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Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 13:52:46 +0200
To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
From: Anders Nore <andenore@start.no>
Message-id: <op.uavxx8ip2n4ijf@duckjen.nextgentel.no>
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Subject: Adding .db support to pkg_tools
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Hi,
I'm working on adding .db support to the pkg_tools( i.e. pkg_add,  
pkg_info, etc. ) as part of SoC 2008. The database api used is BerkeleyDB  
that comes with the base system (/usr/src/include/db.h). BerkeleyDB is not  
you're typical relational db, and can only save key/value pairs. The way  
I'm thinking of storing information to the .db is to name the keys as the  
directory names in /var/db/pkg. And save the +* files in the directories  
to the value element in the db, separated with a special character or  
similar.

One problem lies with the +* files which is scripts (e.g., +INSTALL,  
+DEINSTALL). I've gotten some input that it's bad to save scripts in the  
db, but if it's not going to be saved there, then where? Isn't it possible  
to execute a script without saving a file to disk? Like using "sh -c  
'string'". In my personal opinion it should not be a hybrid solution where  
you save the script files in an old fashion way, for example  
/var/db/pkg/someport-1.2_1/+INSTALL, and the rest of the information lies  
in the .db file. Because then you have redundancy and that could lead to  
inconsistencies.

Let me hear your opinions =)

- Anders Nore