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Super-Portable DB_File Solution

by rokadave (Sexton)
on Dec 11, 2007 at 23:21 UTC ( [id://656513]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

rokadave has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear Monks,

I'm writing a small ajax responder that will need to drop into a webserver which I have absolutly no control over (no shell access), is a different architecture (Solaris on a sparc) than I develop with, and has a very default perl install. Execution under CGI does not allow me to write to a file.

I've got a very simple data requirement. I need indexed access to a specific row (not range) of data. I've got 50,000 rows of simple, small text data with a small (3-5 character) text key. The data never changes except when I want to upload a new data file.

I built a nice little application using DB_File (DB_HASH). I created the hash.db on my Linux x86_64 box and uploaded it along with a perl cgi to the sparc. It didn't work :(. I'm not sure why, either it isn't binary portable or the spark has a funky berkeley db.

Is there a native perl implementation of DB_File? Is there a way to create a more generic Berkeley hash file? Should I look towards other packages such as MLDBM? Should I go with something huge like sqlite? Should I write my own file structure and b-tree?

Further complicating my choices is the fact that my client is a mere pawn in an enourmous government burocracy and had to grovel just to get execute permissions for cgi. I had to painfully guide him through ftp chmod 0755 to even get the script to run. I need a solution that is guaranteed (or just likely) to work under any environment.

Any help is welcome!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Super-Portable DB_File Solution
by jZed (Prior) on Dec 12, 2007 at 00:22 UTC
    SDBM and other standard DBM data files are not binary compatible across platforms, AFAIK. Probably the most robust solution is DBM::Deep, it's pure perl so you can FTP it to your site or cut and paste it into your script. Its data is cross-platform so you can FTP it. Other than that, Storable or Data::Dumper might do what you need.
Re: Super-Portable DB_File Solution
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Dec 12, 2007 at 00:07 UTC
    DBM::Deep might also fit the bill as it's pure-perl.

    My criteria for good software:
    1. Does it work?
    2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?
      And DBM::Deep is just a single-file install, so you can ship it with your app, or even include it inline if you want a single-file app. It's really quite remarkable. That's why Stonehenge chose it for a Rock Star grant last year to enhance it for transaction support.
        (Transaction support for a highly portable database)That is great news. Thanks.
Re: Super-Portable DB_File Solution
by perrin (Chancellor) on Dec 11, 2007 at 23:27 UTC
    SDBM comes with Perl, and should be present on any Perl installation.
      Thanks! That looks like it's just the ticket.

      Annoying how google didn't know what I was looking for when I searched for portable perl db_file.

        Well, the generic term is usually dbm. You may also commonly find gdbm, which has fewer size limitations than sdbm, but it sounds like that's not an issue for you.

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