Yes, pretty much everything that people actually use builds on DBI. However, there are a bunch of newer modules that can make your life easier with layers on top of DBI, such as DBIx::Simple (convenience methods for queries, simpler and saner return values, statement caching and such) or DBIx::Class (complete object-relational mapper using abstracted SQL and a whole ecosystem of extensions). As for databases, it all depends on what you want to do. SQLite has become quite popular for smallish things that don't need much in terms of remote access and concurrency. Its databases live in one easily distributed file and basically create themselves. Otherwise, yes, Postgres.

In reply to Re: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by mbethke
in thread Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by neilwatson

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.