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DBD::DBM(3pm)                  User Contributed Perl Documentation                  DBD::DBM(3pm)

NAME
       DBD::DBM - a DBI driver for DBM & MLDBM files

SYNOPSIS
        use DBI;
        $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:');                    # defaults to SDBM_File
        $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:DBM(RaiseError=1):');      # defaults to SDBM_File
        $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:dbm_type=DB_File');    # defaults to DB_File
        $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:dbm_mldbm=Storable');  # MLDBM with SDBM_File

        # or
        $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:', undef, undef);
        $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:', undef, undef, {
            f_ext              => '.db/r',
            f_dir              => '/path/to/dbfiles/',
            f_lockfile         => '.lck',
            dbm_type           => 'BerkeleyDB',
            dbm_mldbm          => 'FreezeThaw',
            dbm_store_metadata => 1,
            dbm_berkeley_flags => {
                '-Cachesize' => 1000, # set a ::Hash flag
            },
        });

       and other variations on connect() as shown in the DBI docs, DBD::File metadata and
       "Metadata" shown below.

       Use standard DBI prepare, execute, fetch, placeholders, etc., see "QUICK START" for an
       example.

DESCRIPTION
       DBD::DBM is a database management system that works right out of the box.  If you have a
       standard installation of Perl and DBI you can begin creating, accessing, and modifying
       simple database tables without any further modules.  You can add other modules (e.g.,
       SQL::Statement, DB_File etc) for improved functionality.

       The module uses a DBM file storage layer.  DBM file storage is common on many platforms
       and files can be created with it in many programming languages using different APIs. That
       means, in addition to creating files with DBI/SQL, you can also use DBI/SQL to access and
       modify files created by other DBM modules and programs and vice versa. Note that in those
       cases it might be necessary to use a common subset of the provided features.

       DBM files are stored in binary format optimized for quick retrieval when using a key
       field.  That optimization can be used advantageously to make DBD::DBM SQL operations that
       use key fields very fast.  There are several different "flavors" of DBM which use
       different storage formats supported by perl modules such as SDBM_File and MLDBM.  This
       module supports all of the flavors that perl supports and, when used with MLDBM, supports
       tables with any number of columns and insertion of Perl objects into tables.

       DBD::DBM has been tested with the following DBM types: SDBM_File, NDBM_File, ODBM_File,
       GDBM_File, DB_File, BerkeleyDB.  Each type was tested both with and without MLDBM and with
       the Data::Dumper, Storable, FreezeThaw, YAML and JSON serializers using the DBI::SQL::Nano
       or the SQL::Statement engines.

QUICK START
       DBD::DBM operates like all other DBD drivers - it's basic syntax and operation is
       specified by DBI.  If you're not familiar with DBI, you should start by reading DBI and
       the documents it points to and then come back and read this file.  If you are familiar
       with DBI, you already know most of what you need to know to operate this module.  Just
       jump in and create a test script something like the one shown below.

       You should be aware that there are several options for the SQL engine underlying DBD::DBM,
       see "Supported SQL syntax".  There are also many options for DBM support, see especially
       the section on "Adding multi-column support with MLDBM".

       But here's a sample to get you started.

        use DBI;
        my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:');
        $dbh->{RaiseError} = 1;
        for my $sql( split /;\n+/,"
            CREATE TABLE user ( user_name TEXT, phone TEXT );
            INSERT INTO user VALUES ('Fred Bloggs','233-7777');
            INSERT INTO user VALUES ('Sanjay Patel','777-3333');
            INSERT INTO user VALUES ('Junk','xxx-xxxx');
            DELETE FROM user WHERE user_name = 'Junk';
            UPDATE user SET phone = '999-4444' WHERE user_name = 'Sanjay Patel';
            SELECT * FROM user
        "){
            my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql);
            $sth->execute;
            $sth->dump_results if $sth->{NUM_OF_FIELDS};
        }
        $dbh->disconnect;

USAGE
       This section will explain some usage cases in more detail. To get an overview about the
       available attributes, see "Metadata".

   Specifying Files and Directories
       DBD::DBM will automatically supply an appropriate file extension for the type of DBM you
       are using.  For example, if you use SDBM_File, a table called "fruit" will be stored in
       two files called "fruit.pag" and "fruit.dir".  You should never specify the file
       extensions in your SQL statements.

       DBD::DBM recognizes following default extensions for following types:

       .pag/r
           Chosen for dbm_type "SDBM_File", "ODBM_File" and "NDBM_File" when an implementation is
           detected which wraps "-ldbm" for "NDBM_File" (e.g. Solaris, AIX, ...).

           For those types, the ".dir" extension is recognized, too (for being deleted when
           dropping a table).

       .db/r
           Chosen for dbm_type "NDBM_File" when an implementation is detected which wraps
           BerkeleyDB 1.x for "NDBM_File" (typically BSD's, Darwin).

       "GDBM_File", "DB_File" and "BerkeleyDB" don't usually use a file extension.

       If your DBM type uses an extension other than one of the recognized types of extensions,
       you should set the f_ext attribute to the extension and file a bug report as described in
       DBI with the name of the implementation and extension so we can add it to DBD::DBM.
       Thanks in advance for that :-).

         $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:f_ext=.db');  # .db extension is used
         $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:f_ext=');     # no extension is used

         # or
         $dbh->{f_ext}='.db';                       # global setting
         $dbh->{f_meta}->{'qux'}->{f_ext}='.db';    # setting for table 'qux'

       By default files are assumed to be in the current working directory.  To use other
       directories specify the f_dir attribute in either the connect string or by setting the
       database handle attribute.

       For example, this will look for the file /foo/bar/fruit (or /foo/bar/fruit.pag for DBM
       types that use that extension)

         my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:f_dir=/foo/bar');
         # and this will too:
         my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:');
         $dbh->{f_dir} = '/foo/bar';
         # but this is recommended
         my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:', undef, undef, { f_dir => '/foo/bar' } );

         # now you can do
         my $ary = $dbh->selectall_arrayref(q{ SELECT x FROM fruit });

       You can also use delimited identifiers to specify paths directly in SQL statements.  This
       looks in the same place as the two examples above but without setting f_dir:

          my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:');
          my $ary = $dbh->selectall_arrayref(q{
              SELECT x FROM "/foo/bar/fruit"
          });

       You can also tell DBD::DBM to use a specified path for a specific table:

         $dbh->{dbm_tables}->{f}->{file} = q(/foo/bar/fruit);

       Please be aware that you cannot specify this during connection.

       If you have SQL::Statement installed, you can use table aliases:

          my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:');
          my $ary = $dbh->selectall_arrayref(q{
              SELECT f.x FROM "/foo/bar/fruit" AS f
          });

       See the "GOTCHAS AND WARNINGS" for using DROP on tables.

   Table locking and flock()
       Table locking is accomplished using a lockfile which has the same basename as the table's
       file but with the file extension '.lck' (or a lockfile extension that you supply, see
       below).  This lock file is created with the table during a CREATE and removed during a
       DROP.  Every time the table itself is opened, the lockfile is flocked().  For SELECT, this
       is a shared lock.  For all other operations, it is an exclusive lock (except when you
       specify something different using the f_lock attribute).

       Since the locking depends on flock(), it only works on operating systems that support
       flock().  In cases where flock() is not implemented, DBD::DBM will simply behave as if the
       flock() had occurred although no actual locking will happen.  Read the documentation for
       flock() for more information.

       Even on those systems that do support flock(), locking is only advisory - as is always the
       case with flock().  This means that if another program tries to access the table file
       while DBD::DBM has the table locked, that other program will *succeed* at opening unless
       it is also using flock on the '.lck' file.  As a result DBD::DBM's locking only really
       applies to other programs using DBD::DBM or other program written to cooperate with
       DBD::DBM locking.

   Specifying the DBM type
       Each "flavor" of DBM stores its files in a different format and has different capabilities
       and limitations. See AnyDBM_File for a comparison of DBM types.

       By default, DBD::DBM uses the "SDBM_File" type of storage since "SDBM_File" comes with
       Perl itself. If you have other types of DBM storage available, you can use any of them
       with DBD::DBM. It is strongly recommended to use at least "DB_File", because "SDBM_File"
       has quirks and limitations and "ODBM_file", "NDBM_File" and "GDBM_File" are not always
       available.

       You can specify the DBM type using the dbm_type attribute which can be set in the
       connection string or with "$dbh->{dbm_type}" and "$dbh->{f_meta}->{$table_name}->{type}"
       for per-table settings in cases where a single script is accessing more than one kind of
       DBM file.

       In the connection string, just set "dbm_type=TYPENAME" where "TYPENAME" is any DBM type
       such as GDBM_File, DB_File, etc. Do not use MLDBM as your dbm_type as that is set
       differently, see below.

        my $dbh=DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:');                # uses the default SDBM_File
        my $dbh=DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:dbm_type=GDBM_File'); # uses the GDBM_File

        # You can also use $dbh->{dbm_type} to set the DBM type for the connection:
        $dbh->{dbm_type} = 'DB_File';    # set the global DBM type
        print $dbh->{dbm_type};          # display the global DBM type

       If you have several tables in your script that use different DBM types, you can use the
       $dbh->{dbm_tables} hash to store different settings for the various tables.  You can even
       use this to perform joins on files that have completely different storage mechanisms.

        # sets global default of GDBM_File
        my $dbh->('dbi:DBM:type=GDBM_File');

        # overrides the global setting, but only for the tables called
        # I<foo> and I<bar>
        my $dbh->{f_meta}->{foo}->{dbm_type} = 'DB_File';
        my $dbh->{f_meta}->{bar}->{dbm_type} = 'BerkeleyDB';

        # prints the dbm_type for the table "foo"
        print $dbh->{f_meta}->{foo}->{dbm_type};

       Note that you must change the dbm_type of a table before you access it for first time.

   Adding multi-column support with MLDBM
       Most of the DBM types only support two columns and even if it would support more, DBD::DBM
       would only use two. However a CPAN module called MLDBM overcomes this limitation by
       allowing more than two columns.  MLDBM does this by serializing the data - basically it
       puts a reference to an array into the second column. It can also put almost any kind of
       Perl object or even Perl coderefs into columns.

       If you want more than two columns, you must install MLDBM. It's available for many
       platforms and is easy to install.

       MLDBM is by default distributed with three serializers - Data::Dumper, Storable, and
       FreezeThaw. Data::Dumper is the default and Storable is the fastest. MLDBM can also make
       use of user-defined serialization methods or other serialization modules (e.g. YAML::MLDBM
       or MLDBM::Serializer::JSON. You select the serializer using the dbm_mldbm attribute.

       Some examples:

        $dbh=DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:dbm_mldbm=Storable');  # use MLDBM with Storable
        $dbh=DBI->connect(
           'dbi:DBM:dbm_mldbm=MySerializer' # use MLDBM with a user defined module
        );
        $dbh=DBI->connect('dbi::dbm:', undef,
            undef, { dbm_mldbm => 'YAML' }); # use 3rd party serializer
        $dbh->{dbm_mldbm} = 'YAML'; # same as above
        print $dbh->{dbm_mldbm} # show the MLDBM serializer
        $dbh->{f_meta}->{foo}->{dbm_mldbm}='Data::Dumper';   # set Data::Dumper for table "foo"
        print $dbh->{f_meta}->{foo}->{mldbm}; # show serializer for table "foo"

       MLDBM works on top of other DBM modules so you can also set a DBM type along with setting
       dbm_mldbm.  The examples above would default to using SDBM_File with MLDBM.  If you wanted
       GDBM_File instead, here's how:

        # uses DB_File with MLDBM and Storable
        $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:', undef, undef, {
            dbm_type  => 'DB_File',
            dbm_mldbm => 'Storable',
        });

       SDBM_File, the default dbm_type is quite limited, so if you are going to use MLDBM, you
       should probably use a different type, see AnyDBM_File.

       See below for some "GOTCHAS AND WARNINGS" about MLDBM.

   Support for Berkeley DB
       The Berkeley DB storage type is supported through two different Perl modules - DB_File
       (which supports only features in old versions of Berkeley DB) and BerkeleyDB (which
       supports all versions).  DBD::DBM supports specifying either "DB_File" or "BerkeleyDB" as
       a dbm_type, with or without MLDBM support.

       The "BerkeleyDB" dbm_type is experimental and it's interface is likely to change.  It
       currently defaults to BerkeleyDB::Hash and does not currently support ::Btree or ::Recno.

       With BerkeleyDB, you can specify initialization flags by setting them in your script like
       this:

        use BerkeleyDB;
        my $env = new BerkeleyDB::Env -Home => $dir;  # and/or other Env flags
        $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:', undef, undef, {
            dbm_type  => 'BerkeleyDB',
            dbm_mldbm => 'Storable',
            dbm_berkeley_flags => {
                'DB_CREATE'  => DB_CREATE,  # pass in constants
                'DB_RDONLY'  => DB_RDONLY,  # pass in constants
                '-Cachesize' => 1000,       # set a ::Hash flag
                '-Env'       => $env,       # pass in an environment
            },
        });

       Do not set the -Flags or -Filename flags as those are determined and overwritten by the
       SQL (e.g. -Flags => DB_RDONLY is set automatically when you issue a SELECT statement).

       Time has not permitted us to provide support in this release of DBD::DBM for further
       Berkeley DB features such as transactions, concurrency, locking, etc. We will be working
       on these in the future and would value suggestions, patches, etc.

       See DB_File and BerkeleyDB for further details.

   Optimizing the use of key fields
       Most "flavors" of DBM have only two physical columns (but can contain multiple logical
       columns as explained above in "Adding multi-column support with MLDBM"). They work
       similarly to a Perl hash with the first column serving as the key. Like a Perl hash, DBM
       files permit you to do quick lookups by specifying the key and thus avoid looping through
       all records (supported by DBI::SQL::Nano only). Also like a Perl hash, the keys must be
       unique. It is impossible to create two records with the same key.  To put this more simply
       and in SQL terms, the key column functions as the PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE INDEX.

       In DBD::DBM, you can take advantage of the speed of keyed lookups by using DBI::SQL::Nano
       and a WHERE clause with a single equal comparison on the key field. For example, the
       following SQL statements are optimized for keyed lookup:

        CREATE TABLE user ( user_name TEXT, phone TEXT);
        INSERT INTO user VALUES ('Fred Bloggs','233-7777');
        # ... many more inserts
        SELECT phone FROM user WHERE user_name='Fred Bloggs';

       The "user_name" column is the key column since it is the first column. The SELECT
       statement uses the key column in a single equal comparison - "user_name='Fred Bloggs'" -
       so the search will find it very quickly without having to loop through all the names which
       were inserted into the table.

       In contrast, these searches on the same table are not optimized:

        1. SELECT phone FROM user WHERE user_name < 'Fred';
        2. SELECT user_name FROM user WHERE phone = '233-7777';

       In #1, the operation uses a less-than (<) comparison rather than an equals comparison, so
       it will not be optimized for key searching.  In #2, the key field "user_name" is not
       specified in the WHERE clause, and therefore the search will need to loop through all rows
       to find the requested row(s).

       Note that the underlying DBM storage needs to loop over all key/value pairs when the
       optimized fetch is used. SQL::Statement has a massively improved where clause evaluation
       which costs around 15% of the evaluation in DBI::SQL::Nano - combined with the loop in the
       DBM storage the speed improvement isn't so impressive.

       Even if lookups are faster by around 50%, DBI::SQL::Nano and SQL::Statement can benefit
       from the key field optimizations on updating and deleting rows - and here the improved
       where clause evaluation of SQL::Statement might beat DBI::SQL::Nano every time the where
       clause contains not only the key field (or more than one).

   Supported SQL syntax
       DBD::DBM uses a subset of SQL.  The robustness of that subset depends on what other
       modules you have installed. Both options support basic SQL operations including CREATE
       TABLE, DROP TABLE, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, and SELECT.

       Option #1: By default, this module inherits its SQL support from DBI::SQL::Nano that comes
       with DBI.  Nano is, as its name implies, a *very* small SQL engine.  Although limited in
       scope, it is faster than option #2 for some operations (especially single primary key
       lookups). See DBI::SQL::Nano for a description of the SQL it supports and comparisons of
       it with option #2.

       Option #2: If you install the pure Perl CPAN module SQL::Statement, DBD::DBM will use it
       instead of Nano.  This adds support for table aliases, functions, joins, and much more.
       If you're going to use DBD::DBM for anything other than very simple tables and queries,
       you should install SQL::Statement.  You don't have to change DBD::DBM or your scripts in
       any way, simply installing SQL::Statement will give you the more robust SQL capabilities
       without breaking scripts written for DBI::SQL::Nano.  See SQL::Statement for a description
       of the SQL it supports.

       To find out which SQL module is working in a given script, you can use the dbm_versions()
       method or, if you don't need the full output and version numbers, just do this:

        print $dbh->{sql_handler}, "\n";

       That will print out either "SQL::Statement" or "DBI::SQL::Nano".

       Baring the section about optimized access to the DBM storage in mind, comparing the
       benefits of both engines:

         # DBI::SQL::Nano is faster
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "update foo set value='new' where key=15" );
         $sth->execute();
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "delete from foo where key=27" );
         $sth->execute();
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "select * from foo where key='abc'" );

         # SQL::Statement might faster (depending on DB size)
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "update foo set value='new' where key=?" );
         $sth->execute(15);
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "update foo set value=? where key=15" );
         $sth->execute('new');
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "delete from foo where key=?" );
         $sth->execute(27);

         # SQL::Statement is faster
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "update foo set value='new' where value='old'" );
         $sth->execute();
         # must be expressed using "where key = 15 or key = 27 or key = 42 or key = 'abc'"
         # in DBI::SQL::Nano
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "delete from foo where key in (15,27,42,'abc')" );
         $sth->execute();
         # must be expressed using "where key > 10 and key < 90" in DBI::SQL::Nano
         $sth = $dbh->prepare( "select * from foo where key between (10,90)" );
         $sth->execute();

         # only SQL::Statement can handle
         $sth->prepare( "select * from foo,bar where foo.name = bar.name" );
         $sth->execute();
         $sth->prepare( "insert into foo values ( 1, 'foo' ), ( 2, 'bar' )" );
         $sth->execute();

   Specifying Column Names
       DBM files don't have a standard way to store column names.   DBD::DBM gets around this
       issue with a DBD::DBM specific way of storing the column names.  If you are working only
       with DBD::DBM and not using files created by or accessed with other DBM programs, you can
       ignore this section.

       DBD::DBM stores column names as a row in the file with the key _metadata \0.  So this code

        my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:');
        $dbh->do("CREATE TABLE baz (foo CHAR(10), bar INTEGER)");
        $dbh->do("INSERT INTO baz (foo,bar) VALUES ('zippy',1)");

       Will create a file that has a structure something like this:

         _metadata \0 | <dbd_metadata><schema></schema><col_names>foo,bar</col_names></dbd_metadata>
         zippy        | 1

       The next time you access this table with DBD::DBM, it will treat the _metadata \0 row as a
       header rather than as data and will pull the column names from there.  However, if you
       access the file with something other than DBD::DBM, the row will be treated as a regular
       data row.

       If you do not want the column names stored as a data row in the table you can set the
       dbm_store_metadata attribute to 0.

        my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:', undef, undef, { dbm_store_metadata => 0 });

        # or
        $dbh->{dbm_store_metadata} = 0;

        # or for per-table setting
        $dbh->{f_meta}->{qux}->{dbm_store_metadata} = 0;

       By default, DBD::DBM assumes that you have two columns named "k" and "v" (short for "key"
       and "value").  So if you have dbm_store_metadata set to 1 and you want to use alternate
       column names, you need to specify the column names like this:

        my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:DBM:', undef, undef, {
            dbm_store_metadata => 0,
            dbm_cols => [ qw(foo bar) ],
        });

        # or
        $dbh->{dbm_store_metadata} = 0;
        $dbh->{dbm_cols}           = 'foo,bar';

        # or to set the column names on per-table basis, do this:
        # sets the column names only for table "qux"
        $dbh->{f_meta}->{qux}->{dbm_store_metadata} = 0;
        $dbh->{f_meta}->{qux}->{col_names}          = [qw(foo bar)];

       If you have a file that was created by another DBM program or created with
       dbm_store_metadata set to zero and you want to convert it to using DBD::DBM's column name
       storage, just use one of the methods above to name the columns but *without* specifying
       dbm_store_metadata as zero.  You only have to do that once - thereafter you can get by
       without setting either dbm_store_metadata or setting dbm_cols because the names will be
       stored in the file.

DBI database handle attributes
   Metadata
       Statement handle ($sth) attributes and methods

       Most statement handle attributes such as NAME, NUM_OF_FIELDS, etc. are available only
       after an execute.  The same is true of $sth->rows which is available after the execute but
       does not require a fetch.

       Driver handle ($dbh) attributes

       It is not supported anymore to use dbm-attributes without the dbm_-prefix.  Currently, if
       an DBD::DBM private attribute is accessed without an underscore in it's name, dbm_ is
       prepended to that attribute and it's processed further. If the resulting attribute name is
       invalid, an error is thrown.

       dbm_cols

       Contains a comma separated list of column names or an array reference to the column names.

       dbm_type

       Contains the DBM storage type. Currently known supported type are "ODBM_File",
       "NDBM_File", "SDBM_File", "GDBM_File", "DB_File" and "BerkeleyDB". It is not recommended
       to use one of the first three types - even if "SDBM_File" is the most commonly available
       dbm_type.

       dbm_mldbm

       Contains the serializer for DBM storage (value column). Requires the CPAN module MLDBM
       installed.  Currently known supported serializers are:

       Data::Dumper
               Default serializer. Deployed with Perl core.

       Storable
               Faster serializer. Deployed with Perl core.

       FreezeThaw
               Pure Perl serializer, requires FreezeThaw to be installed.

       YAML    Portable serializer (between languages but not architectures).  Requires
               YAML::MLDBM installation.

       JSON    Portable, fast serializer (between languages but not architectures).  Requires
               MLDBM::Serializer::JSON installation.

       dbm_store_metadata

       Boolean value which determines if the metadata in DBM is stored or not.

       dbm_berkeley_flags

       Hash reference with additional flags for BerkeleyDB::Hash instantiation.

       dbm_version

       Readonly attribute containing the version of DBD::DBM.

       f_meta

       In addition to the attributes DBD::File recognizes, DBD::DBM knows about the (public)
       attributes "col_names" (Note not dbm_cols here!), "dbm_type", "dbm_mldbm",
       "dbm_store_metadata" and "dbm_berkeley_flags".  As in DBD::File, there are undocumented,
       internal attributes in DBD::DBM.  Be very careful when modifying attributes you do not
       know; the consequence might a destroyed or corrupted table.

       dbm_tables

       This attribute provides restricted access to the table meta data. See f_meta and "f_meta"
       in DBD::File for attribute details.

       dbm_tables is a tied hash providing the internal table names as keys (accessing unknown
       tables might create an entry) and their meta data as another tied hash. The table meta
       storage is obtained via the "get_table_meta" method from the table implementation (see
       DBD::File::Developers). Attribute setting and getting within the table meta data is
       handled via the methods "set_table_meta_attr" and "get_table_meta_attr".

       Following attributes are no longer handled by DBD::DBM:

       dbm_ext

       This attribute is silently mapped to DBD::File's attribute f_ext.  Later versions of DBI
       might show a depreciated warning when this attribute is used and eventually it will be
       removed.

       dbm_lockfile

       This attribute is silently mapped to DBD::File's attribute f_lockfile.  Later versions of
       DBI might show a depreciated warning when this attribute is used and eventually it will be
       removed.

DBI database handle methods
   The $dbh->dbm_versions() method
       The private method dbm_versions() returns a summary of what other modules are being used
       at any given time.  DBD::DBM can work with or without many other modules - it can use
       either SQL::Statement or DBI::SQL::Nano as its SQL engine, it can be run with DBI or
       DBI::PurePerl, it can use many kinds of DBM modules, and many kinds of serializers when
       run with MLDBM.  The dbm_versions() method reports all of that and more.

         print $dbh->dbm_versions;               # displays global settings
         print $dbh->dbm_versions($table_name);  # displays per table settings

       An important thing to note about this method is that when it called with no arguments, it
       displays the *global* settings.  If you override these by setting per-table attributes,
       these will not be shown unless you specify a table name as an argument to the method call.

   Storing Objects
       If you are using MLDBM, you can use DBD::DBM to take advantage of its serializing
       abilities to serialize any Perl object that MLDBM can handle.  To store objects in
       columns, you should (but don't absolutely need to) declare it as a column of type BLOB
       (the type is *currently* ignored by the SQL engine, but it's good form).

EXTENSIBILITY
       "SQL::Statement"
               Improved SQL engine compared to the built-in DBI::SQL::Nano - see "Supported SQL
               syntax".

       "DB_File"
               Berkeley DB version 1. This database library is available on many systems without
               additional installation and most systems are supported.

       "GDBM_File"
               Simple dbm type (comparable to "DB_File") under the GNU license.  Typically not
               available (or requires extra installation) on non-GNU operating systems.

       "BerkeleyDB"
               Berkeley DB version up to v4 (and maybe higher) - requires additional installation
               but is easier than GDBM_File on non-GNU systems.

               db4 comes with a many tools which allow repairing and migrating databases.  This
               is the recommended dbm type for production use.

       "MLDBM" Serializer wrapper to support more than one column for the files.  Comes with
               serializers using "Data::Dumper", "FreezeThaw" and "Storable".

       "YAML::MLDBM"
               Additional serializer for MLDBM. YAML is very portable between languages.

       "MLDBM::Serializer::JSON"
               Additional serializer for MLDBM. JSON is very portable between languages, probably
               more than YAML.

GOTCHAS AND WARNINGS
       Using the SQL DROP command will remove any file that has the name specified in the command
       with either '.pag' and '.dir', '.db' or your {f_ext} appended to it.  So this be dangerous
       if you aren't sure what file it refers to:

        $dbh->do(qq{DROP TABLE "/path/to/any/file"});

       Each DBM type has limitations.  SDBM_File, for example, can only store values of less than
       1,000 characters.  *You* as the script author must ensure that you don't exceed those
       bounds.  If you try to insert a value that is larger than DBM can store, the results will
       be unpredictable.  See the documentation for whatever DBM you are using for details.

       Different DBM implementations return records in different orders.  That means that you
       should not rely on the order of records unless you use an ORDER BY statement.

       DBM data files are platform-specific.  To move them from one platform to another, you'll
       need to do something along the lines of dumping your data to CSV on platform #1 and then
       dumping from CSV to DBM on platform #2.  DBD::AnyData and DBD::CSV can help with that.
       There may also be DBM conversion tools for your platforms which would probably be quicker.

       When using MLDBM, there is a very powerful serializer - it will allow you to store Perl
       code or objects in database columns.  When these get de-serialized, they may be eval'ed -
       in other words MLDBM (or actually Data::Dumper when used by MLDBM) may take the values and
       try to execute them in Perl.  Obviously, this can present dangers, so if you do not know
       what is in a file, be careful before you access it with MLDBM turned on!

       See the entire section on "Table locking and flock()" for gotchas and warnings about the
       use of flock().

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
       This module uses hash interfaces of two column file databases. While none of supported SQL
       engines have support for indices, the following statements really do the same (even if
       they mean something completely different) for each dbm type which lacks "EXISTS" support:

         $sth->do( "insert into foo values (1, 'hello')" );

         # this statement does ...
         $sth->do( "update foo set v='world' where k=1" );
         # ... the same as this statement
         $sth->do( "insert into foo values (1, 'world')" );

       This is considered to be a bug and might change in a future release.

       Known affected dbm types are "ODBM_File" and "NDBM_File". We highly recommended you use a
       more modern dbm type such as "DB_File".

GETTING HELP, MAKING SUGGESTIONS, AND REPORTING BUGS
       If you need help installing or using DBD::DBM, please write to the DBI users mailing list
       at dbi-users AT perl.org or to the comp.lang.perl.modules newsgroup on usenet.  I cannot
       always answer every question quickly but there are many on the mailing list or in the
       newsgroup who can.

       DBD developers for DBD's which rely on DBD::File or DBD::DBM or use one of them as an
       example are suggested to join the DBI developers mailing list at dbi-dev AT perl.org and
       strongly encouraged to join our IRC channel at <irc://irc.perl.org/dbi>.

       If you have suggestions, ideas for improvements, or bugs to report, please report a bug as
       described in DBI. Do not mail any of the authors directly, you might not get an answer.

       When reporting bugs, please send the output of $dbh->dbm_versions($table) for a table that
       exhibits the bug and as small a sample as you can make of the code that produces the bug.
       And of course, patches are welcome, too :-).

       If you need enhancements quickly, you can get commercial support as described at
       <http://dbi.perl.org/support/> or you can contact Jens Rehsack at rehsack AT cpan.org for
       commercial support in Germany.

       Please don't bother Jochen Wiedmann or Jeff Zucker for support - they handed over further
       maintenance to H.Merijn Brand and Jens Rehsack.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
       Many, many thanks to Tim Bunce for prodding me to write this, and for copious, wise, and
       patient suggestions all along the way. (Jeff Zucker)

       I send my thanks and acknowledgements to H.Merijn Brand for his initial refactoring of
       DBD::File and his strong and ongoing support of SQL::Statement. Without him, the current
       progress would never have been made.  And I have to name Martin J. Evans for each laugh
       (and correction) of all those funny word creations I (as non-native speaker) made to the
       documentation. And - of course - I have to thank all those unnamed contributors and
       testers from the Perl community. (Jens Rehsack)

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
       This module is written by Jeff Zucker < jzucker AT cpan.org >, who also maintained it till
       2007. After that, in 2010, Jens Rehsack & H.Merijn Brand took over maintenance.

        Copyright (c) 2004 by Jeff Zucker, all rights reserved.
        Copyright (c) 2010-2013 by Jens Rehsack & H.Merijn Brand, all rights reserved.

       You may freely distribute and/or modify this module under the terms of either the GNU
       General Public License (GPL) or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README
       file.

SEE ALSO
       DBI, SQL::Statement, DBI::SQL::Nano, AnyDBM_File, DB_File, BerkeleyDB, MLDBM, YAML::MLDBM,
       MLDBM::Serializer::JSON

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