Reality/Host Integration

Reality supports a number of facilities which enable integration of the host and Reality environments. They include:

SYS command This TCL command allows a user to invoke any host command from Reality. It can also be executed from DataBasic and the output from the host command can be captured.

MAKE-SPECIAL command
This TCL command can be used to create Reality files that interact with the host environment in various ways (SYSMAN only).

Directory View This allows host directories and files to be accessed from Reality. The TCL command DIR-VIEW creates a view of a host directory that appears like a Reality file, with each file in the directory appearing like a Reality item. This provides the facility to transfer textual data easily between a Reality database and the host environment.

reality with -c option
This is used to execute a single TCL command from the host. Standard input/output can be redirected using the normal UNIX or Windows method. See the description of the reality command.

C Program Libraries
These support a suite of functions that enable users to write C programs in the host environment to access a Reality database. This enables specialised import/export programs to be written without needing to enter the full Reality environment. See the Reality C API Reference Manual.

Printing to Reality printers from the host
UNIX only. This allows a user to direct printer output to a Reality or Reality form queue from the UNIX environment. To do this the user executes the standard lp command with the -d option naming a Reality printer as the destination. The System Administrator must first configure the printer-name as a Reality printer. See UNIX-Connect System Administration.

Password integration
UNIX only. This enables each user-id on a Reality database to have a corresponding UNIX user-id with the same password. Changes made to Reality user-ids and passwords via the SSM user file maintenance screen or the PASSWORD command are reflected in the UNIX passwd file and changes made in the UNIX passwd file are reflected on the Reality database. The realusers utility is used to enable and administer user-id/password integration for a specified database.

Changes to passwords on a FailSafe primary are optionally logged to the secondary and applied to the secondary database.

rdb ! This allows the system debugger access to the host command prompt to execute a single-shot command. See the section System Debugger.

System Security

Reality provides a mechanism which enhances the security of your host system by enabling you to specify on a per-user basis the level of access to the command prompt available using DIR-VIEW, rdb!, SYS or any user-created commands. The level of security given to each user is defined in the user's security profile. Refer to the topic Host Command Shell Security for a description of this mechanism.