PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
NAME
Palmfile: Categories, DBInfo, Doc, Entry, Pfile, Record -
read Palm™ file formats
SYNOPSIS
include "bufio.m";
include "palmfile.m";
palmfile := load Palmfile Palmfile->PATH;
Pfile: adt {
fname: string;
appinfo: array of byte;
sortinfo: array of int;
entries: array of ref Entry;
open: fn(name: string, mode: int): (ref Pfile, string);
close: fn(pf: self ref Pfile): int;
read: fn(pf: self ref Pfile, index: int): (ref Record, string);
stat: fn(pf: self ref Pfile): ref DBInfo;
};
DBInfo: adt {
name: string; # database name on Palm
attr: int; # file attributes (defined below)
dtype: string; # database type (byte[4])
version: int; # version of data layout, defined by application
creator: string; # creating application (byte[4])
ctime: int; # creation time
mtime: int; # modification time
btime: int; # last backup
modno: int; # modification number
uidseed: int; # unique record ID seed
new: fn(name: string, attr: int, dtype: string,
version: int, creator: string): ref DBInfo;
};
Entry: adt {
id: int; # resource: id; record: unique ID
offset: int; # offset in file
size: int; # size in bytes
name: int; # resource entry only
attr: int; # record entry only
};
Record: adt {
id: int; # resource: ID; data: unique record ID
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PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
index: int; # record index (origin 0)
name: int; # byte[4]: resource record only
attr: int; # attributes, defined below, data record only
cat: int; # category, data record only
data: array of byte; # content of record
};
Categories: adt {
renamed: int; # which categories have been renamed
labels: array of string; # category names
uids: array of int; # corresponding unique IDs
lastuid: int; # last unique ID assigned
appdata: array of byte; # remaining application-specific data
new: fn(labels: array of string): ref Categories;
unpack: fn(a: array of byte): ref Categories;
pack: fn(c: self ref Categories): array of byte;
};
Doc: adt {
version: int;
length: int; # uncompressed
nrec: int; # text records only
recsize: int; # uncompressed
position: int;
sizes: array of int; # sizes of uncompressed records
open: fn(file: ref Pfile): (ref Doc, string);
read: fn(doc: self ref Doc, i: int): (string, string);
iscompressed: fn(doc: self ref Doc): int;
unpacktext: fn(doc: self ref Doc, a: array of byte):
(string, string);
textlength: fn(doc: self ref Doc, a: array of byte): int;
};
init: fn(): string;
filename: fn(s: string): string;
dbname: fn(s: string): string;
gets: fn(a: array of byte): string;
puts: fn(a: array of byte, s: string);
get2: fn(a: array of byte): int;
get3: fn(a: array of byte): int;
get4: fn(a: array of byte): int;
put2: fn(a: array of byte, v: int);
put3: fn(a: array of byte, v: int);
put4: fn(a: array of byte, v: int);
DESCRIPTION
Palmfile provides read-only access to files in the Palm™
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PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
database and document formats. It currently handles three
types of files: Palm Database (.pdb) files, which store data
for applications; Palm Resource (.prc) files, which store
code resources and user interface resource elements; and
Palm Doc (.doc) files, which store compressed documents for
the Palm document and e-book readers. Database and resource
files have a similar structure, with slight differences in
representation, and differing mainly in how the contents are
used.
Init must be called before any other function in the file.
It returns a diagnostic if it cannot initialise the module.
Pfile represents an open Palm file of any type:
open()
Opens file name with the given mode (which must cur-
rently be Sys->OREAD) and returns a tuple (pf,err). Pf
is a new Pfile instance giving access to the file, or
nil if the open failed, in which case the err string
contains a diagnostic.
pf.close()
Close the file (needed only when writing to a file is
eventually supported).
pf.read(index)
Returns a tuple (rec, err) where rec is a Record con-
taining the data of the record with the given index
(origin 0), or nil if no such record index exists or it
cannot be read. In the latter case, err is a diagnos-
tic string.
pf.stat()
Return the database information for pf.
entries
An array of Entry values (see below), one per record.
The length of the array is consequently the length of
the file in records. It can be nil or empty.
appinfo
Optional application-specific data (see Categories
below).
sortinfo
Optional application-specific data (typically an array
of record IDs in a chosen sorting order).
fname
File name given to Pfile.open.
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PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
DBInfo gives the database information for a file:
name Database name used on the Palm, maximum of 31 char-
acters.
attr A bit set of file attributes, containing the fol-
lowing values:
Fresource File is a resource file (.prc) not a
database file (.pdb).
Fronly File is read only.
Fappinfodirty Application information has changed.
Fbackup No conduit program exists (the whole
file must be backed up).
Foverwrite Overwrite older copy if present.
Freset Reset PDA after installing this
file.
Fprivate Don't allow copy of this file to be
beamed.
dtype String identifying database type (up to 4 charac-
ters). It is usually the string "appI" for
resource files.
version Identifies the version of the data format (applica-
tion specific).
creator String identifying creating application (up to 4
characters).
ctime File creation time, in seconds from the Inferno
epoch (see daytime(2)).
mtime Time file last modified, in seconds from the epoch.
btime Time file last backed up, in seconds from the
epoch.
uidseed Seed for generating unique record IDs (typically
set to 0 for database files, always 0 for resource
files).
new(name, attr, dtype, creator)
Return a new DBInfo with the given values.
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PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
In some applications, it is useful to use a data base name
(ie, DBInfo.name) as a component of an Inferno file name.
The device allows space and slash characters in names,
though, which makes it hard to use the name directly.
Filename maps each space character in s to U+00A0
(unpaddable space) and each slash character to U+2215
(`division /'), and returns the result. Dbname maps the
other way.
Entries and Records
Each record in the file is represented by an Entry in mem-
ory, which holds the record's essential attributes, leaving
the data on file. The meaning of some of the elements
depends on whether the file is a data file or a resource
file.
id Resource ID, 16 bits (resource file); unique record
ID, 24 bits (data file).
offset Offset in file, in bytes.
size Size of record in bytes.
name Name of the resource (resource record only).
attrs Record attributes (data record only):
Rdelete Delete the record when file next synchro-
nised.
Rdirty Record has been modified.
Rinuse Record in use (not typically used in
Inferno).
Rsecret Record is secret (shown on the device only
with use of a password).
Rarchive Archive this record when file next syn-
chronised.
Rmcat Mask for the 4-bit category field (in
Entry.attrs only).
Records read from the file are represented by a Record adt
containing its data and associated values. Some fields are
valid only for particular classes of records.
id Resource or record ID, as for Entry.
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PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
index Index (origin 0) of the record in the file.
name Resource name (resource record only).
attr Record attributes, as above (data record only).
cat Record's category ID (data record only).
data The actual data.
Application data
The contents of both the ``application information'' and
``sort information'' sections of the file are defined by an
application in general. Even so, both have conventional
uses with many Palm applications. The Palm software often
assigns data records to particular categories (eg, ``Busi-
ness'' or ``Personal''), and stores up to 16 category names
and IDs in the application data in a fixed format (possibly
followed by further data that is application specific).
This is represented by an instance of Categories, which pro-
vides the following:
renamed Bit set indicating which categories have been
renamed (for category 0, bit 1<<0, for 1, bit 1<<1,
and so on).
labels Array of 16 category labels.
uids Array of 16 category IDs, each in the range 0 to
255. (It is said that the Palm itself assigns 0 to
127 and desktop applications assign 128 to 255.)
lastuid Last unique category ID assigned.
appdata Any data that remained after unpacking the category
data.
new(labels)
Return a new Categories value for the given array
of labels, assigning unique IDs to each in turn,
starting from 128. There can be at most 16 labels;
if there are fewer, the remaining labels will be
marked as unused (empty strings).
unpack(a)
Unpack the application data in array a (typically
pf.appinfo for some Pfile pf), returning a refer-
ence to a new Categories instance. A nil value is
returned if the array is too short to hold valid
category data.
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PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
c.pack() Pack c into a form suitable for writing back to a
file's application information area.
Binary data in Palm files is typically encoded in big-endian
form. Palmfile functions account for that internally, but
some Palm applications might use big-endian data in their
own data records. Several functions are therefore provided
to decode and encode big-endian data: getn retrieves an
integer from the first n bytes of array a; putn stores a
big-endian representation of the value v in the first n
bytes of array a.
Strings are stored in fixed-length arrays of bytes, always
terminated by a zero byte. The character encoding is
(apparently) Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1), not UTF-8, so functions
gets and puts are provided to convert between that represen-
tation and a Limbo string.
Documents
Doc provides read-only access to Palm documents and (unen-
crypted) e-books:
open(file)
Given a Pfile file, return a tuple (doc, err)
where doc is a new Doc instance giving access to
the document contents in file. If an error occurs,
in particular if file does not appear to be a
valid Palm document, doc is nil and the string err
diagnoses the error.
doc.iscompressed()
Returns true (non-zero) if the document is com-
pressed; returns false (zero) otherwise.
doc.read(i)
Read text record with index i (origin 0), return-
ing a tuple (s, err) where s is the uncompressed
text for record i, or nil if the record does not
exist (or there is an error reading it). On any
error, err is a diagnostic string. Note that i is
an index into the set of text records, and is not
an index into the set of all records. It must be
no greater than doc.nrec. doc.unpacktext(a)
Returns a tuple (s, err) where s is the text in
array a, after uncompressing if doc contains com-
pressed records. Following Palm conventions, the
text is assumed to be written in the Latin-1
encoding (ISO-8859-1). If it is compressed but
the data in a is corrupt (cannot be uncompressed),
s is nil and err diagnoses the problem.
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PALMFILE(2) PALMFILE(2)
doc.textlength(a)
Returns the number of bytes required to store the
text in array a once it has been uncompressed (if
necessary).
version The document's version number.
length The length of the whole document in bytes, when
uncompressed.
nrec Number of text records in the document.
recsize Size of uncompressed text records.
position Possibly records the position where reading last
stopped.
sizes Array giving sizes of all text records, once
uncompressed.
Most document-reading applications require only Doc.open and
Doc.read, and perhaps Doc.length to guide the construction
of scroll bars (for instance).
SOURCE
/appl/lib/palmfile.b
SEE ALSO
Palm® File Format Specification, Gary Hillerson, Palm Inc.,
Document Number 3008-004, 1 May 2001.
[Palm®] standard text document file format, Paul Lucas, 18
August 1998.
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