Honestly, I would highly suggest an ACID-compliant db for anything where things are critical. Flat-files probably can be made ACID-compliant. But I wouldn't want to write the code to handle it.

Next best thing is MySQL (I realise that the default db isn't ACID-compliant, but I think there's an option to create a different type of db that is). Or PostgreSQL. Or ... (before anyone complains I'm anti-their-favourite-free-db, I'll say that the only one I have personal experience with is still IBM DB2).

I started writing a website for work once where I was trying to figure out exactly the same problem you're having: worrying about concurrent updates to my data storage. My manager explicitly told me not to use a database, worrying about the overhead. I ignored him once I got to the concurrency issue. I switched everything over to DB2. It saved my sanity (or what's left of it). Not that it was DB2 per se, but that it was an ACID-compliant server which took care of these nitty gritties and that I pretty much didn't have to worry about them anymore.

I can never recommend enough the use of the right tool for the job. And storing data is generally best left to database software. Those guys are way smarter than I am about these things, and, though I may be arrogant, I'm not that arrogant - not enough to think I can do in perl in a matter of hours or days what it took them years and years to do in C. (Perl is faster than C for development - but not that faster ;->)

In reply to Re: Append to a busy flat-file db without leaving customer in lurch by Tanktalus
in thread Append to a busy flat-file db without leaving customer in lurch by davebaker

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