[pybsddb] Re: [Python-Dev] Please give this patch for building bsddb a try

[Gregory P. Smith]

On Wed, Jun 19, 2002 at 05:27:06PM -0500, Skip Montanaro wrote:
> 
>     >> Why can't it just be called bsddb?
> 
>     Greg> Modern berkeleydb uses much different on disk database formats,
>     Greg> glancing at the docs on sleepycat.com i don't even think it can
>     Greg> read bsddb (1.85) files.
> 
> That's never stopped us before. ;-) The current bsddb module works with
> versions 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Berkeley DB using the 1.85-compatible API that
> Sleepycat provides.  It's always been the user's responsibility to run the
> appropriate db_dump or db_dump185 commands before using the next version of
> Berkeley DB.  Using the library from Python never removed that requirement.

Good point.  I was ignorant of the original bsddb 1.85 module workings as
i never used it.  Pybsddb backwards compatibility was implemented (not
be me) by with the intention that it could be used as a replacement for
the existing bsddb module.  It passes the simplistic test_bsddb.py that
is included with python today as well as pybsddb's own test_compat.py
to test the compatibility layer.

If we replace the existing bsddb with pybsddb (bsddb3), it should work.
If there are hidden bugs that's what the alpha/beta periods are for.
However linking against berkeleydb versions less than 3.2 will no longer
be supported; should we keep the existing bsddb around as oldbsddb for
users in that situation?

-G