dbm (gdbm)
is not in the public domain; it is copyrighted and there
are restrictions on its distribution, but these restrictions are
designed to permit everything that a good cooperating citizen would want
to do. What is not allowed is to try to prevent others from further
sharing any version of gdbm that they might get from
you.
Specifically, we want to make sure that you have the right to give
away copies gdbm, that you receive
source code or else can get it if you want it, that you can change these
functions or use pieces of them in new free programs, and that you know
you can do these things.
To make sure that everyone has such rights, we have to forbid you to
deprive anyone else of these rights. For example, if you distribute
copies gdbm, you must give the recipients all
the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or
can get the source code. And you must tell them their rights.
Also, for our own protection, we must make certain that everyone finds
out that there is no warranty for anything in the gdbm distribution.
If these functions are modified by someone else and passed on, we want
their recipients to know that what they have is not what we distributed,
so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on our
reputation.
gdbm is currently distributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License, Version 2. (NOT under the GNU General Library
Public License.) A copy the GNU General Public License is included with
the distribution of gdbm.
dbm.
GNU dbm (gdbm)is a library of database functions that use
extendible hashing and works similar to the standard UNIX dbm
functions. These routines are provided to a programmer needing to
create and manipulate a hashed database. (gdbm is NOT a
complete database package for an end user.)
The basic use of gdbm is to store key/data pairs in a data file.
Each key must be unique and each key is paired with only one data item.
The keys can not be directly accessed in sorted order. The basic unit
of data in gdbm is the structure:
typedef struct {
char *dptr;
int dsize;
} datum;
This structure allows for arbitrary sized keys and data items.
The key/data pairs are stored in a gdbm disk file, called a
gdbm database. An application must open a gdbm database
to be able manipulate the keys and data contained in the database.
gdbm allows an application to have multiple databases open at the
same time. When an application opens a gdbm database, it is
designated as a reader or a writer. A gdbm
database opened by at most one writer at a time. However, many readers
may open the database open simultaneously. Readers and writers can not
open the gdbm database at the same time.
The following is a quick list of the functions contained in the gdbm
library. The include file gdbm.h, that can be included by the user,
contains a definition of these functions.
#include <gdbm.h> GDBM_FILE gdbm_open(name, block_size, flags, mode, fatal_func); void gdbm_close(dbf); int gdbm_store(dbf, key, content, flag); datum gdbm_fetch(dbf, key); int gdbm_delete(dbf, key); datum gdbm_firstkey(dbf); datum gdbm_nextkey(dbf, key); int gdbm_reorganize(dbf); void gdbm_sync(dbf);
The gdbm.h include file is often in the `/usr/local/gnu/include'
directory. (The actual location of gdbm.h depends on your local
installation of gdbm.)
Initialize gdbm system. If the file has a size of zero bytes, a file
initialization procedure is performed, setting up the initial structure in the
file.
The procedure for opening a gdbm file is:
GDBM_FILE dbf; dbf = gdbm_open(name, block_size, flags, mode, fatal_func);
The parameters are:
gdbm does not append any
characters to this name).
block_size is used.
flags is set to GDBM_READER, the user wants to just read the
database and any call to gdbm_store or gdbm_delete will fail.
Many readers can access the database at the same time. If flags is
set to GDBM_WRITER, the user wants both read and write access to the database
and requires exclusive access. If flags is set to GDBM_WRCREAT, the
user wants both read and write access to the database and if the database does
not exist, create a new one. If flags is set to GDBM_NEWDB, the
user want a new database created, regardless of whether one existed, and wants
read and write access to the new database. For all writers (GDBM_WRITER,
GDBM_WRCREAT and GDBM_NEWDB) the value GDBM_FAST can be added to the
flags field using logical or. This option causes gdbm
to write the database without any disk file synchronization. This allows
faster writes, but may produce an inconsistent database in the event of
abnormal termination of the writer.
Any error detected will cause a
return value of NULL and an appropriate value will be in gdbm_errno (see
Variables). If no errors occur, a pointer to the gdbm file descriptor
will be returned.
gdbm to call if it detects a fatal error. The only
parameter of this function is a string. If the value of NULL is provided,
gdbm will use a default function.
The return value, dbf, is the pointer needed by all other functions to
access that gdbm file. If the return is the NULL pointer,
gdbm_open was not successful. The errors can be found in
gdbm_errno for gdbm errors and in errno for file system
errors (for error codes, see gdbm.h).
In all of the following calls, the parameter dbf refers to the pointer
returned from gdbm_open.
It is important that every file opened is also closed. This is needed to update the reader/writer count on the file. This is done by:
gdbm_close(dbf);
The parameter is:
gdbm_open.
Closes the gdbm file and frees all memory associated with the file
dbf.
The function gdbm_store inserts or replaces records in the database.
ret = gdbm_store(dbf, key, content, flag);
The parameters are:
gdbm_open.
key data.
gdbm.h) asks that the old data be replaced by
the new content. The value GDBM_INSERT asks that an error be returned
and no action taken if the key already exists.
The values returned in ret are:
key or content have a NULL dptr field.
Both key and content must have the dptr field be a non-NULL value.
Since a NULL dptr field is used by other functions to indicate an error, a NULL
field cannot be valid data.
flag was GDBM_INSERT and
the key was already in the database.
content is keyed by key. The file on disk is updated
to reflect the structure of the new database before returning from this
function.
If you store data for a key that is already in the data base,
gdbm replaces the old data with the new data if called with
GDBM_REPLACE. You do not get two data items for the same key and you do
not get an error from gdbm_store.
The size in gdbm is not restricted like dbm or ndbm. Your
data can be as large as you want.
Looks up a given key and returns the information associated with that
key. The pointer in the structure that is returned is a pointer to dynamically
allocated memory block. To search for some data:
content = gdbm_fetch(dbf, key);
The parameters are:
gdbm_open.
key data.
The datum returned in content is a pointer to the data found. If the
dptr is NULL, no data was found. If dptr is not NULL, then it points
to data allocated by malloc. gdbm does not automatically free this data.
The user must free this storage when done using it. This eliminates the
need to copy the result to save it for later use (you just save the pointer).
To remove some data from the database:
ret = gdbm_delete(dbf, key);
The parameters are:
gdbm_open.
key data.
The ret value is -1 if the item is not present or the requester is a reader. The ret value is 0 if there was a successful delete.
gdbm_delete removes the keyed item and the key from the database
dbf. The file on disk is updated to reflect the structure of the new
database before returning from this function.
The next two functions allow for accessing all items in the database. This
access is not key sequential, but it is guaranteed to visit every
key in the database once. The order has to do with the hash values.
gdbm_firstkey starts the visit of all keys in the database.
gdbm_nextkey finds and reads the next entry in the hash structure for
dbf.
key = gdbm_firstkey(dbf); nextkey = gdbm_nextkey(dbf, key);
The parameters are:
gdbm_open.
key
key data.
The return values are both datum. If key.dptr or nextkey.dptr is NULL,
there is no first key or next key. Again notice that dptr points to
data allocated by malloc and gdbm will not free it for you.
The following function should be used very seldom.
ret = gdbm_reorganize(dbf);
The parameter is:
gdbm_open.
If you have had a lot of deletions and would like to shrink the space
used by the gdbm file, this function will reorganize the database.
gdbm will not shorten the length of a gdbm file (deleted file space will be
reused) except by using this reorganization.
This reorganization requires creating a new file and inserting all the elements
in the old file dbf into the new file. The new file is then renamed to
the same name as the old file and dbf is updated to contain all the
correct information about the new file. If an error is detected, the return
value is negative. The value zero is returned after a successful
reorganization.
gdbm does not
wait for writes to the disk to complete before continuing. This allows
faster writing of databases at the risk of having a corrupted database if
the application terminates in an abnormal fashion. The following function
allows the programmer to make sure the disk version of the
database has been completely updated with all changes to the current time.
gdbm_sync(dbf);
The parameter is:
gdbm_open.
This would usually be called after a complete set of changes have been
made to the database and before some long waiting time.
gdbm_close automatically calls the equivalent of gdbm_sync
so no call is needed if the database is to be closed immediately after
the set of changes have been made.
The following two variables are variables that may need to be used:
gdbm errors
(gdbm.h has the definitions of the error values).
dbm and ndbm.
GNU dbm files are not sparse. You can copy them with the UNIX
cp command and they will not expand in the copying process.
There is a compatibility mode for use with programs that already use UNIX
dbm and UNIX ndbm.
GNU dbm has compatibility functions for dbm. For dbm
compatibility functions, you need the include file dbm.h.
In this compatibility mode, no gdbm file pointer is required
by the user. Only one file may be opened at a time. All users in compatibility
mode are assumed to be writers. If the gdbm file is a read only, it will
fail as a writer, but will also try to open it as a reader. All returned
pointers in datum structures point to data that gdbm WILL free. They
should be treated as static pointers (as standard UNIX dbm does). The
compatibility function names are the same as the UNIX dbm function
names. Their definitions follow:
int dbminit(name); int store(key, content); datum fetch(key); int delete(key); datum firstkey(); datum nextkey(key);
Standard UNIX dbm and GNU dbm do not have the same data
format in the file. You cannot access a standard UNIX dbm file with GNU
dbm! If you want to use an old database with GNU dbm, you must
use the conv2gdbm program.
Also, GNU dbm has compatibility functions for ndbm. For
ndbm compatibility functions, you need the include file ndbm.h.
Again, just like ndbm, any returned datum can be assumed to be static
storage. You do not have to free that memory, the ndbm compatibility
functions will do it for you.
The functions are:
DBM *dbm_open(name, flags, mode);
void dbm_close(file);
datum dbm_fetch(file, key);
int dbm_store(file, key, content, flags);
int dbm_delete(file, key);
datum dbm_firstkey(file);
datum dbm_nextkey(file);
int dbm_error(file);
int dbm_clearerr(file);
int dbm_dirfno(file);
int dbm_pagfno(file);
If you want to compile an old C program that used UNIX dbm or ndbm
and want to use gdbm files, execute the following cc command:
cc ... -L /usr/local/lib -lgdbm
dbm files to gdbm format.
The program conv2gdbm has been provided to help you convert from dbm
databases to gdbm. The usage is:
conv2gdbm [-q] [-b block_size] dbm_file [gdbm_file]
The options are:
conv2gdbm to work quietly.
gdbm_open.
dbm file without the .pag or .dir
extensions.
gdbm file name is the
same as the dbm file name without any extensions. That is
conv2gdbm dbmfile converts the files dbmfile.pag and
dbmfile.dir into a gdbm file called dbmfile.
If you have problems with GNU dbm or think you've found a bug,
please report it. Before reporting a bug, make sure you've actually
found a real bug. Carefully reread the documentation and see if it
really says you can do what you're trying to do. If it's not clear
whether you should be able to do something or not, report that too; it's
a bug in the documentation!
Before reporting a bug or trying to fix it yourself, try to isolate it
to the smallest possible input file that reproduces the problem. Then
send us the input file and the exact results gdbm gave you. Also
say what you expected to occur; this will help us decide whether the
problem was really in the documentation.
Once you've got a precise problem, send e-mail to:
Internet: `[email protected]'. UUCP: `mit-eddie!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gnu-utils'.
Please include the version number of GNU dbm you are using. You can get
this information by printing the variable gdbm_version (see Variables).
Non-bug suggestions are always welcome as well. If you have questions about things that are unclear in the documentation or are just obscure features, please report them too.
You may contact the author by:
e-mail: [email protected]
us-mail: Philip A. Nelson
Computer Science Department
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98226