Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 17:54:09 +0200 From: Ivan Voras <ivoras@fer.hr> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: SQL in the base system Message-ID: <f223ji$7si$1@sea.gmane.org> In-Reply-To: <17988.35412.231093.411177@bhuda.mired.org> References: <200705102105.27271.blackdragon@highveldmail.co.za> <f20c8u$htp$1@sea.gmane.org> <4643C7DB.6000408@elischer.org> <f219f6$3ls$1@sea.gmane.org> <17988.35412.231093.411177@bhuda.mired.org>
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This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enigA0F802F6F6CE7264877492FB Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Mike Meyer wrote: >> Perhaps this is a good time I should mention that I think sqlite would= >> also be good for the password and login databases? :) >=20 > Someone has already pointed out the horror that is the Windows > registry. IIUC, even MS has figured out this is a bad idea, and gotten > away from it with Vista. But it's been tried on Unix systems before as This is the first time I hear about Vista - AFAIK it relies even more on = registry, to the point that the boot process also uses it. Registry was pretty bad in Win9x, but AFAIK most of those issues were=20 because FAT32 is a bad file system. I never had a registry problem (on=20 many machines) running Win2k and WinXP. > Using a binary format brings it's own problems. How hard is it to fix > a corrupt database? How hard is it to figure out that the database is > so corrupt you aren't going to get anything out of it, so you might as > well give up? How robust is it - can a corrupt block fry the entire > database? How about portability - can I move the file to a completely > different architecture and still get the data from it? If any of these > are noticably worse than they are for text files, changing is probably > not a good idea. Most of those issues are valid, but don't strongly advocate against=20 databases, because the same issues (corruption, rebuilding, manual=20 inspection) are present for directories of text files. Endian issues are = solved in sqlite. I don't think databases are so scary (but possibly that's lack of=20 experience on my part). If you would get a corrupt block in the middle=20 of a complex text file, it would wedge your system just as bad as if you = got a bad block in a table in the database (anecdotally, sqlite database = can be read even in those circumstances, if you avoid the corrupt=20 table). (And a corrupt block in an important metadata section is the=20 same as a corrupt block in the directory record on the file system). The = objective downside is that there are more blocks in a database. > Someone else mentioned XML. Well, it's easy to parse - assuming you > read that as "someone else wrote the parser for us". That's true for > lots of things. I also question the sanity of using it. But I wind up > doing a lot of it, because my clients like the buzzword compliance. I > regularly beat on them to take advantage of what XML can do that other > formats can't. Meaning I make them install validation software, and > pay me to write schemas for them, and get them to add hooks to the > repository so you can't check in xml files that don't validate. But if > you're not going to do that kind of thing, the major feature XML > brings is the buzzword compliance. Bofore I get misunderstood, I'd like to say that I'm not actually such a = big fan of XML, but I think it's currently the lesser of evils. The=20 alternative is either to create a one-off file format for each and every = purpose (aka "the unix way"), or use some XML-replacement (JSON &=20 others) which has most of the evils of XML and introduce lack of support = from existing tools. --------------enigA0F802F6F6CE7264877492FB Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGRJGtldnAQVacBcgRAo22AJ9m/aws78NY/jbgLEwV98L9E++3NwCglfwN aV3f2xwPd/Yje/fUIvfFF/s= =m8Eq -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enigA0F802F6F6CE7264877492FB--
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