Re: checking for Berkley db 4.2 --> 4.3 upgrade

[David Lloyd]

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005, Stepan Kasal wrote:

> Well, instead of a conclusion I have to ask: is "Berkeley db" 
> functionality available only from one project, or are there several 
> implementations? (I think the db _format_ can be accessed by several 
> independent libraries, but that's not the question.)

If you're talking Berkeley DB 2.0 or later, there is only one.  The 
difference in functionality between the old Berkeley DB and the current 
product by Sleepycat is very substantial at this point, and refering to 
the various DBM-type libraries as being in the same category as 
Sleepycat's product is just untrue at this point (they've added 
transactions, locking, memory pools, replication, all kinds of stuff).

That said, as an experienced BDB user, I can say with some certainty that 
it is quite safe to check for just the version number of any of 
Sleepycat's products if you're looking for features or behaviors.

If you're dealing with the old DBM-type format (Berkeley DB 1.8x), you 
may be better off probing for features and behaviors; I suspect there are 
multiple implementations of this type of database.

- D