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# tmptable.txt: help text
# Copyright (c) 2001,2002,2003 Carlo Strozzi
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# $Id: tmptable.txt,v 1.4 2003/10/09 10:53:30 carlo Exp $

                      NoSQL utility: tmptable

NoSQL temporary table creator

Usage: tmptable [options]

Options:
    --input (-i) 'file'
      Read input from 'file' instead of STDIN.

    --output (-o) 'file'
      Write output to 'file' instead of creating an internal
      temporary file.

    --no-trap (-n)
      Do not remove the temporary file on exit. This flag is
      implicitly set if option '-o' is also specified.

    --delete (-d) 'n'
      Remove the temporary file after 'n' seconds. By default
      the file is removed after about 10 seconds.

    --help (-h)
      Display this help text.

Notes:

Stores the stream received on stdin into a temporary work-file,
and prints the name of the latter to stdout. Unless option '-n' is
specified, the temporary file is then scheduled for removal by a
background subshell.

Due to the several processes involved, this program is not very
efficient. It is mainly meant as a command-line aid to handle multiple
joins on the same pipeline. Join operations require that the join fields
be sorted, and this may prove difficult or impossibile if multiple joins
are run on the same command-line. This is where 'tmptable' may come
handy.

Here is an example usage at the command-line:

  jointable -j some_field - \
  `sorttable -i unsorted.table some_field | tmptable` < sorted.table

