Technical FAQs
 Which platforms are supported?
The PreQuest executables, supplied with the 2012 release of the
CSD System, are supported on the following platforms and operating
systems:
- Windows - Intel compatible Windows XP/Vista/7
- Linux - Intel compatible, 32 bit:
- RedHat Enterprise 4, 5, 6
- SuSE Linux Enterprise [Desktop|Server] 10, 11
- Debian 4, 5, 6
Note: As we add support for newer versions of Linux, support for older versions may have to be withdrawn.
- Mac Intel compatible:
- Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6, 10.7
PreQuest has been tested when installed natively on these platforms. Use
with emulators, including virtual machines, has not been tested & is not supported.
If you choose to use a version other than those listed above we cannot
guarantee that PreQuest will work correctly, although we will attempt
to assist you with any problems you may encounter.
VISTA is
available in the 2012 CSDS release as an unsupported legacy product, but
should be compatible with the same platforms as PreQuest.
Why does QUEST complain that it is unable to find the CSD database?
If you get an error message like
WARNING! Can't find database file csd/as524be.ind
then the most likely cause is that the CSD database files are not in the standard location of $CSDHOME/csd. Unlike
ConQuest, QUEST requires the database files to be available from this location. You will need to either copy the CSD database files to
$CSDHOME/csd, or else symbolically link to the database files from this location. For example, if the database files are
located on another disk (bigd) on a remote fileserver (server) the following symbolic links would be required:
ln -s /server/bigd/as524be.inf $CSDHOME/csd/as524be.inf
ln -s /server/bigd/as524be.inv $CSDHOME/csd/as524be.inv
ln -s /server/bigd/as524be.ind $CSDHOME/csd/as524be.ind
ln -s /server/bigd/as524be.msk $CSDHOME/csd/as524be.msk
ln -s /server/bigd/as524be.tcd $CSDHOME/csd/as524be.tcd
How do I set up VISTA and
Quest to automatically search using the CSD updates?
The simplest way to ensure all users have access to the
updates is to edit the file {CAMBRIDGE}/csds/db.dbl (where {CAMBRIDGE} is the full path to your CSD installation). This
is required in order that VISTA searches launched from
ConQuest can access updates correctly.
For every update you place in the $CSDHOME/csd directory
add the corresponding three lines to this file. The file
to search the Feb03 update after the main CSD would be
${CSD_IND=csd}/as524be.ind
${CSD_MSK=csd}/as524be.msk
${CSD_TCD=csd}/as524be.tcd
${CSD_IND=csd}/Feb03.ind
${CSD_MSK=csd}/Feb03.msk
${CSD_TCD=csd}/Feb03.tcd
Please note that a carriage return should be present after
the final entry in the db.dbl file as, for some operating
systems, questv5 has been known to fail to start a search
(giving an error 543) if this final carriage return is not
present. However, it is also equally as important that the
file does NOT contain a blank line at the end of the file. No
characters should be present after the carriage return after
the last line of text (otherwise QUEST will try to load
additional databases that do not exist).
This enables all questv5 users to search the main CSD entries
followed by those in the Feb03 update. Reverse the order if
you want to search the updates first - but keep the lines in
their groups of three, and in the order .ind, .msk, .tcd.
This file is consulted if the '-db' option is omitted from
the questv5 command line (when the default is '-db Master')
or if the keyword 'Master' is supplied as a parameter to the
'-db' command line option. More information is given in the
Unix 'man' pages for QUEST & VISTA. Lines read from this file
are displayed each time the questv5 program starts.
The command line option '-db' can be used to access any
update or the main CSD without the db.dbl file being
consulted.
For example,
questv5 -j junk -db /csd/Feb03
questv5 -j junk -db /csd/as524be
questv5 -j junk -db Master
would search the Feb03 update alone, the CSD v524 release alone,
and the contents of the db.dbl file, respectively.
What command line options are available for QUEST, VISTA & PreQuest?
The start QUEST type:
questv5 -j jobname
The questv5 command replaces the quest command used in previous releases of the CSD. The quest command has been retained but now
has a different function depending on the nature of your CSD System installation - if ConQuest is installed on your UNIX system, the
quest command starts ConQuest (and is thus equivalent to cq). If, however, ConQuest has not been installed on
your UNIX system, the quest command starts QUEST (and is therefore equivalent to questv5).
The start PreQuest type:
prequest
The start VISTA type:
vista jobname
More details of the various command line options are also available for QUEST, VISTA and PreQuest by clicking on these links to their UNIX man pages.
Can I use QUEST with the current CSD System (CSDS) distribution to
search the latest database?
First, please be aware of the conditions under which you as a CSD System subscriber are permitted continued use of QUEST from
a previous distribution. These are given in the
QUEST documentation.
If you still have your CSDS v525 installation (or CDROMs), copy the following files from that installation into your current
installation. The files required are:
bin/questv5
bin/squest
bin/d_[platform]/quest*.x (3 files)
csds/quest.* (4 files)
where [platform] is your CSDS UNIX platform name (e.g. sgiv6, sunv5).
With $CSDHOME set to your new CSDS installation directory, $CSDHOME/bin/questv5 should run the quest* executables.
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