README 3.2 KB

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  1. These functions build the foundation for accessing Berkeley DB style
  2. databases.
  3. This is a general abstraction layer for several file-based databases. As
  4. such, functionality is limited to a common subset of features supported
  5. by modern databases such as Sleepycat Software's DB2. (This is not to be
  6. confused with IBM's DB2 software, which is supported through the ODBC
  7. functions.)
  8. This extensions allows to work with the following databases:
  9. dbm DBM is the oldest (original) type of Berkeley DB style databases.
  10. You should avoid it, if possible. We do not support the
  11. compatibility functions built into DB2 and gdbm, because they are
  12. only compatible on the source code level, but cannot handle the
  13. original dbm format.
  14. ndbm NDBM is a newer type and more flexible than dbm. It still has
  15. most of the arbitrary limits of dbm (therefore it is deprecated).
  16. gdbm GDBM is the GNU database manager.
  17. db2 DB2 is Sleepycat Software's DB2. It's described as "a programmatic
  18. toolkit that provides high-performance built-in database support
  19. for both standalone and client/server applications.
  20. db3 DB3 is Sleepycat Software's DB3.
  21. db4 DB4 is Sleepycat Software's DB4. This is available since PHP 5.0.
  22. cdb CDB is "a fast, reliable, lightweight package for creating and
  23. reading constant databases." It is from the author of qmail and
  24. can be found at http://cr.yp.to/cdb.html. Since it is constant,
  25. we support only reading operations. And since PHP 4.3.0 we support
  26. writing (not updating) through the internal cdb library.
  27. cdb_make Since PHP 4.3.0 we support creation (not updating) of cdb files
  28. when the bundled cdb library is used.
  29. flatfile This is available since PHP 4.3.0 for compatibility with the
  30. deprecated dbm extension only and should be avoided. However you
  31. may use this where files were created in this format. That happens
  32. when configure could not find any external library.
  33. inifile This is available since PHP 4.3.3 to be able to modify php.ini
  34. files from within PHP scripts. When working with ini files you
  35. can pass arrays of the form array(0=>group,1=>value_name) or
  36. strings of the form "[group]value_name" where group is optional.
  37. As the functions dba_firstkey() and dba_nextkey() return string
  38. representations of the key there is a new function dba_key_split()
  39. available since PHP 5 which allows to convert the string keys into
  40. array keys without loosing FALSE.
  41. qdbm This is available since PHP 5.0.0. The qdbm library can be loaded
  42. from http://qdbm.sourceforge.net.
  43. After configuring and compiling PHP you must execute the following test
  44. from commandline:
  45. php run-tests.php ext/dba.
  46. This shows whether your combination of handlers works. Most problematic
  47. are dbm and ndbm which conflict with many installations. The reason for
  48. this is that on several systems these libraries are part of more than one
  49. other library. The configuration test only prevents you from configuring
  50. malfaunctioning single handlers but not combinations.