1BDB(3)                User Contributed Perl Documentation               BDB(3)
2
3
4

NAME

6       BDB - Asynchronous Berkeley DB access
7

SYNOPSIS

9        use BDB;
10
11        my $env = db_env_create;
12
13        mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
14        db_env_open
15           $env,
16           "bdtest",
17           BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL
18           | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
19           0600;
20
21        $env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);
22
23        my $db = db_create $env;
24        db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE
25                                            | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;
26        db_put $db, undef, "key", "data", 0, sub {
27           db_del $db, undef, "key";
28        };
29        db_sync $db;
30
31        # when you also use Coro, management is easy:
32        use Coro::BDB;
33
34        # automatic event loop integration with AnyEvent:
35        use AnyEvent::BDB;
36
37        # automatic result processing with EV:
38        my $WATCHER = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb;
39
40        # with Glib:
41        add_watch Glib::IO BDB::poll_fileno,
42                  in => sub { BDB::poll_cb; 1 };
43
44        # or simply flush manually
45        BDB::flush;
46

DESCRIPTION

48       See the BerkeleyDB documentation
49       (<http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/berkeley-db/db/index.html>).
50       The BDB API is very similar to the C API (the translation has been very
51       faithful).
52
53       See also the example sections in the document below and possibly the
54       eg/ subdirectory of the BDB distribution. Last not least see the
55       IO::AIO documentation, as that module uses almost the same asynchronous
56       request model as this module.
57
58       I know this is woefully inadequate documentation. Send a patch!
59

REQUEST ANATOMY AND LIFETIME

61       Every request method creates a request. which is a C data structure not
62       directly visible to Perl.
63
64       During their existance, bdb requests travel through the following
65       states, in order:
66
67       ready
68           Immediately after a request is created it is put into the ready
69           state, waiting for a thread to execute it.
70
71       execute
72           A thread has accepted the request for processing and is currently
73           executing it (e.g. blocking in read).
74
75       pending
76           The request has been executed and is waiting for result processing.
77
78           While request submission and execution is fully asynchronous,
79           result processing is not and relies on the perl interpreter calling
80           "poll_cb" (or another function with the same effect).
81
82       result
83           The request results are processed synchronously by "poll_cb".
84
85           The "poll_cb" function will process all outstanding aio requests by
86           calling their callbacks, freeing memory associated with them and
87           managing any groups they are contained in.
88
89       done
90           Request has reached the end of its lifetime and holds no resources
91           anymore (except possibly for the Perl object, but its connection to
92           the actual aio request is severed and calling its methods will
93           either do nothing or result in a runtime error).
94

BERKELEYDB FUNCTIONS

96       All of these are functions. The create functions simply return a new
97       object and never block. All the remaining functions take an optional
98       callback as last argument. If it is missing, then the function will be
99       executed synchronously. In both cases, $! will reflect the return value
100       of the function.
101
102       BDB functions that cannot block (mostly functions that manipulate
103       settings) are method calls on the relevant objects, so the rule of
104       thumb is: if it's a method, it's not blocking, if it's a function, it
105       takes a callback as last argument.
106
107       In the following, $int signifies an integer return value,
108       "bdb_filename" is a "filename" (octets on unix, madness on windows),
109       "U32" is an unsigned 32 bit integer, "int" is some integer, "NV" is a
110       floating point value.
111
112       Most "SV *" types are generic perl scalars (for input and output of
113       data values).
114
115       The various "DB_ENV" etc. arguments are handles return by
116       "db_env_create", "db_create", "txn_begin" and so on. If they have an
117       appended "_ornull" this means they are optional and you can pass
118       "undef" for them, resulting a NULL pointer on the C level.
119
120       The "SV *callback" is the optional callback function to call when the
121       request is completed. This last callback argument is special: the
122       callback is simply the last argument passed. If there are "optional"
123       arguments before the callback they can be left out. The callback itself
124       can be left out or specified as "undef", in which case the function
125       will be executed synchronously.
126
127       For example, "db_env_txn_checkpoint" usually is called with all integer
128       arguments zero. These can be left out, so all of these specify a call
129       to "DB_ENV->txn_checkpoint", to be executed asynchronously with a
130       callback to be called:
131
132          db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, 0, sub { };
133          db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, sub { };
134          db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, sub { };
135
136       While these all specify a call to "DB_ENV->txn_checkpoint" to be
137       executed synchronously:
138
139          db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, 0, undef;
140          db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, 0;
141          db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0;
142
143   BDB functions
144       Functions in the BDB namespace, exported by default:
145
146          $env = db_env_create (U32 env_flags = 0)
147             flags: RPCCLIENT
148
149          db_env_open (DB_ENV *env, bdb_filename db_home, U32 open_flags, int mode, SV *callback = 0)
150             open_flags: INIT_CDB INIT_LOCK INIT_LOG INIT_MPOOL INIT_REP INIT_TXN RECOVER RECOVER_FATAL USE_ENVIRON USE_ENVIRON_ROOT CREATE LOCKDOWN PRIVATE REGISTER SYSTEM_MEM
151          db_env_close (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
152          db_env_txn_checkpoint (DB_ENV *env, U32 kbyte = 0, U32 min = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
153             flags: FORCE
154          db_env_lock_detect (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, U32 atype = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = 0)
155             atype: LOCK_DEFAULT LOCK_EXPIRE LOCK_MAXLOCKS LOCK_MAXWRITE LOCK_MINLOCKS LOCK_MINWRITE LOCK_OLDEST LOCK_RANDOM LOCK_YOUNGEST
156          db_env_memp_sync (DB_ENV *env, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = 0)
157          db_env_memp_trickle (DB_ENV *env, int percent, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = 0)
158          db_env_dbremove (DB_ENV *env, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
159          db_env_dbrename (DB_ENV *env, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, bdb_filename newname, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
160          db_env_log_archive (DB_ENV *env, SV *listp, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
161          db_env_lsn_reset (DB_ENV *env, bdb_filename db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
162          db_env_fileid_reset (DB_ENV *env, bdb_filename db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
163
164          $db = db_create (DB_ENV *env = 0, U32 flags = 0)
165             flags: XA_CREATE
166
167          db_open (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, int type, U32 flags, int mode, SV *callback = 0)
168             flags: AUTO_COMMIT CREATE EXCL MULTIVERSION NOMMAP RDONLY READ_UNCOMMITTED THREAD TRUNCATE
169          db_close (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
170             flags: DB_NOSYNC
171          db_verify (DB *db, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database = 0, SV *dummy = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
172          db_upgrade (DB *db, bdb_filename file, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
173          db_compact (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, SV *start = 0, SV *stop = 0, SV *unused1 = 0, U32 flags = DB_FREE_SPACE, SV *unused2 = 0, SV *callback = 0)
174             flags: FREELIST_ONLY FREE_SPACE
175          db_sync (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
176          db_key_range (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *key_range, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
177          db_put (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
178             flags: APPEND NODUPDATA NOOVERWRITE
179          db_exists (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0) (v4.6)
180          db_get (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
181             flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
182          db_pget (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
183             flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
184          db_del (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
185          db_txn_commit (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
186             flags: TXN_NOSYNC TXN_SYNC
187          db_txn_abort (DB_TXN *txn, SV *callback = 0)
188
189          db_c_close (DBC *dbc, SV *callback = 0)
190          db_c_count (DBC *dbc, SV *count, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
191          db_c_put (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
192             flags: AFTER BEFORE CURRENT KEYFIRST KEYLAST NODUPDATA
193          db_c_get (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
194             flags: CURRENT FIRST GET_BOTH GET_BOTH_RANGE GET_RECNO JOIN_ITEM LAST NEXT NEXT_DUP NEXT_NODUP PREV PREV_DUP PREV_NODUP SET SET_RANGE SET_RECNO READ_UNCOMMITTED MULTIPLE MULTIPLE_KEY RMW
195          db_c_pget (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
196          db_c_del (DBC *dbc, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
197
198          db_sequence_open (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
199             flags: CREATE EXCL
200          db_sequence_close (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
201          db_sequence_get (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, int delta, SV *seq_value, U32 flags = DB_TXN_NOSYNC, SV *callback = 0)
202             flags: TXN_NOSYNC
203          db_sequence_remove (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
204             flags: TXN_NOSYNC
205
206       db_txn_finish (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0)
207
208       This is not actually a Berkeley DB function but a BDB module extension.
209       The background for this exytension is: It is very annoying to have to
210       check every single BDB function for error returns and provide a
211       codepath out of your transaction. While the BDB module still makes this
212       possible, it contains the following extensions:
213
214       When a transaction-protected function returns any operating system
215       error (errno > 0), BDB will set the "TXN_DEADLOCK" flag on the
216       transaction. This flag is also set by Berkeley DB functions themselves
217       when an operation fails with LOCK_DEADLOCK, and it causes all further
218       operations on that transaction (including "db_txn_commit") to fail.
219
220       The "db_txn_finish" request will look at this flag, and, if it is set,
221       will automatically call "db_txn_abort" (setting errno to
222       "LOCK_DEADLOCK" if it isn't set to something else yet). If it isn't
223       set, it will call "db_txn_commit" and return the error normally.
224
225       How to use this? Easy: just write your transaction normally:
226
227          my $txn = $db_env->txn_begin;
228          db_get $db, $txn, "key", my $data;
229          db_put $db, $txn, "key", $data + 1 unless $! == BDB::NOTFOUND;
230          db_txn_finish $txn;
231          die "transaction failed" if $!;
232
233       That is, handle only the expected errors. If something unexpected
234       happens (EIO, LOCK_NOTGRANTED or a deadlock in either db_get or
235       db_put), then the remaining requests (db_put in this case) will simply
236       be skipped (they will fail with LOCK_DEADLOCK) and the transaction will
237       be aborted.
238
239       You can use the "$txn->failed" method to check wether a transaction has
240       failed in this way and abort further processing (excluding
241       "db_txn_finish").
242
243   DB_ENV/database environment methods
244       Methods available on DB_ENV/$env handles:
245
246          DESTROY (DB_ENV_ornull *env)
247                  CODE:
248                  if (env)
249                    env->close (env, 0);
250
251          $int = $env->set_data_dir (const char *dir)
252          $int = $env->set_tmp_dir (const char *dir)
253          $int = $env->set_lg_dir (const char *dir)
254          $int = $env->set_shm_key (long shm_key)
255          $int = $env->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
256          $int = $env->set_flags (U32 flags, int onoff = 1)
257          $int = $env->log_set_config (U32 flags, int onoff = 1) (v4.7)
258          $int = $env->set_intermediate_dir_mode (const char *modestring) (v4.7)
259          $env->set_errfile (FILE *errfile = 0)
260          $env->set_msgfile (FILE *msgfile = 0)
261          $int = $env->set_verbose (U32 which, int onoff = 1)
262          $int = $env->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags = 0)
263          $int = $env->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
264          $int = $env->set_mp_max_openfd (int maxopenfd);
265          $int = $env->set_mp_max_write (int maxwrite, int maxwrite_sleep);
266          $int = $env->set_mp_mmapsize (int mmapsize_mb)
267          $int = $env->set_lk_detect (U32 detect = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT)
268          $int = $env->set_lk_max_lockers (U32 max)
269          $int = $env->set_lk_max_locks (U32 max)
270          $int = $env->set_lk_max_objects (U32 max)
271          $int = $env->set_lg_bsize (U32 max)
272          $int = $env->set_lg_max (U32 max)
273          $int = $env->mutex_set_increment (U32 increment)
274          $int = $env->mutex_set_tas_spins (U32 tas_spins)
275          $int = $env->mutex_set_max (U32 max)
276          $int = $env->mutex_set_align (U32 align)
277
278          $txn = $env->txn_begin (DB_TXN_ornull *parent = 0, U32 flags = 0)
279             flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED TXN_NOSYNC TXN_NOWAIT TXN_SNAPSHOT TXN_SYNC TXN_WAIT TXN_WRITE_NOSYNC
280          $txn = $env->cdsgroup_begin; (v4.5)
281
282       Example:
283
284          use AnyEvent;
285          use BDB;
286
287          our $FH; open $FH, "<&=" . BDB::poll_fileno;
288          our $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => $FH, poll => 'r', cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
289
290          BDB::min_parallel 8;
291
292          my $env = db_env_create;
293
294          mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
295          db_env_open
296             $env,
297             "bdtest",
298             BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
299             0600;
300
301          $env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);
302
303   DB/database methods
304       Methods available on DB/$db handles:
305
306          DESTROY (DB_ornull *db)
307                  CODE:
308                  if (db)
309                    {
310                      SV *env = (SV *)db->app_private;
311                      db->close (db, 0);
312                      SvREFCNT_dec (env);
313                    }
314
315          $int = $db->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
316          $int = $db->set_flags (U32 flags)
317             flags: CHKSUM ENCRYPT TXN_NOT_DURABLE
318                    Btree: DUP DUPSORT RECNUM REVSPLITOFF
319                    Hash:  DUP DUPSORT
320                    Queue: INORDER
321                    Recno: RENUMBER SNAPSHOT
322
323          $int = $db->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags)
324          $int = $db->set_lorder (int lorder)
325          $int = $db->set_bt_minkey (U32 minkey)
326          $int = $db->set_re_delim (int delim)
327          $int = $db->set_re_pad (int re_pad)
328          $int = $db->set_re_source (char *source)
329          $int = $db->set_re_len (U32 re_len)
330          $int = $db->set_h_ffactor (U32 h_ffactor)
331          $int = $db->set_h_nelem (U32 h_nelem)
332          $int = $db->set_q_extentsize (U32 extentsize)
333
334          $dbc = $db->cursor (DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, U32 flags = 0)
335             flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED WRITECURSOR TXN_SNAPSHOT
336          $seq = $db->sequence (U32 flags = 0)
337
338       Example:
339
340          my $db = db_create $env;
341          db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;
342
343          for (1..1000) {
344             db_put $db, undef, "key $_", "data $_";
345
346             db_key_range $db, undef, "key $_", my $keyrange;
347             my ($lt, $eq, $gt) = @$keyrange;
348          }
349
350          db_del $db, undef, "key $_" for 1..1000;
351
352          db_sync $db;
353
354   DB_TXN/transaction methods
355       Methods available on DB_TXN/$txn handles:
356
357          DESTROY (DB_TXN_ornull *txn)
358                  CODE:
359                  if (txn)
360                    txn->abort (txn);
361
362          $int = $txn->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
363             flags: SET_LOCK_TIMEOUT SET_TXN_TIMEOUT
364
365          $bool = $txn->failed
366          # see db_txn_finish documentation, above
367
368   DBC/cursor methods
369       Methods available on DBC/$dbc handles:
370
371          DESTROY (DBC_ornull *dbc)
372                  CODE:
373                  if (dbc)
374                    dbc->c_close (dbc);
375
376          $int = $cursor->set_priority ($priority = PRIORITY_*) (v4.6)
377
378       Example:
379
380          my $c = $db->cursor;
381
382          for (;;) {
383             db_c_get $c, my $key, my $data, BDB::NEXT;
384             warn "<$!,$key,$data>";
385             last if $!;
386          }
387
388          db_c_close $c;
389
390   DB_SEQUENCE/sequence methods
391       Methods available on DB_SEQUENCE/$seq handles:
392
393          DESTROY (DB_SEQUENCE_ornull *seq)
394                  CODE:
395                  if (seq)
396                    seq->close (seq, 0);
397
398          $int = $seq->initial_value (db_seq_t value)
399          $int = $seq->set_cachesize (U32 size)
400          $int = $seq->set_flags (U32 flags)
401             flags: SEQ_DEC SEQ_INC SEQ_WRAP
402          $int = $seq->set_range (db_seq_t min, db_seq_t max)
403
404       Example:
405
406          my $seq = $db->sequence;
407
408          db_sequence_open $seq, undef, "seq", BDB::CREATE;
409          db_sequence_get $seq, undef, 1, my $value;
410

SUPPORT FUNCTIONS

412   EVENT PROCESSING AND EVENT LOOP INTEGRATION
413       $msg = BDB::strerror [$errno]
414           Returns the string corresponding to the given errno value. If no
415           argument is given, use $!.
416
417           Note that the BDB module also patches the $! variable directly, so
418           you should be able to get a bdb error string by simply stringifying
419           $!.
420
421       $fileno = BDB::poll_fileno
422           Return the request result pipe file descriptor. This filehandle
423           must be polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module
424           (e.g. Event or select, see below or the SYNOPSIS). If the pipe
425           becomes readable you have to call "poll_cb" to check the results.
426
427           See "poll_cb" for an example.
428
429       BDB::poll_cb
430           Process some outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to
431           call this regularly. Returns the number of events processed.
432           Returns immediately when no events are outstanding. The amount of
433           events processed depends on the settings of "BDB::max_poll_req" and
434           "BDB::max_poll_time".
435
436           If not all requests were processed for whatever reason, the
437           filehandle will still be ready when "poll_cb" returns.
438
439           Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls
440           BDB::poll_cb with high priority:
441
442              Event->io (fd => BDB::poll_fileno,
443                         poll => 'r', async => 1,
444                         cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
445
446       BDB::max_poll_reqs $nreqs
447       BDB::max_poll_time $seconds
448           These set the maximum number of requests (default 0, meaning
449           infinity) that are being processed by "BDB::poll_cb" in one call,
450           respectively the maximum amount of time (default 0, meaning
451           infinity) spent in "BDB::poll_cb" to process requests (more
452           correctly the mininum amount of time "poll_cb" is allowed to use).
453
454           Setting "max_poll_time" to a non-zero value creates an overhead of
455           one syscall per request processed, which is not normally a problem
456           unless your callbacks are really really fast or your OS is really
457           really slow (I am not mentioning Solaris here). Using
458           "max_poll_reqs" incurs no overhead.
459
460           Setting these is useful if you want to ensure some level of
461           interactiveness when perl is not fast enough to process all
462           requests in time.
463
464           For interactive programs, values such as 0.01 to 0.1 should be
465           fine.
466
467           Example: Install an EV watcher that automatically calls
468           BDB::poll_cb with low priority, to ensure that other parts of the
469           program get the CPU sometimes even under high load.
470
471              # try not to spend much more than 0.1s in poll_cb
472              BDB::max_poll_time 0.1;
473
474              my $bdb_poll = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb);
475
476       BDB::poll_wait
477           If there are any outstanding requests and none of them in the
478           result phase, wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for
479           reading (simply does a "select" on the filehandle. This is useful
480           if you want to synchronously wait for some requests to finish).
481
482           See "nreqs" for an example.
483
484       BDB::poll
485           Waits until some requests have been handled.
486
487           Returns the number of requests processed, but is otherwise strictly
488           equivalent to:
489
490              BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
491
492       BDB::flush
493           Wait till all outstanding BDB requests have been handled.
494
495           Strictly equivalent to:
496
497              BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
498                 while BDB::nreqs;
499
500   VERSION CHECKING
501       BerkeleyDB comes in various versions, many of them have minor
502       incompatibilities. This means that traditional "at least version x.x"
503       checks are often not sufficient.
504
505       Example: set the log_autoremove option in a way compatible with <v4.7
506       and v4.7. Note the use of & on the constants to avoid triggering a
507       compiletime bug when the symbol isn't available.
508
509          $DB_ENV->set_flags      (&BDB::LOG_AUTOREMOVE ) if BDB::VERSION v0, v4.7;
510          $DB_ENV->log_set_config (&BDB::LOG_AUTO_REMOVE) if BDB::VERSION v4.7;
511
512       BDB::VERSION
513           The "BDB::VERSION" function, when called without arguments, returns
514           the Berkeley DB version as a v-string (usually with 3 components).
515           You should use "lt" and "ge" operators exclusively to make
516           comparisons.
517
518           Example: check for at least version 4.7.
519
520              BDB::VERSION ge v4.7 or die;
521
522       BDB::VERSION min-version
523           Returns true if the BDB version is at least the given version
524           (specified as a v-string), false otherwise.
525
526           Example: check for at least version 4.5.
527
528              BDB::VERSION v4.7 or die;
529
530       BDB::VERSION min-version, max-version
531           Returns true of the BDB version is at least version "min-version"
532           (specify "undef" or "v0" for any minimum version) and less then
533           "max-version".
534
535           Example: check wether version is strictly less then v4.7.
536
537              BDB::VERSION v0, v4.7
538                 or die "version 4.7 is not yet supported";
539
540   CONTROLLING THE NUMBER OF THREADS
541       BDB::min_parallel $nthreads
542           Set the minimum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. The current
543           default is 8, which means eight asynchronous operations can execute
544           concurrently at any one time (the number of outstanding requests,
545           however, is unlimited).
546
547           BDB starts threads only on demand, when an BDB request is queued
548           and no free thread exists. Please note that queueing up a hundred
549           requests can create demand for a hundred threads, even if it turns
550           out that everything is in the cache and could have been processed
551           faster by a single thread.
552
553           It is recommended to keep the number of threads relatively low, as
554           some Linux kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of
555           threads (higher parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current
556           Linux 2.6 versions, 4-32 threads should be fine.
557
558           Under most circumstances you don't need to call this function, as
559           the module selects a default that is suitable for low to moderate
560           load.
561
562       BDB::max_parallel $nthreads
563           Sets the maximum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. If more than
564           the specified number of threads are currently running, this
565           function kills them. This function blocks until the limit is
566           reached.
567
568           While $nthreads are zero, aio requests get queued but not executed
569           until the number of threads has been increased again.
570
571           This module automatically runs "max_parallel 0" at program end, to
572           ensure that all threads are killed and that there are no
573           outstanding requests.
574
575           Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
576
577       BDB::max_idle $nthreads
578           Limit the number of threads (default: 4) that are allowed to idle
579           (i.e., threads that did not get a request to process within 10
580           seconds). That means if a thread becomes idle while $nthreads other
581           threads are also idle, it will free its resources and exit.
582
583           This is useful when you allow a large number of threads (e.g. 100
584           or 1000) to allow for extremely high load situations, but want to
585           free resources under normal circumstances (1000 threads can easily
586           consume 30MB of RAM).
587
588           The default is probably ok in most situations, especially if thread
589           creation is fast. If thread creation is very slow on your system
590           you might want to use larger values.
591
592       $oldmaxreqs = BDB::max_outstanding $maxreqs
593           This is a very bad function to use in interactive programs because
594           it blocks, and a bad way to reduce concurrency because it is
595           inexact: Better use an "aio_group" together with a feed callback.
596
597           Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to $nreqs. If you
598           to queue up more than this number of requests, the next call to the
599           "poll_cb" (and "poll_some" and other functions calling "poll_cb")
600           function will block until the limit is no longer exceeded.
601
602           The default value is very large, so there is no practical limit on
603           the number of outstanding requests.
604
605           You can still queue as many requests as you want. Therefore,
606           "max_oustsanding" is mainly useful in simple scripts (with low
607           values) or as a stop gap to shield against fatal memory overflow
608           (with large values).
609
610       $old_cb = BDB::set_sync_prepare $cb
611           Sets a callback that is called whenever a request is created
612           without an explicit callback. It has to return two code references.
613           The first is used as the request callback (it should save the
614           return status), and the second is called to wait until the first
615           callback has been called (it must set $! to the return status).
616
617           This mechanism can be used to include BDB into other event
618           mechanisms, such as Coro::BDB.
619
620           To allow other, callback-based, events to be executed while
621           callback-less ones are run, you could use this sync prepare
622           function:
623
624              sub {
625                 my $status;
626                 (
627                    sub { $status = $! },
628                    sub { BDB::poll while !defined $status; $! = $status },
629                 )
630              }
631
632           It works by polling for results till the request has finished and
633           then sets $! to the return value. This means that if you don't use
634           a callback, BDB would simply fall back to synchronous operations.
635
636           By default, or if the sync prepare function is set to "undef", is
637           to execute callback-less BDB requests in the foreground thread,
638           setting $!  to the return value, without polling for other events.
639
640   STATISTICAL INFORMATION
641       BDB::nreqs
642           Returns the number of requests currently in the ready, execute or
643           pending states (i.e. for which their callback has not been invoked
644           yet).
645
646           Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:
647
648              BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
649                 while BDB::nreqs;
650
651       BDB::nready
652           Returns the number of requests currently in the ready state (not
653           yet executed).
654
655       BDB::npending
656           Returns the number of requests currently in the pending state
657           (executed, but not yet processed by poll_cb).
658

COMMON PITFALLS

660   Unexpected Crashes
661       Remember that, by default, BDB will execute requests in parallel, in
662       somewhat random order. That means that it is easy to run a "db_get"
663       request on the same database as a concurrent "db_close" request,
664       leading to a crash, silent data corruption, eventually the next world
665       war on terrorism.
666
667       If you only ever use foreground requests (without a callback), this
668       will not be an issue (unless you use threads).
669
670   Unexpected Freezes or Deadlocks
671       Remember that, by default, BDB will execute requests in parallel, which
672       easily leads to deadlocks (even concurrent put's on the same database
673       can deadlock).
674
675       You either need to run deadlock detection (and handle the resulting
676       errors), or make sure only one process ever updates the database, ine
677       one thread, e.g. by using only foreground requests (without a
678       callback).
679

FORK BEHAVIOUR

681       This module should do "the right thing" when the process using it
682       forks:
683
684       Before the fork, BDB enters a quiescent state where no requests can be
685       added in other threads and no results will be processed. After the fork
686       the parent simply leaves the quiescent state and continues
687       request/result processing, while the child frees the request/result
688       queue (so that the requests started before the fork will only be
689       handled in the parent). Threads will be started on demand until the
690       limit set in the parent process has been reached again.
691
692       In short: the parent will, after a short pause, continue as if fork had
693       not been called, while the child will act as if BDB has not been used
694       yet.
695
696       Win32 note: there is no fork on win32, and perls emulation of it is too
697       broken to be supported, so do not use BDB in a windows pseudo-fork,
698       better yet, switch to a more capable platform.
699

MEMORY USAGE

701       Per-request usage:
702
703       Each aio request uses - depending on your architecture - around 100-200
704       bytes of memory. In addition, stat requests need a stat buffer
705       (possibly a few hundred bytes), readdir requires a result buffer and so
706       on. Perl scalars and other data passed into aio requests will also be
707       locked and will consume memory till the request has entered the done
708       state.
709
710       This is not awfully much, so queuing lots of requests is not usually a
711       problem.
712
713       Per-thread usage:
714
715       In the execution phase, some aio requests require more memory for
716       temporary buffers, and each thread requires a stack and other data
717       structures (usually around 16k-128k, depending on the OS).
718

WIN32 FILENAMES/DATABASE NAME MESS

720       Perl on Win32 supports only ASCII filenames (the reason is that it
721       abuses an internal flag to store wether a filename is Unicode or ANSI,
722       but that flag is used for somethign else in the perl core, so there is
723       no way to detect wether a filename is ANSI or Unicode-encoded). The BDB
724       module tries to work around this issue by assuming that the filename is
725       an ANSI filename and BDB was built for unicode support.
726

KNOWN BUGS

728       Known bugs will be fixed in the next release, except:
729
730          If you use a transaction in any request, and the request returns
731          with an operating system error or DB_LOCK_NOTGRANTED, the internal
732          TXN_DEADLOCK flag will be set on the transaction. See C<db_txn_finish>,
733          above.
734

SEE ALSO

736       AnyEvent::BDB (event loop integration), Coro::BDB (more natural
737       syntax), IO::AIO (nice to have).
738

AUTHOR

740        Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
741        http://home.schmorp.de/
742
743
744
745perl v5.32.0                      2020-07-28                            BDB(3)
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