It is unfortunately at least unrealisitic and more likely impossible to access a single catalogue world-wide and so one typically has multiple copies of the catalogue. These catalogues are automatically keep up to date by the FATMEN servers. The updates may be sent over Bitnet, DECnet or TCP/IP. However, the servers must be configured so that they know to which nodes updates should be sent. In addition, it may be desirable to maintain subsets of the catalogue at remote sites. For example, information on raw data may remain at the laboratory where the data is taken whereas all DST information is sent to all collaborating institutes.
The configuration file that is used has the same format on all systems. This format is that of a VM/CMS names file. On non-VM systems, these files are processed using the FORTRAN callable routine, NAMEFD, available in the CERN program library KERNLIB.