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Revision: 1.14
Committed: Tue Oct 21 02:21:25 2008 UTC (15 years, 7 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: rel-1_82, rel-1_81
Changes since 1.13: +43 -22 lines
Log Message:
1.81

File Contents

# Content
1 NAME
2 BDB - Asynchronous Berkeley DB access
3
4 SYNOPSIS
5 use BDB;
6
7 my $env = db_env_create;
8
9 mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
10 db_env_open
11 $env,
12 "bdtest",
13 BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL
14 | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
15 0600;
16
17 $env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);
18
19 my $db = db_create $env;
20 db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE
21 | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;
22 db_put $db, undef, "key", "data", 0, sub {
23 db_del $db, undef, "key";
24 };
25 db_sync $db;
26
27 # when you also use Coro, management is easy:
28 use Coro::BDB;
29
30 # automatic event loop intergration with AnyEvent:
31 use AnyEvent::BDB;
32
33 # automatic result processing with EV:
34 my $WATCHER = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb;
35
36 # with Glib:
37 add_watch Glib::IO BDB::poll_fileno,
38 in => sub { BDB::poll_cb; 1 };
39
40 # or simply flush manually
41 BDB::flush;
42
43 DESCRIPTION
44 See the BerkeleyDB documentation
45 (<http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/berkeley-db/db/index.ht
46 ml>). The BDB API is very similar to the C API (the translation has been
47 very faithful).
48
49 See also the example sections in the document below and possibly the eg/
50 subdirectory of the BDB distribution. Last not least see the IO::AIO
51 documentation, as that module uses almost the same asynchronous request
52 model as this module.
53
54 I know this is woefully inadequate documentation. Send a patch!
55
56 REQUEST ANATOMY AND LIFETIME
57 Every request method creates a request. which is a C data structure not
58 directly visible to Perl.
59
60 During their existance, bdb requests travel through the following
61 states, in order:
62
63 ready
64 Immediately after a request is created it is put into the ready
65 state, waiting for a thread to execute it.
66
67 execute
68 A thread has accepted the request for processing and is currently
69 executing it (e.g. blocking in read).
70
71 pending
72 The request has been executed and is waiting for result processing.
73
74 While request submission and execution is fully asynchronous, result
75 processing is not and relies on the perl interpreter calling
76 "poll_cb" (or another function with the same effect).
77
78 result
79 The request results are processed synchronously by "poll_cb".
80
81 The "poll_cb" function will process all outstanding aio requests by
82 calling their callbacks, freeing memory associated with them and
83 managing any groups they are contained in.
84
85 done
86 Request has reached the end of its lifetime and holds no resources
87 anymore (except possibly for the Perl object, but its connection to
88 the actual aio request is severed and calling its methods will
89 either do nothing or result in a runtime error).
90
91 BERKELEYDB FUNCTIONS
92 All of these are functions. The create functions simply return a new
93 object and never block. All the remaining functions take an optional
94 callback as last argument. If it is missing, then the function will be
95 executed synchronously. In both cases, $! will reflect the return value
96 of the function.
97
98 BDB functions that cannot block (mostly functions that manipulate
99 settings) are method calls on the relevant objects, so the rule of thumb
100 is: if it's a method, it's not blocking, if it's a function, it takes a
101 callback as last argument.
102
103 In the following, $int signifies an integer return value, "bdb_filename"
104 is a "filename" (octets on unix, madness on windows), "U32" is an
105 unsigned 32 bit integer, "int" is some integer, "NV" is a floating point
106 value.
107
108 Most "SV *" types are generic perl scalars (for input and output of data
109 values).
110
111 The various "DB_ENV" etc. arguments are handles return by
112 "db_env_create", "db_create", "txn_begin" and so on. If they have an
113 appended "_ornull" this means they are optional and you can pass "undef"
114 for them, resulting a NULL pointer on the C level.
115
116 The "SV *callback" is the optional callback function to call when the
117 request is completed. This last callback argument is special: the
118 callback is simply the last argument passed. If there are "optional"
119 arguments before the callback they can be left out. The callback itself
120 can be left out or specified as "undef", in which case the function will
121 be executed synchronously.
122
123 For example, "db_env_txn_checkpoint" usually is called with all integer
124 arguments zero. These can be left out, so all of these specify a call to
125 "DB_ENV->txn_checkpoint", to be executed asynchronously with a callback
126 to be called:
127
128 db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, 0, sub { };
129 db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, sub { };
130 db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, sub { };
131
132 While these all specify a call to "DB_ENV->txn_checkpoint" to be
133 executed synchronously:
134
135 db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, 0, undef;
136 db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0, 0, 0;
137 db_env_txn_checkpoint $db_env, 0;
138
139 BDB functions
140 Functions in the BDB namespace, exported by default:
141
142 $env = db_env_create (U32 env_flags = 0)
143 flags: RPCCLIENT
144
145 db_env_open (DB_ENV *env, bdb_filename db_home, U32 open_flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
146 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
147 db_env_close (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
148 db_env_txn_checkpoint (DB_ENV *env, U32 kbyte = 0, U32 min = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
149 flags: FORCE
150 db_env_lock_detect (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, U32 atype = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
151 atype: LOCK_DEFAULT LOCK_EXPIRE LOCK_MAXLOCKS LOCK_MAXWRITE LOCK_MINLOCKS LOCK_MINWRITE LOCK_OLDEST LOCK_RANDOM LOCK_YOUNGEST
152 db_env_memp_sync (DB_ENV *env, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
153 db_env_memp_trickle (DB_ENV *env, int percent, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
154 db_env_dbremove (DB_ENV *env, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
155 db_env_dbrename (DB_ENV *env, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, bdb_filename newname, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
156 db_env_log_archive (DB_ENV *env, SV *listp, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
157
158 $db = db_create (DB_ENV *env = 0, U32 flags = 0)
159 flags: XA_CREATE
160
161 db_open (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, int type, U32 flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
162 flags: AUTO_COMMIT CREATE EXCL MULTIVERSION NOMMAP RDONLY READ_UNCOMMITTED THREAD TRUNCATE
163 db_close (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
164 flags: DB_NOSYNC
165 db_upgrade (DB *db, bdb_filename file, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
166 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 = &PL_sv_undef)
167 flags: FREELIST_ONLY FREE_SPACE
168 db_sync (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
169 db_key_range (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *key_range, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
170 db_put (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
171 flags: APPEND NODUPDATA NOOVERWRITE
172 db_exists (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = 0) (v4.6)
173 db_get (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
174 flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
175 db_pget (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
176 flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
177 db_del (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
178 db_txn_commit (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
179 flags: TXN_NOSYNC TXN_SYNC
180 db_txn_abort (DB_TXN *txn, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
181
182 db_c_close (DBC *dbc, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
183 db_c_count (DBC *dbc, SV *count, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
184 db_c_put (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
185 flags: AFTER BEFORE CURRENT KEYFIRST KEYLAST NODUPDATA
186 db_c_get (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
187 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
188 db_c_pget (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
189 db_c_del (DBC *dbc, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
190
191 db_sequence_open (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
192 flags: CREATE EXCL
193 db_sequence_close (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
194 db_sequence_get (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, int delta, SV *seq_value, U32 flags = DB_TXN_NOSYNC, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
195 flags: TXN_NOSYNC
196 db_sequence_remove (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
197 flags: TXN_NOSYNC
198
199 db_txn_finish (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
200 This is not actually a Berkeley DB function but a BDB module extension.
201 The background for this exytension is: It is very annoying to have to
202 check every single BDB function for error returns and provide a codepath
203 out of your transaction. While the BDB module still makes this possible,
204 it contains the following extensions:
205
206 When a transaction-protected function returns any operating system error
207 (errno > 0), BDB will set the "TXN_DEADLOCK" flag on the transaction.
208 This flag is also set by Berkeley DB functions themselves when an
209 operation fails with LOCK_DEADLOCK, and it causes all further operations
210 on that transaction (including "db_txn_commit") to fail.
211
212 The "db_txn_finish" request will look at this flag, and, if it is set,
213 will automatically call "db_txn_abort" (setting errno to "LOCK_DEADLOCK"
214 if it isn't set to something else yet). If it isn't set, it will call
215 "db_txn_commit" and return the error normally.
216
217 How to use this? Easy: just write your transaction normally:
218
219 my $txn = $db_env->txn_begin;
220 db_get $db, $txn, "key", my $data;
221 db_put $db, $txn, "key", $data + 1 unless $! == BDB::NOTFOUND;
222 db_txn_finish $txn;
223 die "transaction failed" if $!;
224
225 That is, handle only the expected errors. If something unexpected
226 happens (EIO, LOCK_NOTGRANTED or a deadlock in either db_get or db_put),
227 then the remaining requests (db_put in this case) will simply be skipped
228 (they will fail with LOCK_DEADLOCK) and the transaction will be aborted.
229
230 You can use the "$txn->failed" method to check wether a transaction has
231 failed in this way and abort further processing (excluding
232 "db_txn_finish").
233
234 DB_ENV/database environment methods
235 Methods available on DB_ENV/$env handles:
236
237 DESTROY (DB_ENV_ornull *env)
238 CODE:
239 if (env)
240 env->close (env, 0);
241
242 $int = $env->set_data_dir (const char *dir)
243 $int = $env->set_tmp_dir (const char *dir)
244 $int = $env->set_lg_dir (const char *dir)
245 $int = $env->set_shm_key (long shm_key)
246 $int = $env->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
247 $int = $env->set_flags (U32 flags, int onoff = 1)
248 $int = $env->log_set_config (U32 flags, int onoff = 1) (v4.7)
249 $int = $env->set_intermediate_dir_mode (const char *modestring) (v4.7)
250 $env->set_errfile (FILE *errfile = 0)
251 $env->set_msgfile (FILE *msgfile = 0)
252 $int = $env->set_verbose (U32 which, int onoff = 1)
253 $int = $env->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags = 0)
254 $int = $env->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
255 $int = $env->set_mp_max_openfd (int maxopenfd);
256 $int = $env->set_mp_max_write (int maxwrite, int maxwrite_sleep);
257 $int = $env->set_mp_mmapsize (int mmapsize_mb)
258 $int = $env->set_lk_detect (U32 detect = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT)
259 $int = $env->set_lk_max_lockers (U32 max)
260 $int = $env->set_lk_max_locks (U32 max)
261 $int = $env->set_lk_max_objects (U32 max)
262 $int = $env->set_lg_bsize (U32 max)
263 $int = $env->set_lg_max (U32 max)
264 $int = $env->mutex_set_increment (U32 increment)
265 $int = $env->mutex_set_tas_spins (U32 tas_spins)
266 $int = $env->mutex_set_max (U32 max)
267 $int = $env->mutex_set_align (U32 align)
268
269 $txn = $env->txn_begin (DB_TXN_ornull *parent = 0, U32 flags = 0)
270 flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED TXN_NOSYNC TXN_NOWAIT TXN_SNAPSHOT TXN_SYNC TXN_WAIT TXN_WRITE_NOSYNC
271 $txn = $env->cdsgroup_begin; (v4.5)
272
273 Example:
274 use AnyEvent;
275 use BDB;
276
277 our $FH; open $FH, "<&=" . BDB::poll_fileno;
278 our $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => $FH, poll => 'r', cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
279
280 BDB::min_parallel 8;
281
282 my $env = db_env_create;
283
284 mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
285 db_env_open
286 $env,
287 "bdtest",
288 BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
289 0600;
290
291 $env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);
292
293 DB/database methods
294 Methods available on DB/$db handles:
295
296 DESTROY (DB_ornull *db)
297 CODE:
298 if (db)
299 {
300 SV *env = (SV *)db->app_private;
301 db->close (db, 0);
302 SvREFCNT_dec (env);
303 }
304
305 $int = $db->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
306 $int = $db->set_flags (U32 flags)
307 flags: CHKSUM ENCRYPT TXN_NOT_DURABLE
308 Btree: DUP DUPSORT RECNUM REVSPLITOFF
309 Hash: DUP DUPSORT
310 Queue: INORDER
311 Recno: RENUMBER SNAPSHOT
312
313 $int = $db->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags)
314 $int = $db->set_lorder (int lorder)
315 $int = $db->set_bt_minkey (U32 minkey)
316 $int = $db->set_re_delim (int delim)
317 $int = $db->set_re_pad (int re_pad)
318 $int = $db->set_re_source (char *source)
319 $int = $db->set_re_len (U32 re_len)
320 $int = $db->set_h_ffactor (U32 h_ffactor)
321 $int = $db->set_h_nelem (U32 h_nelem)
322 $int = $db->set_q_extentsize (U32 extentsize)
323
324 $dbc = $db->cursor (DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, U32 flags = 0)
325 flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED WRITECURSOR TXN_SNAPSHOT
326 $seq = $db->sequence (U32 flags = 0)
327
328 Example:
329 my $db = db_create $env;
330 db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;
331
332 for (1..1000) {
333 db_put $db, undef, "key $_", "data $_";
334
335 db_key_range $db, undef, "key $_", my $keyrange;
336 my ($lt, $eq, $gt) = @$keyrange;
337 }
338
339 db_del $db, undef, "key $_" for 1..1000;
340
341 db_sync $db;
342
343 DB_TXN/transaction methods
344 Methods available on DB_TXN/$txn handles:
345
346 DESTROY (DB_TXN_ornull *txn)
347 CODE:
348 if (txn)
349 txn->abort (txn);
350
351 $int = $txn->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
352 flags: SET_LOCK_TIMEOUT SET_TXN_TIMEOUT
353
354 $bool = $txn->failed
355 # see db_txn_finish documentation, above
356
357 DBC/cursor methods
358 Methods available on DBC/$dbc handles:
359
360 DESTROY (DBC_ornull *dbc)
361 CODE:
362 if (dbc)
363 dbc->c_close (dbc);
364
365 $int = $cursor->set_priority ($priority = PRIORITY_*) (v4.6)
366
367 Example:
368 my $c = $db->cursor;
369
370 for (;;) {
371 db_c_get $c, my $key, my $data, BDB::NEXT;
372 warn "<$!,$key,$data>";
373 last if $!;
374 }
375
376 db_c_close $c;
377
378 DB_SEQUENCE/sequence methods
379 Methods available on DB_SEQUENCE/$seq handles:
380
381 DESTROY (DB_SEQUENCE_ornull *seq)
382 CODE:
383 if (seq)
384 seq->close (seq, 0);
385
386 $int = $seq->initial_value (db_seq_t value)
387 $int = $seq->set_cachesize (U32 size)
388 $int = $seq->set_flags (U32 flags)
389 flags: SEQ_DEC SEQ_INC SEQ_WRAP
390 $int = $seq->set_range (db_seq_t min, db_seq_t max)
391
392 Example:
393 my $seq = $db->sequence;
394
395 db_sequence_open $seq, undef, "seq", BDB::CREATE;
396 db_sequence_get $seq, undef, 1, my $value;
397
398 SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
399 EVENT PROCESSING AND EVENT LOOP INTEGRATION
400 $msg = BDB::strerror [$errno]
401 Returns the string corresponding to the given errno value. If no
402 argument is given, use $!.
403
404 Note that the BDB module also patches the $! variable directly, so
405 you should be able to get a bdb error string by simply stringifying
406 $!.
407
408 $fileno = BDB::poll_fileno
409 Return the *request result pipe file descriptor*. This filehandle
410 must be polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module
411 (e.g. Event or select, see below or the SYNOPSIS). If the pipe
412 becomes readable you have to call "poll_cb" to check the results.
413
414 See "poll_cb" for an example.
415
416 BDB::poll_cb
417 Process some outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call
418 this regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns
419 immediately when no events are outstanding. The amount of events
420 processed depends on the settings of "BDB::max_poll_req" and
421 "BDB::max_poll_time".
422
423 If not all requests were processed for whatever reason, the
424 filehandle will still be ready when "poll_cb" returns.
425
426 Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls
427 BDB::poll_cb with high priority:
428
429 Event->io (fd => BDB::poll_fileno,
430 poll => 'r', async => 1,
431 cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
432
433 BDB::max_poll_reqs $nreqs
434 BDB::max_poll_time $seconds
435 These set the maximum number of requests (default 0, meaning
436 infinity) that are being processed by "BDB::poll_cb" in one call,
437 respectively the maximum amount of time (default 0, meaning
438 infinity) spent in "BDB::poll_cb" to process requests (more
439 correctly the mininum amount of time "poll_cb" is allowed to use).
440
441 Setting "max_poll_time" to a non-zero value creates an overhead of
442 one syscall per request processed, which is not normally a problem
443 unless your callbacks are really really fast or your OS is really
444 really slow (I am not mentioning Solaris here). Using
445 "max_poll_reqs" incurs no overhead.
446
447 Setting these is useful if you want to ensure some level of
448 interactiveness when perl is not fast enough to process all requests
449 in time.
450
451 For interactive programs, values such as 0.01 to 0.1 should be fine.
452
453 Example: Install an EV watcher that automatically calls BDB::poll_cb
454 with low priority, to ensure that other parts of the program get the
455 CPU sometimes even under high load.
456
457 # try not to spend much more than 0.1s in poll_cb
458 BDB::max_poll_time 0.1;
459
460 my $bdb_poll = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb);
461
462 BDB::poll_wait
463 If there are any outstanding requests and none of them in the result
464 phase, wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading
465 (simply does a "select" on the filehandle. This is useful if you
466 want to synchronously wait for some requests to finish).
467
468 See "nreqs" for an example.
469
470 BDB::poll
471 Waits until some requests have been handled.
472
473 Returns the number of requests processed, but is otherwise strictly
474 equivalent to:
475
476 BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
477
478 BDB::flush
479 Wait till all outstanding BDB requests have been handled.
480
481 Strictly equivalent to:
482
483 BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
484 while BDB::nreqs;
485
486 VERSION CHECKING
487 BerkeleyDB comes in various versions, many of them have minor
488 incompatibilities. This means that traditional "at least version x.x"
489 checks are often not sufficient.
490
491 Example: set the log_autoremove option in a way compatible with <v4.7
492 and v4.7. Note the use of & on the constants to avoid triggering a
493 compiletime bug when the symbol isn't available.
494
495 $DB_ENV->set_flags (&BDB::LOG_AUTOREMOVE ) if BDB::VERSION v0, v4.7;
496 $DB_ENV->log_set_config (&BDB::LOG_AUTO_REMOVE) if BDB::VERSION v4.7;
497
498 BDB::VERSION
499 The "BDB::VERSION" function, when called without arguments, returns
500 the Berkeley DB version as a v-string (usually with 3 components).
501 You should use "lt" and "ge" operators exclusively to make
502 comparisons.
503
504 Example: check for at least version 4.7.
505
506 BDB::VERSION ge v4.7 or die;
507
508 BDB::VERSION min-version
509 Returns true if the BDB version is at least the given version
510 (specified as a v-string), false otherwise.
511
512 Example: check for at least version 4.5.
513
514 BDB::VERSION v4.7 or die;
515
516 BDB::VERSION min-version, max-version
517 Returns true of the BDB version is at least version "min-version"
518 (specify "undef" or "v0" for any minimum version) and less then
519 "max-version".
520
521 Example: check wether version is strictly less then v4.7.
522
523 BDB::VERSION v0, v4.7
524 or die "version 4.7 is not yet supported";
525
526 CONTROLLING THE NUMBER OF THREADS
527 BDB::min_parallel $nthreads
528 Set the minimum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. The current
529 default is 8, which means eight asynchronous operations can execute
530 concurrently at any one time (the number of outstanding requests,
531 however, is unlimited).
532
533 BDB starts threads only on demand, when an BDB request is queued and
534 no free thread exists. Please note that queueing up a hundred
535 requests can create demand for a hundred threads, even if it turns
536 out that everything is in the cache and could have been processed
537 faster by a single thread.
538
539 It is recommended to keep the number of threads relatively low, as
540 some Linux kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of
541 threads (higher parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current
542 Linux 2.6 versions, 4-32 threads should be fine.
543
544 Under most circumstances you don't need to call this function, as
545 the module selects a default that is suitable for low to moderate
546 load.
547
548 BDB::max_parallel $nthreads
549 Sets the maximum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. If more than
550 the specified number of threads are currently running, this function
551 kills them. This function blocks until the limit is reached.
552
553 While $nthreads are zero, aio requests get queued but not executed
554 until the number of threads has been increased again.
555
556 This module automatically runs "max_parallel 0" at program end, to
557 ensure that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding
558 requests.
559
560 Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
561
562 BDB::max_idle $nthreads
563 Limit the number of threads (default: 4) that are allowed to idle
564 (i.e., threads that did not get a request to process within 10
565 seconds). That means if a thread becomes idle while $nthreads other
566 threads are also idle, it will free its resources and exit.
567
568 This is useful when you allow a large number of threads (e.g. 100 or
569 1000) to allow for extremely high load situations, but want to free
570 resources under normal circumstances (1000 threads can easily
571 consume 30MB of RAM).
572
573 The default is probably ok in most situations, especially if thread
574 creation is fast. If thread creation is very slow on your system you
575 might want to use larger values.
576
577 $oldmaxreqs = BDB::max_outstanding $maxreqs
578 This is a very bad function to use in interactive programs because
579 it blocks, and a bad way to reduce concurrency because it is
580 inexact: Better use an "aio_group" together with a feed callback.
581
582 Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to $nreqs. If you to
583 queue up more than this number of requests, the next call to the
584 "poll_cb" (and "poll_some" and other functions calling "poll_cb")
585 function will block until the limit is no longer exceeded.
586
587 The default value is very large, so there is no practical limit on
588 the number of outstanding requests.
589
590 You can still queue as many requests as you want. Therefore,
591 "max_oustsanding" is mainly useful in simple scripts (with low
592 values) or as a stop gap to shield against fatal memory overflow
593 (with large values).
594
595 $old_cb = BDB::set_sync_prepare $cb
596 Sets a callback that is called whenever a request is created without
597 an explicit callback. It has to return two code references. The
598 first is used as the request callback (it should save the return
599 status), and the second is called to wait until the first callback
600 has been called (it must set $! to the return status).
601
602 This mechanism can be used to include BDB into other event
603 mechanisms, such as Coro::BDB.
604
605 To allow other, callback-based, events to be executed while
606 callback-less ones are run, you could use this sync prepare
607 function:
608
609 sub {
610 my $status;
611 (
612 sub { $status = $! },
613 sub { BDB::poll while !defined $status; $! = $status },
614 )
615 }
616
617 It works by polling for results till the request has finished and
618 then sets $! to the return value. This means that if you don't use a
619 callback, BDB would simply fall back to synchronous operations.
620
621 By default, or if the sync prepare function is set to "undef", is to
622 execute callback-less BDB requests in the foreground thread, setting
623 $! to the return value, without polling for other events.
624
625 STATISTICAL INFORMATION
626 BDB::nreqs
627 Returns the number of requests currently in the ready, execute or
628 pending states (i.e. for which their callback has not been invoked
629 yet).
630
631 Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:
632
633 BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
634 while BDB::nreqs;
635
636 BDB::nready
637 Returns the number of requests currently in the ready state (not yet
638 executed).
639
640 BDB::npending
641 Returns the number of requests currently in the pending state
642 (executed, but not yet processed by poll_cb).
643
644 COMMON PITFALLS
645 Unexpected Crashes
646 Remember that, by default, BDB will execute requests in parallel, in
647 somewhat random order. That means that it is easy to run a "db_get"
648 request on thesa me database as a concurrent "db_close" request, leading
649 to a crash, silent data corruption, eventually the next world war on
650 terrorism.
651
652 If you only ever use foreground requests (without a callback), this will
653 not be an issue.
654
655 Unexpected Freezes or Deadlocks
656 Remember that, by default, BDB will execute requests in parallel, which
657 easily leads to deadlocks (even concurrent put's on the same database
658 can deadlock).
659
660 You either need to run deadlock detection (and handle the resulting
661 errors), or make sure only one process ever updates the database, ine
662 one thread, e.g. by using only foreground requests (without a callback).
663
664 FORK BEHAVIOUR
665 This module should do "the right thing" when the process using it forks:
666
667 Before the fork, BDB enters a quiescent state where no requests can be
668 added in other threads and no results will be processed. After the fork
669 the parent simply leaves the quiescent state and continues
670 request/result processing, while the child frees the request/result
671 queue (so that the requests started before the fork will only be handled
672 in the parent). Threads will be started on demand until the limit set in
673 the parent process has been reached again.
674
675 In short: the parent will, after a short pause, continue as if fork had
676 not been called, while the child will act as if BDB has not been used
677 yet.
678
679 Win32 note: there is no fork on win32, and perls emulation of it is too
680 broken to be supported, so do not use BDB in a windows pseudo-fork,
681 better yet, switch to a more capable platform.
682
683 MEMORY USAGE
684 Per-request usage:
685
686 Each aio request uses - depending on your architecture - around 100-200
687 bytes of memory. In addition, stat requests need a stat buffer (possibly
688 a few hundred bytes), readdir requires a result buffer and so on. Perl
689 scalars and other data passed into aio requests will also be locked and
690 will consume memory till the request has entered the done state.
691
692 This is not awfully much, so queuing lots of requests is not usually a
693 problem.
694
695 Per-thread usage:
696
697 In the execution phase, some aio requests require more memory for
698 temporary buffers, and each thread requires a stack and other data
699 structures (usually around 16k-128k, depending on the OS).
700
701 WIN32 FILENAMES/DATABASE NAME MESS
702 Perl on Win32 supports only ASCII filenames (the reason is that it
703 abuses an internal flag to store wether a filename is Unicode or ANSI,
704 but that flag is used for somethign else in the perl core, so there is
705 no way to detect wether a filename is ANSI or Unicode-encoded). The BDB
706 module tries to work around this issue by assuming that the filename is
707 an ANSI filename and BDB was built for unicode support.
708
709 KNOWN BUGS
710 Known bugs will be fixed in the next release, except:
711
712 If you use a transaction in any request, and the request returns
713 with an operating system error or DB_LOCK_NOTGRANTED, the internal
714 TXN_DEADLOCK flag will be set on the transaction. See C<db_txn_finish>,
715 above.
716
717 SEE ALSO
718 AnyEvent::BDB (event loop integration), Coro::BDB (more natural syntax),
719 IO::AIO (nice to have).
720
721 AUTHOR
722 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
723 http://home.schmorp.de/
724