[pybsddb] Re: [Python-Dev] Improving bsddb detection in setup.py

Gregory P. Smith greg@electricrain.com
Mon, 20 Aug 2001 21:36:16 -0700


On Mon, Aug 20, 2001 at 10:46:06PM -0400, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> >     GvR> But that requires that you have BSDDB 3, right?  Because of
> >     GvR> its licensing, not everybody has it.  So I think it's still a
> >     GvR> good idea to have Skip's patch as well.
> > 
> > No, PyBSDDB claims to be BSD 1.85 compatible.  I haven't tried that
> > yet, but I think it will work even if you have the free, old version
> > around.
> 
> So it's *both* compatible with BSD 1.95 *and* with the old bsddb
> module.  Then what does it buy you?

pybsddb only links with BerkeleyDB 3.x.  It supports a bsddb module
compatible interface to make upgrading apps that use the old bsddb
module smoother.

If you want to use the free old version you still need the old bsddb
module.  If you want to use the great new features (transactions,
threading, cursors, etc.) available in BerkeleyDB 3 you need pybsddb.

I'm not certain it makes sense to include pybsddb with python as it
generally needs updating for every 3.x release of BerkeleyDB since
seepycat keeps improving the library interface in minor ways.

Including a mention of pybsddb and a hyperlink to the sourceforge
project in the bsddb module documentation "would be a good thing" (tm).

-- 
Gregory P. Smith   gnupg/pgp: http://electricrain.com/greg/keys/
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