Thanks, Keith. The program doesn't crash at all, and I don't think it is broken. It just can't do certain things that it used to do. This program is called Geneweb, and it's free, GNU, open-source, etc. http://opensource.geneanet.org/projects/geneweb. I am running version 5.01 which is not the latest, but I'm keeping it because in versions starting from 6, they changed something, and a mod that I installed (that I didn't write) that allows a display of three generations before and after the individual won't work any more. The data in the text file (called the base), containing various types of information about the individual, also contains some numbers and so forth, linking that person to his/her parents, children, spouse, etc. The program will access this file display an individual and parents, children, etc, if known in a web page that is nicely formatted; that's fine. What happens since May 2012 is that from the top page there is a choice of displaying all surnames (alphabetical), or a box in which one can input a surname, which then will result in a display of all persons with that name. That won't work now, and neither will the all-surnames display work. One can also choose to display persons sorted on title or estate, which also doesn't work. The problem really is in the text file (the base). I have several different databases here, and the others, one of which contains 50,000 individuals, perform perfectly. But in my big database, it hangs, seeming to get lost, when asked to display surnames or estates. The data in the text file is supposed to look like this, more or less: 0 @I1@ INDI 1 NAME Bob /Cox/ 1 SEX M 1 FAMS @F1@ 1 CHAN 2 DATE 11 FEB 2006 0 @I2@ INDI 1 NAME Joann /Para/ 1 SEX F 1 FAMS @F1@ 1 CHAN 2 DATE 11 FEB 2006 0 @I3@ INDI 1 NAME Bobby Jo /Cox/ 1 SEX M 1 FAMC @F1@ 1 CHAN 2 DATE 11 FEB 2006 0 @F1@ FAM 1 HUSB @I1@ 1 WIFE @I2@ 1 MARR 1 CHIL @I3@ 0 TRLR I also can't create a backup or copy to anywhere, which is crucial, and I can't move the base file, either to another location on the hard drive or to another device. I also can't get it to re-sort, which would be nice, because that cleans up "ghosts" or leftover info on individuals that don't "exist" any more because they have been merged with another one who turned out to be the same person. This problem first cropped up when I had either 86,000 individuals or 82,000 individuals, 2 1/2 years ago. If I ever use the wrong terminology, I aploogize, but I'm not an IT specialist. I am a Linux User located in Worcester. Last time I wrote a program, it was in Basic. I should have said, I guess, is that there must be some bad characters in this text file "base", which makes it impossible for the program that uses it to perform certain functions, such as Sort, or to display certain data, such as all persons of the surname {Whatever}. Liz I didn't know what could be meant by "broken text file", now I see that you mean "broken file processing program". Do you have the source for the geneology program? If not, insert rant here. Does the program crash as soon as you import the file, or only when you do something particular? My first impulse would be to put printf commands into the input procedure. Do you have a spec for what the data is supposed to look like, or is this one of those take-the-money-and-(run|hide| sell updates) programs, whose authors think that's super double secret eye pee?
The text file has been broken since May 2012. This is a genealogical database, that runs in a program that accesses the file, which consists of names, dates, places, etc, plus notes. I think the bogus character might be an at sign @ but if so, it won't help to search for it, because GEDCOMS contain several @ for each individual. My database contains 115,000 individuals. I think I know what family (surname) I was working on when it broke, though, and it still hangs there. I guess I could grep the file for that surname and get it to output a couple of lines after it finds each instance.