To open an existing database select the "Open..." command from the File
menu. This brings up a file browser where the database name can be
selected. The databases will be listed in a NAME.V notation
(where V is the version number). Double clicking on the database
name will then open this database.
If a database was already opened then it is closed before the new one is
opened. If the new database is already in use by Gap a dialogue will
appear warning you that the database has been opened in read only mode.
This mode prevents any edits from being made to the database. However in
the current implementation attempting to perform edits (eg saving from
the contig editor) will terminate Gap rather than produce an error
dialogue.
A database may also be opened by specifying the database name and
version on the unix command line. To open version 0 of the database
`FRED' use "gap FRED.0".