Entering and Operating in a Reality Database

Entering Reality on a UNIX host

To access a Reality database on a UNIX host you first log in to the host system by entering the required UNIX user-id and password. After this, how you enter the database depends on how your system is set up by the System Administrator. Logging in to the system may lead to one of three states:

1. A Logon banner and then a colon prompt, or initial application screen, are displayed. In this case, you have entered directly into a pre-arranged Reality database and account. You are now 'at TCL' (if the colon prompt is displayed), or within an application.

   Note

   The logon banner may be suppressed.

2. The 'Logon please:' prompt for a database is displayed on the screen. In this case you must enter a Reality user-id and password to access the database. On entering the password, you are either prompted for an account, or you enter directly into a default account, depending on how the database is set up.

3. The UNIX shell prompt is displayed. In this case you have entered the UNIX system environment and must use the reality command to log on to a Reality database.

Refer to Reality Configuration on the Host for a description of how to configure Reality on your system.

Entering Reality on a Windows host

When connecting to Reality on a Windows server, you are presented immediately with the Logon Please prompt by Session Manager.

• To access the default database, if configured, enter your database user-id (uid) and then your password.

• To access a different database, enter your user-id with the name of the database using the syntax:

  user-id@database

  You can also access the database from the Command Prompt on the Windows server using the reality command.

Refer to Reality Configuration on the Host for a description of how to configure Reality on your system.

Reality user-id and account

Having logged on to a database you are able to access all files and execute Reality commands as defined by the user-id and account logged-on to.

Your Reality user-id, combined with the physical location from which you logged-on, define your security profile. This determines, amongst other things, the accounts which you can log on to.

An account is a named area of the database, which may be password protected, that defines a group of files and a set of commands available to users logged on to it. A database is divided into a number of accounts. Two system accounts are provided in a new database: SYSMAN and SYSPROG. These are privileged accounts for use by the database administrator and programmers only. The administrator can create any number of accounts for database users from within SYSMAN. Each account has a master dictionary (MD) in which the primary files and commands available to account users are defined.

Several account names can be given to the same MD. One is the primary account name (the name under which the account was created), and the others are synonyms. Each synonym can have an associated password, default file update and retrieval lock codes, maximum system privilege level, and so on.

Operating at TCL

On entering Reality (unless you are presented with an application screen immediately) a colon prompt is displayed and a flashing cursor is displayed beside it. The colon is the Terminal Control Language (TCL) prompt and the flashing cursor indicates that the TCL processor is waiting for a TCL command to be entered. The user communicates with Reality by typing TCL commands at the colon prompt (TCL prompt) and pressing return. This is called being 'at TCL'.