This repository contains updates to ScarletDME by racingmars. This is based on the dev branch of https://github.com/geneb/ScarletDME/, where Gene Buckle and other contributors have done a tremendous amount of work to bring the old 32-bit OpenQM GPL release up to being able to run on 64-bit systems and to maintain what, as far as I know, is the only open source, free software multi-value "PICK System"-like database.
My goal in this repository is to fix minor problems (e.g. at the time I forked the official repository, the makefile in the dev branch was broken) and small improvements (e.g. use PAM to authenticate users instead of just direct checking of hashes in /etc/shadow). My goal is not to maintain a true fork competing with the upstream project, but to use this repository to implement and test changes that could be pulled back into the upstream project if the ScarletDME maintainers and community are interested in them.
I have also created a turnkey, easy-to-run Docker image to allow new users to quickly have a working, easily-accessible ScarletDME system. For more information, see the docker directory in this repository and the Docker Hub page
If you are interested in the original OpenQM 2.6-6 GPL code for 32-bit environments, but with similar fixes and minor improvements I've made to the ScarletDME code, I maintain an OpenQM repository at https://github.com/racingmars/openqm/
The original ScarletDME description is below, followed by the original readme text from the upstream repository.
—Matthew Wilson [email protected], Nov. 2024
ScarletDME is a Database Management Environment, a "database on steroids". Built on the GPL'd release of OpenQM by Ladybridge Systems, it provides a simple, end-user-friendly database that is simple to develop in and use.
[Make sure to check out the change_log.txt file to see the most current work being done!]
As of January 10th, 2022, ScarletDME can be built as a fully native 64 bit application! More testing needs to be done, but the 64 bit build appears to function identically to the 32 bit build.
The 64-bit version is the default for the dev branch, but there is a qm32 target to build the 32-bit version on the dev branch.
These packages are needed to build ScarletDME as a 32 bit application, for most Linux distributions: libgcc.i686 glibc-devel.i686
For proper terminal operation, you'll need to install: ncurses-devel ncurses-compat-libs
If you would like to support remote access to your ScarletDME system via the QMClient API or telnet services, you'll need to install xinetd, or debug the systemd .socket implementation. See the README.md in the xinetd.d directory for instructions on the further use of xinetd.
ScarletDME requires a user named "qmsys" and a group named "qmusers". These will be created for you automatically by the "install" target. But make sure you add the qmuser group to any user that will be using ScarletDME.
You should be able to build the system by just typing "make' in the directory where the Makefile lives. Enter "sudo make install" to install the result of the first "make" command.
This does not activate ScarletDME - "sudo make qmdev" will start the server for you as a one-off, you need to do that every boot. Or "sudo make systemd" will activate the systemd service files so ScarletDME will start on boot. If you don't run systemd, please modify the makefile to detect and configure your init system.
If you need to re-install the master system directory, run "sudo make datafiles", but this should normally never be done, as it is done for you on initial install, and overwriting the files will destroy your live system status.
The system has adopted Sphinx for documentation - install Sphinx then "make docs" to build the html documentation locally. This will create the document root as docs/build/html/index. To build other formats (pdf, epub) read the Sphinx documentation, then run the Sphinx makefile from inside the docs directory. (Make sure you get the right Sphinx - www.sphinx-doc.org)
Code formatting notes: I'm using Visual Studio code with the Microsoft C/C++ IntelliSense, debugging, and code browsing extension installed.
Each time I need to edit a code file, it's reformatted using the clang-format feature in the extension. The .clang-format file in this repository is based upon the Chromium format, but it will not reflow comments, nor will it sort includes. The settings can be found in ScarletDME/.clang-format.
Some files have been reformatted, most have not. However, eventually they all will be. There's also instances of K&R-style function parameter declarations and those will be converted to ANSI-style as I discover them.
There's a mailing list available at https://groups.google.com/g/scarletdme. Both developers and regular users are welcome!
[27Feb20] A Discord server is now available (basically a tarted up version of IRC) at https://discord.gg/H7MPapC2hK - if this link doesn't work for you, please reach out to me ([email protected]) and I'll get you a working link. They do age out periodically. [24Jan22 - the Discord link should now be permanent.]
[26Feb20 gwb]
I resumed work on this project because I had an itch I just had to scratch. That's how most open source software is done apparently. :)
I should note that at the moment, the contents of this git repo builds and works for me. I'm not guaranteeing it'll work for anyone else. :)
I'm not sure what the future holds for this project, but I would like to get a clean, working build of a 64 bit ScarletDME. I had originally thought that this was very difficult due to the pre-compiled p-code that the system depended on. However, after actually doing some research into what was going on, it may be a much less dramatic task than I'd originally thought. My original assumption about the p-code issue was wildly incorrect. That happens when you just glance at an issue without actually digging into it.
This means that a 64 bit version of ScarletDME isn't that far fetched after all. Time well tell I suppose. I know what needs to be done and how to do it, so at least I've got that going for me. :)
I would also like to finish the "re-branding" of OpenQM to ScarletDME. While some things will forever be "OpenQM-isms" like the names of the binaries, there are other areas that just need to be changed in order to make the re-branding effort complete.
I've got a 66 page document that's all of the release notes I could find for the commercial releases of OpenQM. That's going to act as a starting point for improvements and/or bug fixes. I think. We'll see.
I'm going to end this document by thanking Martin Phillips for the original GPL release of OpenQM. We've not always seen eye to eye on things, but his contributions to the Multi-Value database industry cannot be understated. I will always appreciate the gift he's given us all and the value that OpenQM represents to the Multi-Value database community - regardless of whether or not they realize it. ;)
-Gene Buckle, February 26th, 2020.