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1.1 ! misho 1: These functions build the foundation for accessing Berkeley DB style ! 2: databases. ! 3: ! 4: This is a general abstraction layer for several file-based databases. As ! 5: such, functionality is limited to a common subset of features supported ! 6: by modern databases such as Sleepycat Software's DB2. (This is not to be ! 7: confused with IBM's DB2 software, which is supported through the ODBC ! 8: functions.) ! 9: ! 10: This extensions allows to work with the following databases: ! 11: dbm DBM is the oldest (original) type of Berkeley DB style databases. ! 12: You should avoid it, if possible. We do not support the ! 13: compatibility functions built into DB2 and gdbm, because they are ! 14: only compatible on the source code level, but cannot handle the ! 15: original dbm format. ! 16: ndbm NDBM is a newer type and more flexible than dbm. It still has ! 17: most of the arbitrary limits of dbm (therefore it is deprecated). ! 18: gdbm GDBM is the GNU database manager. ! 19: db2 DB2 is Sleepycat Software's DB2. It's described as "a programmatic ! 20: toolkit that provides high-performance built-in database support ! 21: for both standalone and client/server applications. ! 22: db3 DB3 is Sleepycat Software's DB3. ! 23: db4 DB4 is Sleepycat Software's DB4. This is available since PHP 5.0. ! 24: cdb CDB is "a fast, reliable, lightweight package for creating and ! 25: reading constant databases." It is from the author of qmail and ! 26: can be found at http://cr.yp.to/cdb.html. Since it is constant, ! 27: we support only reading operations. And since PHP 4.3.0 we support ! 28: writing (not updating) through the internal cdb library. ! 29: cdb_make Since PHP 4.3.0 we support creation (not updating) of cdb files ! 30: when the bundled cdb library is used. ! 31: flatfile This is available since PHP 4.3.0 for compatibility with the ! 32: deprecated dbm extension only and should be avoided. However you ! 33: may use this where files were created in this format. That happens ! 34: when configure could not find any external library. ! 35: inifile This is available since PHP 4.3.3 to be able to modify php.ini ! 36: files from within PHP scripts. When working with ini files you ! 37: can pass arrays of the form array(0=>group,1=>value_name) or ! 38: strings of the form "[group]value_name" where group is optional. ! 39: As the functions dba_firstkey() and dba_nextkey() return string ! 40: representations of the key there is a new function dba_key_split() ! 41: available since PHP 5 which allows to convert the string keys into ! 42: array keys without loosing FALSE. ! 43: qdbm This is available since PHP 5.0.0. The qdbm library can be loaded ! 44: from http://qdbm.sourceforge.net. ! 45: ! 46: ! 47: After configuring and compiling PHP you must execute the following test ! 48: from commandline: ! 49: php run-tests.php ext/dba. ! 50: This shows whether your combination of handlers works. Most problematic ! 51: are dbm and ndbm which conflict with many installations. The reason for ! 52: this is that on several systems these libraries are part of more than one ! 53: other library. The configuration test only prevents you from configuring ! 54: malfaunctioning single handlers but not combinations.