AnyDBM_File

NAME

AnyDBM_File - provide framework for multiple DBMs

NDBM_File, DB_File, GDBM_File, SDBM_File, ODBM_File - various DBM implementations

SYNOPSIS

use AnyDBM_File;

DESCRIPTION

This module is a "pure virtual base class"--it has nothing of its own. It’s just there to inherit from one of the various DBM packages. It prefers ndbm for compatibility reasons with Perl 4, then Berkeley DB (See DB_File), GDBM, SDBM (which is always there--it comes with Perl), and finally ODBM. This way old programs that used to use NDBM via dbmopen() can still do so, but new ones can reorder @ISA:

BEGIN { @AnyDBM_File::ISA = qw(DB_File GDBM_File NDBM_File) }
use AnyDBM_File;

Having multiple DBM implementations makes it trivial to copy database formats:

use Fcntl; use NDBM_File; use DB_File;
tie %newhash, 'DB_File', $new_filename, O_CREAT|O_RDWR;
tie %oldhash, 'NDBM_File', $old_filename, 1, 0;
%newhash = %oldhash;

DBM Comparisons
Here’s a partial table of features the different packages offer:

odbm ndbm sdbm gdbm bsd-db
---- ---- ---- ---- ------
Linkage comes w/ perl yes yes yes yes yes
Src comes w/ perl no no yes no no
Comes w/ many unix os yes yes[0] no no no
Builds ok on !unix ? ? yes yes ?
Code Size ? ? small big big
Database Size ? ? small big? ok[1]
Speed ? ? slow ok fast
FTPable no no yes yes yes
Easy to build N/A N/A yes yes ok[2]
Size limits 1k 4k 1k[3] none none
Byte-order independent no no no no yes
Licensing restrictions ? ? no yes no

SEE ALSO

dbm(3), ndbm(3), DB_File(3), perldbmfilter