The pack
What is inside a pack?
A pack’s parts always come in the same order, from the cover line to the seal.
One pack, opened
- Card: The lathe · a machine · in bay 2
- Card: The manual · a book · on the shelf
- Card: The hall schedule · a timetable
The parts, in order
The cover note and the finder are optional.
The cover line
The first line names the kind of file and its version, counts the lines inside, and repeats the seal.
The seal does not cover this line, so a program checks it against the seal instead of trusting it.
The cover note
OptionalIt comes right after the cover line and says when the pack was made and from what.
The cards
Each card is one line about one thing: its name, what sort of thing it is, and any details.
The links
Each link is one line that joins two cards, with a word for how they relate.
The where-from tags
A tag says where a statement came from: who or what made it, how, and when.
The finder
OptionalNumbers that help a program find cards that are alike. The seal covers them, and they have extra checks too.
The seal
The last part carries a count of the lines and the seal, a code worked out from everything between the cover line and the seal.
Unknown lines are kept
A program that does not know a kind of line keeps it instead of throwing it away.
Who reads packs
Anyone with a pack’s file can check its seal. Cintilé’s Lampyr is one way packs get shared.