I can't seem to find a bullet-chart of all the detailed capabilities of
BDB, so hopefully someone reading this group can help. We are looking
to change database engines. We currently use an extremely old version
of CTree, and are looking to move to something newer while retaining as
much of our current data file layout as possible so as to be a
"drop-in" replacement (as much as is possible). Here's what we have
and what we're looking for:

Fixed-length data records (Our product uses hundreds of flat files
currently, all fixed length)
Separate data and index files (We want to manage the data files and
only have BDB do indexing)
Record-level locking
Index key compression (leading char preferred; we have some very long
indexes, up to 124 chars, and files with 10's of millions of records
and multiple indexes)
C interface

Can BDB do all this? Some items are obviously supported, but for
others I've yet to find hard documented evidence.

Thanks,
Bill

Bill,

It's very difficult to assess whether Berkeley DB is right for you. You
have a much better perspective than we do on your needs.

That said, from your brief description, it seems that Berkeley DB could
work. You can pull down the software from:

http://www.sleepycat.com/

and documentation from:

http://www.sleepycat.com/docs/

The "Getting Started with Berkeley DB for C" has an introduction
chapter that describes Berkeley DB from a high level.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Dave Bowen
Oracle Support

BDB is low level enough to support what you need to do.
Its interface is at the (key,value) abstraction level.

Give me an email off list if you want to chat further about your
specific needs.

chadzakary AT hotmail DOT com