RFComments on various DBM strategies

[Tom Christiansen <mox.perl.com">tchrist]

For doing thing in Perl, I'd like to standardize on Berkeley DB, but I
hear it's hard to support.  Here's a stab at a feature table.  If you've
knowledge in this area, and have a spare momemnt, I'd appreciate it if you
might please fill in what you can.  (These are all "supported" under
perl5, but which one should a person choose and why is a FAQ whose answer
I don't know.)


			    odbm    ndbm    sdbm    gdbm    bsd-db

    Comes w/ perl           no      no      yes     no      no
    Comes w/ many unix os   yes     yes     no      no      no
    Builds ok on !unix      ?       ?       yes     yes     ?
    Code Size               ?       ?       small   big     big
    Database Size           ?       ?       small   big?    ok?
    Speed                   ?       ?       slow    ok      ok?
    FTPable                 no      no      yes     yes     yes
    Easy to build          N/A     N/A      yes     yes     no[1]
    Size limits             1k      4k      1k[2]   none    none 
    Byte-order independent  no      no      no      no      yes 
    Licensing restrictions  ?       ?       no      yes     no 

    [1] unless your system is explicitly supported.  Requires symbolic links.
    [2] by default, can be redefined

I'm especially interested in the question? areas, mistakes, or omissions.

thanks,

--tom

Tom Christiansen      Perl Consultant, Gamer, Hiker      tchristmox.perl.com

    "It is easier to port a shell than a shell script."
		--Larry Wall