Re: Autoloading of compctl from dbm database file.

[Zefram <zefram@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Having aliases and functions in the database can be useful.  Remember my
>example, putting
>	ZDBFILE=database
>	zdb -auf
>at the top of any shell script is enough to access aliases and functions.

. ~/.zshenv

has much the same effect.

>The compctl command is a complicated beast; I don't understand most of
>the doc on it.  The idea behind the global database is for a compctl guru
>to maintain it for the benefits of other users.

That's already possible.  At this site, I maintain a file of compctl
commands which is sourced by many people's .zshrc.  The only
differences between this file and a database would be the efficiency of
interpretation and ease of editing.

>I wonder if the *shell* will be corrupted when fetching data from a dbm
>file at a time when the file changes size.

Whether we use a database or not, the shell *must* cope with any binary
rubbish thrown at it.  (Modules, due to them containing machine code,
are a necessary exception.)

-zefram