Glossary

Data directory

A sub-directory of a repo that contains a hidden rule file (.rules).

List file

A disk file in UTF-8 format containing line-oriented data (with newlines) and with no blank lines.

List repository (or “repo”)

A directory tree that has been initialized with a mklists configuration file (mklists.yml) and global rule file (rules.cfg).

Rule file

A disk file in pipe-delimited CSV format that enumerates the rules used to process data lists. Aside from using pipe characters (|) instead of commas, the rule-file format allows values to be surrounded with whitespace (which is stripped out before processing). The mklists program expects a “global” rule file (rules.cfg) in the root directory of the repo and a “local” rule file (.rules) in each data directory.

Rules

A list of Rule objects initialized from rule files.