[Python-Dev] Including BSDDB3

[Guido van Rossum]

> What do people think about including bsddb3 in Python 2.3, along with
> deprecating the existing bsddb module? You'll find the package at
> 
> http://pybsddb.sourceforge.net/
> 
> It would come as a bsddb3 package, which acts interface-compatible
> with the current bsddb module. Various submodules give access to more
> advanced features.
> 
> The main rationale for dropping bsddb is that it still relies on the
> db_185.h interface, which will be phased out sooner or
> later. Existance of this interface, in turn, results in problems with
> anydbm:
> 
> There are multiple versions of the database files available in the
> world, and any BSDDB installation can only handle so many of these
> versions. Now, on Linux, it is common that bsddb3 is installed, but
> that glibc offers bsddb2 simultaneously. For anydbm to analyse this
> situation properly, it would need some of the more advanced bsddb
> facilities.
> 
> While this is the rationale for dropping the existing bsddb module
> sooner or later, there are, of course, numerous advantages in exposing
> the additional BSDDB features, like concurrency, transactions, and
> cursors.
> 
> Any opinions?

Sounds like a good plan, but we should make sure it can all be
re-released under the PSF license.  For the Zope Corp. portions of the
code I promise that's no problem :-) -- but there are so many other
contributors that it's getting a little tangled...

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)