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author | Fred Drake <fdrake@acm.org> | 1999-04-15 15:11:40 (GMT) |
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committer | Fred Drake <fdrake@acm.org> | 1999-04-15 15:11:40 (GMT) |
commit | 666255f5ac36a46ffa36c7224027582242683328 (patch) | |
tree | d7262b3c20417625b2e800e4238432fda0393530 /Doc/lib/libdbhash.tex | |
parent | f4cbada3f95c74e81e899c71eb8721a6c7819acc (diff) | |
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Document the dbhash module, and link to it from appropriate places.
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/lib/libdbhash.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | Doc/lib/libdbhash.tex | 89 |
1 files changed, 89 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libdbhash.tex b/Doc/lib/libdbhash.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2ac326 --- /dev/null +++ b/Doc/lib/libdbhash.tex @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +\section{\module{dbhash} --- + DBM-style interface to the BSD database library} + +\declaremodule{standard}{dbhash} + \platform{Unix, Windows} +\modulesynopsis{DBM-style interface to the BSD database library.} + + +The \module{dbhash} module provides a function to open databases using +the BSD \code{db} library. This module mirrors the interface of the +other Python database modules that provide access to DBM-style +databases. The \module{bsddb}\refbimodindex{bsddb} module is required +to use \module{dbhash}. + +This module provides an exception and a function: + + +\begin{excdesc}{error} + Exception raised on database errors other than + \exception{KeyError}. It is a synonym for \exception{bsddb.error}. +\end{excdesc} + +\begin{funcdesc}{open}{path, flag\optional{, mode}} + Open a \code{db} database and return the database object. The + \var{path} argument is the name of the database file. + + The \var{flag} argument can be + \code{'r'} (to open an existing database for reading only --- default), + \code{'w'} (to open an existing database for reading and writing), + \code{'c'} (which creates the database if it doesn't exist), or + \code{'n'} (which always creates a new empty database). + For platforms on which the BSD \code{db} library supports locking, + an \character{l} can be appended to indicate that locking should be + used. + + The optional \var{mode} parameter is used to indicate the \UNIX{} + permission bits that should be set if a new database must be + created; this will be masked by the current umask value for the + process. +\end{funcdesc} + + +\begin{seealso} + \seemodule{anydbm}{Generic interface to \code{dbm}-style databases.} + \seemodule{whichdb}{Utility module used to determine the type of an + existing database.} +\end{seealso} + + +\subsection{Database Objects \label{dbhash-objects}} + +The database objects returned by \function{open()} provide the methods +common to all the DBM-style databases. The following methods are +available in addition to the standard methods. + +\begin{methoddesc}[dbhash]{first}{} + It's possible to loop over every key in the database using this method + and the \method{next()} method. The traversal is ordered by + the databases internal hash values, and won't be sorted by the key + values. This method returns the starting key. +\end{methoddesc} + +\begin{methoddesc}[dbhash]{last}{} + Return the last key in a database traversal. This may be used to + begin a reverse-order traversal; see \method{previous()}. +\end{methoddesc} + +\begin{methoddesc}[dbhash]{next}{key} + Returns the key that follows \var{key} in the traversal. The + following code prints every key in the database \code{db}, without + having to create a list in memory that contains them all: + +\begin{verbatim} +k = db.first() +while k != None: + print k + k = db.next(k) +\end{verbatim} +\end{methoddesc} + +\begin{methoddesc}[dbhash]{previous}{key} + Return the key that comes before \var{key} in a forward-traversal of + the database. In conjunction with \method{last()}, this may be used + to implement a reverse-order traversal. +\end{methoddesc} + +\begin{methoddesc}[dbhash]{sync}{} + This method forces any unwritten data to be written to the disk. +\end{methoddesc} |