for you to select from. Each line in the file has the format:
word:abbr
where word is a word to be abbreviated, and abbr is its abbreviation. The word and its abbreviation are separated by a colon. For example:

Example 1-9.

Connecticut:Conn.
Massachusetts:Mass.
Nova Scotia:N.S.

When LifeLines constructs lists of persons for you to select from, it looks up the last component of certain PLAC lines in this file, and if it finds that component, replaces it with its abbreviation.

o Edit the user options file.

This command allows you to edit the user options file. The user options file is a record kept in the database that holds user selectable options. Each option has a name and a string value. Each line in the options file has the format:
option=value
where option is the name of an option and value is the option’s string value. If the value is more than one line long, then the last character in each non-final line must be a backslash. In version 3.0.2 there are four options:

INDIREC

Person record edit template

EVENREC

Event record edit template

SOURREC

Source record edit template

OTHRREC

Other record edit template

For example if you would like to replace the default person record template with the following:

Example 1-10. 

0 INDI
  1 NAME //
  1 SEX
you would edit the user option file to contain:

Example 1-11.

INDIREC=0 INDI\
  1 NAME //\
  1 SEX

q Return to main menu.

This command returns you to the main menu.

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CHARACTER TRANSLATIONUpHANDLING SOURCE, EVENT AND USER-DEFINED RECORDS