DTSDLFILE(4)

📦
version 2.5.3 · 2 versions
, in nixos 26.05

okay so bestie, welcome to the dtsdlfile(special file) page 💅 — today we're talking CDE runtime help volume files, and it's giving “niche but iconic” energy ✨

💖 NAME 💖

dtsdlfile — CDE runtime help volume files. periodt 🎀

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Semantic Delivery Language (sdl) files are used for presenting online information or application specific contextual help information in CDE. They're referred to as Help Volumes, and they contain the equivalent of a runtime version of the original, authored help information. Help Volumes can be viewed via one of the two CDE help dialog widgets provided as part of the CDE Development Environment. no cap 🦋

🧚 File Generation 🧚

Refer to the dthelptag(1) man page for detailed information on the creation of *.sdl files within CDE. that's the lore, bestie 📚✨

🌈 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌈

The CDE Help system uses two environment variables for locating Help volumes and Family files within the desktop environment:

  • DTHELPSEARCHPATH — system search path environment variable for locating Help volumes on local and/or remote nfs mounted systems.
  • DTHELPUSERSEARCHPATH — users search path environment variable for locating user specific Help volumes on local and/or remote nfs mounted systems.

These environment variables contain colon-separated lists of directory paths. Each directory path can contain environment variable names as well as special field descriptors that are expanded at runtime. runtime expansion? we love to see it 💫

Field descriptors consist of a % followed by a single character. The field descriptors and their substitution values are:

  • %H — this value is replaced with the current volume or Family name being searched for.
  • %L — replaced with the current value of the LANG environment variable.
  • %% — replaced with a single %.

The default value for DTHELPUSERSEARCHPATH is:

$HOME/.dt/help/$DTUSERSESSION/%H:$HOME/.dt/help/$DTUSERSESSION/%H.sdl:$HOME/.dt/help/$DTUSERSESSION/%H.hv:$HOME/.dt/help/%H:$HOME/.dt/help/%H.sdl:$HOME/.dt/help/%H.hv

The DTHELPUSERSEARCH is first searched for the requested volume. If the volume is not found, the DTHELPSEARCHPATH value is searched. search order understood, bestie 🫶

The default value for DTHELPSEARCHPATH path is:

/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/etc/appconfig/help/%L/%H:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/etc/appconfig/help/%L/%H.sdl:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/etc/appconfig/help/%L/%H.hv:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/etc/appconfig/help/C/%H:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/etc/appconfig/help/C/%H.sdl:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/etc/appconfig/help/C/%H.hv:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/appconfig/help/%L/%H:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/appconfig/help/%L/%H.sdl:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/appconfig/help/%L/%H.hv:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/appconfig/help/C/%H:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/appconfig/help/C/%H.sdl:/nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/appconfig/help/C/%H.hv

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 dtsdlfile(special file) is the footer here, and there's no separate source/version or date metadata on this one — so we're keeping it exact, cute, and done. slay ✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from