Opening a SQLite database in readonly mode

[Joshua Kugler]

Paul Moore wrote:
> The SQLite documentation mentions a flag, SQLITE_OPEN_READONLY, to
> open a database read only. I can't find any equivalent documented in
> the Python standard library documentation for the sqlite3 module (or,
> for that matter, on the pysqlite library's website).
> 
> Is it possible to open a sqlite database in readonly mode, in Python?

Yes, but most likely not with pysqlite.  The python sqlite3 module in the
standard library, and the pysqlite module are both DB-API compliant, which
means they probably do not have a method to open the DB read only (as that
is usually enforced at the user permission level).

If you want to use that flag, take a look at APSW. It is a very thin layer
on top of the SQLite C API, and thus supports everything that the C API
supports.  It is not, however, DB API compliant, but is very close so not
hard to pick up.

BTW, APSW is written by the same author as pysqlite.

j