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SDBM_File - Tied access to sdbm files
use Fcntl; # For O_RDWR, O_CREAT, etc. use SDBM_File;
tie(%h, 'SDBM_File', 'filename', O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0666) or die "Couldn't tie SDBM file 'filename': $!; aborting";
# Now read and change the hash
$h{newkey} = newvalue;
print $h{oldkey};
...
untie %h;
SDBM_File establishes a connection between a Perl hash variable and
a file in SDBM_File format;. You can manipulate the data in the file
just as if it were in a Perl hash, but when your program exits, the
data will remain in the file, to be used the next time your program
runs.
Use SDBM_File with the Perl built-in tie function to establish
the connection between the variable and the file. The arguments to
tie should be:
The hash variable you want to tie.
The string "SDBM_File". (Ths tells Perl to use the SDBM_File
package to perform the functions of the hash.)
The name of the file you want to tie to the hash.
Flags. Use one of:
O_RDONLY
Read-only access to the data in the file.
O_WRONLY
Write-only access to the data in the file.
O_RDWR
Both read and write access.
If you want to create the file if it does not exist, add O_CREAT to
any of these, as in the example. If you omit O_CREAT and the file
does not already exist, the tie call will fail.
The default permissions to use if a new file is created. The actual permissions will be modified by the user's umask, so you should probably use 0666 here. (See umask in the perlfunc manpage.)
On failure, the tie call returns an undefined value and probably
sets $! to contain the reason the file could not be tied.
sdbm store returned -1, errno 22, key "..." at ...This warning is emitted when you try to store a key or a value that is too long. It means that the change was not recorded in the database. See BUGS AND WARNINGS below.
There are a number of limits on the size of the data that you can store in the SDBM file. The most important is that the length of a key, plus the length of its associated value, may not exceed 1008 bytes.
See tie in the perlfunc manpage, the perldbmfilter manpage, the Fcntl manpage