Every now and then I run across some documentation that has an amusing element, side story, or something a bit beyond the usual.
This one came up a while back and I’ve gone back and read it a few times when I needed a laugh. It’s the last bit…
Command: steal-file
only valid way to move a file from another account into the current account.
This physically moves a file to the current master dictionary from another master dictionary.
“steal-file” prompts for the account name and requires “sys2” privileges. It also requires that the
user invoking “steal-file” is not protected against updating the file at any level, master dictionary,
file level dictionary, or data file level.
After “stealing” a file, the former owner has no reference to it, not even visitation rights. He or she
can get visitation rights by building a “q-pointer” to where the file moved, or by referencing it via a
“file path”.
Maybe I’m the only one that finds it funny; that’s ok. Makes me wonder about who wrote it though, and if anyone else reviewing the documentation noticed.
OK… is this a real command???
Oh yes, it’s a real command in the database system we use at work.
Mostly used when we need to pull files out of the live account into an archive account. We’ll then save the archive account to an offsite backup, verify it and all that, and then exclude it from the backups on the live system. That way our backups go faster and all the old, un-changing data is still available.