From: Digestifier To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Date: Sun, 5 Dec 93 21:13:19 EST Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #378 Linux-Misc Digest #378, Volume #1 Sun, 5 Dec 93 21:13:19 EST Contents: Catalog of free database systems (David Muir Sharnoff) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: muir@idiom.berkeley.ca.us (David Muir Sharnoff) Crossposted-To: comp.databases,comp.unix.programmer,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: Catalog of free database systems Date: 5 Dec 1993 15:05:24 -0800 Reply-To: free-databases@idiom.berkeley.ca.us Archive-name: free-databases Last-modified: 1993/12/05 Version: 1.3 Catalog of Free Database Systems This document attemts to catalog databases that are available without payment and with source. The latest version of the document can be ftp'ed: get pub/free-databases from idiom.berkeley.ca.us. Please send additions, corrections, and donations to David Muir Sharnoff I will post this document about once a month to comp.databases, comp.answers, and news.answers. I will also post it to other groups as I see fit. Thanks, -Dave Idiom Consulting, Berkeley, CA =========================================================================== Prototype entry: name: The name of the package version: The current version number of the package direct inquiries to "contact." interfaces: The external interfaces that are supported by the package. Common interfaces are: SQL, ESQL, dbm, etc. access methods: A list of the access methods that are supported multiuser: Can more than one person access the package at the same time. transactions: Does the package support transactions? distributed: Does the package support distributed databases? query language: What query languages does the package support if any? SQL, QUEL, etc. index size: (full text only) the size of the index as a percentage of the size of the text to be indexed. limits: Any known, annoying limits robustness: Can this package be used on mission-critical data? description: A description of the package. references: Pointers to other documentation announcements: Where to get announcements discussion: Where to send, or how to join discussions about the package bugs: Where to send bug reports requires: Special requirements for installing or running ports: What does the package run on? restrictions: Special copyright or other restrictions on the software author: The primary author, if known. If not known, contact: The current contact point. If not specified, use "author." how to get: Instructions for obtaining the package updated: When the package was last updated (yyyy/mm/dd) [often incorrect] =========================================================================== Selected changes: added an entry for Btree Library added an entry for B+tree Library version 0.2 of DiamondBase is out =========================================================================== =========================== relational databases ========================== =========================================================================== name: DiamondBase version: 0.2 interfaces: C++ library access methods: b+ tree multiuser: Alpha in this version transactions: no distributed: no query language: C++ methods limits: limits are set at compile time. The default max records is 21474836. robustness: The database engine is quite stable. The multi-user extensions are a recent addition and are still considered to be an alpha version. The single user version is separate however and unaffected. description: DiamondBase is written entirely in C++, and uses a schema compiler to generate C++ class defintions for the objects, as well as some comparison code which is also linked in to the final executable. Facilities are now available to access generic relations without providing comparison code. It was written originally as a replacement for MetalBase which was too slow. DiamondBase is very fast. announcements: send mail to Darren Platt to be put on their list questions: send mail to Darren Platt bugs: send mail to Darren Platt requires: C++ ports: many Unix platforms and OS/2 under cfront or gcc or Borland's compiler. restrictions: Free usage for non-commerical applications -- negotiate anything else. author: Kevin Lentin, Andrew Davison, Darren Platt contact: Darren Platt how to get: ftp pub/export/? from pippin.cs.monash.edu.au updated: 1993/11/06 name: University INGRES version: 8.9 interfaces: QUEL, EQUEL access methods: heap, hash, isam, ordered multiuser: yes transactions: yes, but no multistatement transactions. Each statement is ACID distributed: no query language: QUEL limits: ? robustness: Very mature technology description: This is the database program that was the basis for INGRES Corporation. Obviously, it does not have all the bells and whistles of the current commercial product. However, it is small and fast and it works. So called ordered relations are slow and not locked. references: "The INGRES Papers" Stonebraker ed. Addison Wesley ports: SunOS, ? author: The Ingres project at UC Berkeley. contact: how to get: ftp pub/ingres89.tar.Z from s2k-ftp.CS.Berkeley.EDU _and_ ftp pub/source/ingres.patch from idiom.berkeley.ca.us linux: ftp pub/linux/packages/ingres from tsx-11.mit.edu updated: 1993/05/20 name: MetalBase version: 5.0 interfaces: custome C library access methods: AVL-trees multiuser: yes, but in theory race conditions still exist transactions: yes distributed: no query language: "Report", and "View Relation" a curses based viewer limits: ? robustness: data corruption is possible when MetalBase is not shut down correctly description: MetalBase is a small relational database. It has all the pieces that a relational database should C interface, curses interface, report writer, etc. It does not have design which takes advantage of shared memory or the better access methods. None of the interfaces are standard, but all of them are easy to use. discussion: mbase-request@internode.com.au requires: curses ports: Linux, MS-DOS, Amiga, NeXT, Coherent, Macintosh MPW, SGI, Xenix restrictions: donations are suggested author: Richid Jernigan / PO Box 827 / Norris TN 37828 how to get: ftp systems/unix/linux/sources/usr.bin/mbase.tar.z from ftp.uu.net updated: 1992/10/01 name: Postgres version: 4.1 interfaces: libpq (C interface) access methods: Heap plus secondary indexes: B-tree, R-tree, Hash. multiuser: yes transactions: yes distributed: no query language: Postquel (incompatable superset of Quel) limits: ? robustness: "It is not up to commercial levels of reliability. I would not want _my_ payroll records in it :-)" One user reports that with two people writing to the same table it ocaisonally deadlocks. (version 4.1) description: Postgres is a database research project under Prof. Michael Stonebraker at U. C. Berkeley. To facilitate research efforts, a software test-bed was created; this is the "Postgres" DBMS software. The Postgres DBMS is extended relational or object oriented, depending on the buzzword du jour. Postgres is relational. It is highly extensible. It has object oriented features like inheritance. it has query language procedures, rules, updatable views, and more. references: There are may papers available, both through ftp and as hard-copy technical reports. Cruse the ftp site for papers or mail Michelle Mattera discussion: send "Subject: ADD" to postgres-request@postgres.berkeley.edu linux: send "X-Mn-Admin: join postgres" to linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi bugs: ports: MIPS Ultrix 4.2+, SunOS 4.1.1+, NextStep 3.0, Linux 0.99.7 in progress: Alpha OSF/1, HP-PA HP-UX 8.07, HP-PA HP-UX 9.01, i386 SCO ODT 2.0, Sparc Solaris 2.1 previous versions: i386 SVR4, i386 386BSD, RS/6000 AIX 3.2 contact: developers: chief programmer: Marc Teitelbaum admin: Michelle Mattera how to get: ftp pub/postgres/postgres-v4r1/* from s2k-ftp.CS.Berkeley.EDU. updated: 1993/03/19 name: REQUIEM version: ? interfaces: RQL, ERQL (extension) access methods: B-tree indexes can be created on attributes of base relations. multiuser: yes (multiuser extension) transactions: yes (multiuser extension) distributed: no query language: RQL robustness: [seems to maintained by zero to few people --muir] description: REQUIEM (RElational Query and Update Interactive systEM) is an extensible, relational DBMS developed in C with a query language based on the relational algebra called RQL (Relational Query Language). There appears to be three versions of REQUIEM: the base version and two extensions. One extension adds multiuser capability. The other adds an embeddable version of the query langauge. references: "An Extensible DBMS for Small-Medium Scale Systems", Papazoglou, M.P., IEEE Micro, April 1989. Relational Database Management - A Systems Programming Approach, Papazoglou, M.P. and Valder, W., Prentice Hall International, UK, 1989. "The Development of a Program Interface for the RDBMS Requiem" Power, R.A., 1991 Honours Thesis (dvi file available with source code for the embedded version). ports: Sparc/SunOS; base version only: MS-DOS, Macintosh contact: (embedded version only) Robert Power how to get: ftp pub/requiem/REQUIEM.tar.Z (multiuser version) or pub/requiem/Requiem.tar.Z (embeddable version) from dcssoft.anu.edu.au The base version can be constructed from the multiuser version. updated: 1992/10/06 name: shql version: 1.1 interfaces: SQL, shell multiuser: no transactions: no ? distributed: no limits: no NULLs in the data, spaces and backslashes may be added when the data contains punctuation, GROUP BY is not implemented. robustness: it is a shell script. description: Shql is a program that reads SQL commands interactively and executes those commands by creating and manipulating Unix files. The program is patterned after Ingres' interactive sql terminal monitor program. requires: bourne shell with functions, awk, grep, cut, sort, uniq, join, wc, and sed author: Bruce Momjian how to get: ask archie updated: 1993/01/25 =========================================================================== =========================== object oriented =============================== =========================================================================== name: Arjuna Distributed Programming System version: 2.0 interfaces: C++ access methods: ? multiuser: yes transactions: yes, nested distributed: yes, includes replicated objects query language: ? limits: ? robustness: "all reported bugs fixed" description: Arjuna is a programming system for reliable distributed computing. Arjuna supports nested atomic actions for controlling operations on objects (instances of C++ classes), which can potentially be persistent. The software available includes a C++ stub generator which hides much of the details of client-server based programming, plus a system programmer's manual containing details of how to install Arjuna and use it to build fault-tolerant distributed applications. discussion: send "join arjuna YOUR-NAME-HERE" to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk ports: UNIX: Suns, HPs, etc. restrictions: A commercial extension exists. contact: arjuna@newcastle.ac.uk how to get: ftp ? from arjuna.ncl.ac.uk updated: 1993/05/15 name: EXODUS Project software version: GNU E 2.3.3, Storage Manager (SM) 3.0 interfaces: GNU E, (C++ for direct access to the Storage Manager) access methods: B+tree and linear-hashing based indexes multiuser: yes, client-server transactions: yes distributed: yes, applications can access multiple servers in a single transaction. Distributed commits are performed across servers and clients have access to an interface allowing participation in distributed commits managed by an external agent. query language: GNU E -- a persistent programming language based on C++ robustness: High (at least for academic software). The SM release includes a facility for regression testing most features, including crash recovery. description: The EXODUS Storage Manager (SM) is a client-server object storage system which provides "storage objects" for storing data, versions of objects, "files" for grouping related storage objects, and indexes for supporting efficient object access. A storage object is an uninterpreted container of bytes which can range in size from a few bytes to hundreds of megabytes. The Storage Manager provides routines to read, overwrite, and efficiently grow and shrink objects. In addition, the Storage Manager provides transactions, lock-based concurrency control, and log-based recovery. GNU E is a persistent, object oriented programming language developed as part of the Exodus project. GNU E extends C++ with the notion of persistent data, program level data objects that can be transparently used across multiple executions of a program, or multiple programs, without explicit input and output operations. references: A bibliography of EXODUS related papers can be obtained from the ftp site described below. Some of the papers are available from the ftp server as technical reports, and are marked as such in the bibliography. discussion: We maintain a list of users for notification of updates. Mail exodus@cs.wisc.edu to be placed on the list. bugs: exodusbugs@cs.wisc.edu ports: MIPS/Ultrix, SPARC/SunOS, (HP 7xx/HP-UX for SM only) restrictions: none, but see copyright notice located in all source files author: The EXODUS Database Toolkit project at the University of Wisconsin contact: exodus@cs.wisc.edu how to get: ftp exodus/* from ftp.cs.wisc.edu updated: 1993/07/22 name: LINCKS (Linkoping Intelligent Communication of Knowledge System) version: 2.0 interfaces: emacs-like editor, ? access methods: ? multiuser: yes transactions: ? distributed: ? query language: ? robustness: ? description: LINCKS is an object-centred multi-user database system developed for complex information system applications where editing and browsing of information in the database is of paramount importance. The focus is on sharing of small information chunks which combine to make up complex information objects used by different users for different purposes. The information chunks are semi-structured in that they contain one part which is well-structured to facilitate addition of A.I. processing within the system, and one part which is unstructured and suitable for management by the user. Features: shared composite objects, database history, atlernative views, change collision notification (when more than one person makes changes to the same composite object) discussion: ? bugs: lincks-bugs@ida.liu.se. requires: Unix, X11R5 ports: Sun4/SunOS 4.1.[123], Sun4/SunOS 5.2, Sun3, Decstation, RS/6000, Sequent Symmetry, Linux, HP-UX restrictions: GNU General Public License author: Lin Padgham, Ralph Ronnquist; University of Linkoping, Sweden contact: lincks@ida.liu.se how to get: ftp pub/lincks/lincks-2.0.tar.gz from ftp.ida.liu.se updated: 1993/09/27 name: OBST version: 3.3.3 interfaces: C++, tcl, schema compiler, graphical object browser access methods: extendable hashtable multiuser: yes, but writing locks entire tables transactions: yes distributed: not yet query language: C++, tcl, graphical object browser limits: 4 GB per container, 2^32 containers robustness: The latest OBST-bug has been reported and corrected in May '93. There are somewhere between 50 and 500 users. Releases are made to enhance the coding quality rather than to add new features. description: The persistent object management system OBST was developed by Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI) as a contribution to the STONE project. This project (supported by grant no. ITS8902A7 from the BMFT, i.e. the German Ministry for Research) aims at the development of a software engineering environment for education purposes and is carried out as a joint project of nine german universities and research institutions. An essential feature of STONE is that the object oriented paradigm is pursued consequently as a key concept. OBST is the common persistent object store for all tools within the STONE environment. OBST provides a rich OO model including multiple inheritance, generics, overloading, and privacy. The schema definition language is syntactically similar to C++. It comes with a library of pre-defined classes like Set, and List. New methods can be incrementally loaded at runtime. announcements: send "Subject: obst-mailing-list", "SUBSCRIBE " to stone@fzi.de bugs: send OBST version, C++ version, machine, OS, and a description of your problem to . requires: A C++ compiler (G++ 1.37/2.3.3 or AT&T 2.0/2.1/3.01) ports: UNIX: SPARC/SunOS 4.1, Linux, HP-UX, ... contact: stone@fzi.de how to get: ftp pub/OBST/? from ftp.fzi.de usa: ftp pub/database/stone/? from ftp.uu.net uk: ftp computing/databases/OBST/? from src.doc.ic.ac.uk updated: 1993/09/06 name: The Texas Persistent Store version: 0.1 interfaces: C++ library access methods: ? multiuser: not yet transactions: not yet distributed: not yet query language: ? index size: ? limits: ? robustness: beta software description: Texas is a simple, portable, high-performance persistent store for C++ using "pointer swizzling at page fault time" to translate persistent addresses to hardware-supported virtual addresses. Texas is built on top of a normal virtual memory, and relies on the underlying virtual memory system for caching. Texas is easy to use, and is implemented as a UNIX library. It is small and can be linked into applications. It requires no special operating system privileges, and persistence is orthogonal to type---objects may be allocated on either a conventional transient heap, or on the persistent heap, as desired. Texas supports simple checkpointing of heap data. references: ftp pub/garbage/*.ps from cs.utexas.edu announcements: send mail to oops@cs.utexas.edu discussion: ? bugs: ? requires: ? ports: SunOS, Ultrix, Sun CC, GNU C++ restrictions: ? author: ? contact: oops@cs.utexas.edu how to get: ftp pub/garbage/texas/? from cs.utexas.edu updated: ? name: William's Object Oriented Database (Wood) version: 0.6 interfaces: MCL 2.0 access methods: custom multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none. Has BTrees for indexing. limits: Will slow down when the database size exceeds 256 megabytes. Otherwise, database size limited by disk size (up to Macintosh limit, which is, I believe, 4 gigabytes). Object size limited to 24 megabytes. If you think of a Wood database as a random access FASL file, you'll have the right idea. robustness: Until it has a real logging/recovery mechanism, I wouldn't advise using it for mission critical data. Caches pages in memory, so if you crash, you will lose. Has a function to flush the cache to disk, so you can do explicit checkpoints to make it more robust. description: Wood is a simple persistent store for MCL 2.0. This is still alpha software. It is incomplete: though you can save/restore all Lisp objects to/from a file, there is no transaction/recovery manager and no garbage collector for the persistent heap. I will not be able to provide much support, but you get source code. discussion: info-wood-request@cambridge.apple.com bugs: bug-wood@cambridge.apple.com ports: Macintosh CommonLisp 2.0 author: Bill St. Clair how to get: ftp pub/mcl2/contrib/wood* from cambridge.apple.com updated: 1993/03/07 =========================================================================== =========================== deductive databases =========================== =========================================================================== name: Aditi Deductive Database System version: beta release interfaces: motif, command line, NU-Prolog access methods: Base relations contain variable sized records. Base relations can be indexed with B-trees or multi-level signature files (superimposed code words) allowing multi-attribute indexing and querying, or they can be stored as unindexed flat files. multiuser: yes transactions: next release distributed: ? query language: prolog, graphical (Motif) limits: ? robustness: ? description: Aditi is a multi-user deductive database system. It supports base relations defined by facts (relations in the sense of relational databases) and derived relations defined by rules that specify how to compute new information from old information. The old information can be from derived relations as well as base relations; the rules of derived relations may be recursive. Both base relations and the rules defining derived relations are stored on disk and are accessed as required during query evaluation. ports: SPARC/SunOS, MIPS/IRIX author: The development of the Aditi system started in 1988 by Professor Kotagiri Ramamohanarao, and many people have been involved in its development, in particular Jayen Vaghani, Tim Leask, Peter Stuckey, John Shepherd, Zoltan Somogyi, James Harland and David Kemp. The support of Kim Marriott, David Keegel, and Warwick Harvey is also acknowledged. contact: aditi@cs.mu.oz.au how to get: send email to aditi@cs.mu.oz.au updated: 1992/12/17 name: CORAL version: 0.1 (Version 1.0 expected shortly) interfaces: Exodus storage mangager, C++ access methods: Hash-based and B+ tree indices multiuser: When used with Exodus transactions: When used with Exodus distributed: ? query language: Prolog-like with SQL-style extensions; C++ interface limits: No type checking; only atomic values in persistent relations robustness: Research software; used for teaching and in research projects, but some bugs remain description: The CORAL deductive database/logic programming system was developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The CORAL declarative language is based on Horn-clause rules with extensions like SQL's group-by and aggregation operators, and uses a Prolog-like syntax. Many evaluation techniques are supported, including bottom-up fixpoint evaluation and top-down backtracking. Disk-resident data is supported via an interface to the Exodus storage manager; however, CORAL can run without Exodus if disk-resident relations are not required. A good interface to C++ is provided. Relations defined using the declarative language can be manipulated from C++ code, and relations defined using C++ code can be used in declarative rules. C++ code defining relations can be incrementally loaded. requires: AT&T C++ 2.0 or later ports: Decstations, Sun 4, Sparc, HP Snakes author: The CORAL group consists of R. Ramakrishnan, P. Seshadri, D. Srivastava and S. Sudarshan. The following people made important contributions: T. Arora, P. Bothner, V. Karra and W.G. Roth. Several other people were also involved: J. Albert, T. Ball, L. Chan, M. Das, S. Goyal, R. Netzer and S. Sterner. contact: Raghu Ramakrishnan how to get: ftp from ftp.cs.wisc.edu updated: 1993/02/12 =========================================================================== =========================== special purpose =============================== =========================================================================== name: GRAS (GRAph-oriented database System) version: 5.90/9 [[6.0 alpha]] interfaces: Navigational programming interfaces for C and Modula-2 access methods: tries fro database pages, static hashing within pages multiuser: Very restricted single writer/multiple reader access [[6.0: shared read/write access with locks on a per-session, transaction, or operation basis]] transactions: yes; based on backwards logs. Checkpoints allow roll-back (and roll-forward) to a previous state. distributed: no. [[6.0: Multiclient/multiserver architecture]] query language: PROGRES (PROgrammed Graph Rewriting Systems; a language released separately) limits: 2**16 nodes per database and 2**16 databases per multi-database [[6.0: 2**32 nodes]] robustness: Has been successfully used as the underlying database for a number of research prototypes and one commercial product. Guarantees recovery from (almost) all application/system crashes description: GRAS is a database system which has been designed according to the requirements resulting from software engineering applications. Software development environments are composed of tools which operate on complex, highly structured data. In order to model such data in a natural way, we have selected attributed graphs as GRAS' underlying data model. The current version has programming interfaces for Modula-2 and C and supports: - persistent attributed, directed node- and edge-labeled graphs (including long attributes and indexes) - temporary/volatile generic sets, binary relations, and lists, - graph modification triggers causing further modifications - primitives for version control comprising the capability for efficiently storing graphs as forward/backward deltas - primitives for declaring graph schemes and for incremental evaluation of derived attributes (constraints). In additon, there are tools for compressing and displaying graphs. The GRAS system may be considered to be the core of a graph oriented DBMS environment. The environment is based on a VHLL called PROGRESS. This environment supports: a syntax-directed editor for graph schemes, rewrite rules and sequences of rules; an incremental consistency checker; an incremental compiler&interpreter for PROGRESS; an enhanced graph browser references: Kiesel, Schuerr, Westfechtel: GRAS, A Graph-Oriented Database System for (Software) Engineering Applications. Proc. CASE 93, Lee, Reid, Jarzabek (eds.): Proc. CASE '93, 6th Int. Conf. on Computer-Aided Software Engineering, IEEE Computer Society Press (1993), pp 272-286. Available by ftp as TR AIB 92-44. Schuerr: PROGRES: A VHL-Language Based on Graph Grammars, in Proc. 4th Int. Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their Application to Computer Science, LNCS 532, Springer- Verlag 1991, pp 641-659. Available by ftp asTR AIB 90-16. announcements: a list is forming; send mail to the contact (below) bugs: use the included "send-pr" program to send bug reports requires: Modula-2, C ports: Sun-4, porting requires Modula-2 restrictions: GNU General Public License author: Lehrstuhl fuer Informatik III, RWTH Aachen, Ahornstr. 55 D-52074 Aachen, Germany. contact: (v5.x & PROGRES) Dr. Andy Sch"urr (v6.x) Norbert Kiesel how to get: (v5.x) ftp pub/unix/GRAS from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (PROGRES sun4) ftp pub/unix/PROGRES from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (PROGRES source) send mail to contact (references) ftp pub/reports/* from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (v6.x) contact Norbert Kiesel updated: 1993/11/01 =========================================================================== =========================== flat files ==================================== =========================================================================== name: EDB, the Emacs database version: 1.17 interfaces: Emacs, Emacs Lisp multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: Emacs Lisp limits: same as for Emacs -- typically 8 or 32 MB robustness: fairly high -- currently being used for mission-critical data description: EDB provides simple database access in a "user-friendly" Emacs environment for flat files. Extensions for linking records and relational-like operations exist, and further extensions are easy to make. EDB is documented by a 110-page manual, complete with indices discussion: edb-list-request@theory.lcs.mit.edu bugs: mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu or edb-list@theory.lcs.mit.edu requires: GNU Emacs 18, GNU Emacs 19, or Lucid Emacs ports: any computer that runs Emacs -- that is, almost any computer restrictions: GNU Public License author: Michael Ernst how to get: ftp pub/emacs/edb/edb.tar.Z from theory.lcs.mit.edu updated: 1993/06/16 name: Jinx version: 2.1 interfaces: perl, shell multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: no limits robustness: No bugs have ever been reported description: Very easy to use, curses based flat file handler. In Perl, so no limits. Allows Join, Project, Sort etc. Representation in 2 readable unix files. A documented Perl library makes it easy to add applications. references: Online help and a 17 page tutorial. requires: Perl, cterm (distributed with jinx) ports: any unix system with ordinary perl and curses restrictions: Copyleft author: Henk Penning, Utrecht University contact: Henk Penning how to get: ftp pub/PERL/jinx.shar.Z and pub/PERL/cterm.shar.Z from ftp.cs.ruu.nl updated: 1991/11/01 name: rdb version: 2.5j interfaces: ? access methods: ? multiuser: ? transactions: ? distributed: ? query language: ? limits: ? robustness: ? description: RDB is mostly a set of Perl scripts working as filters, like "row" & "column"; a very nifty table formatting script is in "ptbl", which can do long field folding into multiple lines per row. references: ? discussion: ? bugs: ? requires: perl ports: ? author: Walt Hobbs how to get: ftp pub/RDB-hobbs/RDB-2.5j.tar.Z from rand.org updated: ? =========================================================================== ================= dbm and other and raw access methods =================== =========================================================================== name: The Berkeley DB code version: 1.72 interfaces: ndbm, hsearch access methods: hash, b+tree, recno multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: can handle large items robustness: The db routines are used in some production code so they are likely to work reasonably well. description: The Berkeley DB Code is a unification of several previous interfaces. It also forms the basis of a unified interface to new access methods (b+tree, recno). references: "A New Hashing Package for UNIX", Margo Seltzer, Ozan Yigit, Proceedings of the Winter USENIX Conference, Dallas, TX, 1991. Also available by ftp'ing pub/oz/hash.ps.Z from nexus.yorku.ca. "Document Processing in a Relational Database System, Michael Stonebraker," Heidi Stettner, Joseph Kalash, Antonin Guttman, Nadene Lynn, Memorandum No. UCB/ERL M82/32, May 1982. "LIBTP: Portable, Modular Transactions for UNIX," Margo Seltzer, Michael Olson, Proceedings 1992 Winter Usenix Conference, San Francisco, CA, January 1992. reported bugs: does not align data in memory [fixed? --ed] ports: SunOS 4.1.2, Ultrix 4.2A, BSD 4.4, and most other Unix author: Margo Seltzer, Keith Bostic, Ozan Yigit contact: Keith Bostic how to get: ftp ucb/4bsd/db.tar.Z from ftp.cs.berkeley.edu updated: 1993/10/12 name: Btree Library version: first public release interfaces: raw C library access methods: b-tree multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: values are limited to 4 bytes (long enough for a pointer!) robustness: ? description: Ths is a library that maintains a simple balanced btree index. Nothing more is provided than routines to insert, set, find (specific, next, and previous), and delete keys. Each key, however, has a spare long value that can be used to contain an offset to a data file. A library to handle fixed-length records based on these pointers should be trivial. (Can you say 'dBASEIII'?) Another failing of this library is its total inability to cope with having several programs modifying indices at the same time. (it *CAN*, but I won't vouch for the result) The good solutions to that particular problem are OS dependent, unfortunately, and I am not a database guru anyhow. ports: Unix author: Marcus J. Ranum how to get: get btree and bt-rio from comp.sources.misc volume 3 updated: 1988/06/02 name: B+tree Library version: first public release interfaces: raw C library, dbm-like library access methods: b+tree multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: ? robustness: ? description: This is the source code for a variable-length key variable page size b+tree library. Also included is source for a variety of test programs, a semi-useable record manager, and a dbm-lookalike library built on top of the record manager and b+tree. (dbm(3) will blow it away performance-wise, of course). ports: Pyramid, Sun, BSD4.3, Ultrix. Does not work on Xenix author: Marcus J. Ranum how to get: get b+tree_mgr from comp.sources.misc volume 10 updated: 1988/06/02 name: dbz version: "20 Feb 1993 Performance Release of C News" interfaces: dbm-like, command-line access access methods: hash multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: lines are limited to 1024 bytes unless the -l option is used robustness: very robust within its domain description: A dbm-like library maintained for use with C-news. ports: everything that runs C-news (lots) author: Jon Zeeff , David Butler, Mark Moraes, Henry Spencer. Hashing function by Peter Honeyman. contact: Henry Spencer how to get: included in the C-news distribution as ./dbz updated: 1992/02/11 name: gdbm version: 1.7.1 interfaces: dbm, ndbm, gdbm access methods: hash multiuser: no, but does lock the entire file transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: can handle large items robustness: [should be good --ed] description: An ndbm work-alike from the Free Software Foundation bugs: gnu.utils.bug author: Philip A. Nelson how to get: ftp gdbm-*.tar.gz from any gnu archive updated: 1993/11/16 name: sdbm version: ? interfaces: ndbm access methods: hash multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: ? robustness: [I know of no problems --ed] description: ndbm work-alike hashed database library based on Per-Aake Larson's Dynamic Hashing algorithms. author: Ozan S. Yigit how to get: included in the X11R5 distribution as contrib/util/sdbm updated: 1990/03/01 name: tdbm version: 1.1 interfaces: dbm-like access methods: hashing multiuser: In theory, but the required threads package is not currently distributed. transactions: yes distributed: yes query language: none limits: Some minor ones. robustness: Probably pretty reliable, but no hard data available. description: Tdbm is a transaction processing database with a dbm-like interface. It provides nested atomic transactions, volatile and persistent databases, and support for very large objects and distributed operation. references: A paper appearing in the Summer '92 USENIX proceedings describes the design and implementation of tdbm and examines its performance. discussion: Contact the author. bugs: Contact the author. author: Barry Brachman requires: Nothing special. ports: Sparc, MIPS, AIX. Thought to be quite portable. restrictions: Copyrighted with liberal use policy. how to get: ftp pub/local/src/tdbm.tar.Z from cs.ubc.ca [137.82.8.5] updated: 1992/05/13 name: Wb version: 1a2 interfaces: scheme library access method: b-tree multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: keys and data must be less that 256 bytes. Total database must be < blocksize*2^32. robustness: unknown. New release by a good programmer. description: WB is a disk based, sorted associative array C library. These associative arrays consist of variable length (less that 256 bytes) keys and values. WB comes with an interface to the Scheme implementation SCM. author: Aubrey Jaffer requires: SCM and SLIB (also available from altdorf.ai.mit.edu) ports: ? how to get: ftp archive/scm/wb1a2.tar.z from altdorf.ai.mit.edu updated: 1993/11/05 =========================================================================== =========================== full text ===================================== =========================================================================== name: Liam Quin's text retrieval package (lq-text) version: 1.12-gamma interfaces: command line, curses access methods: hash (dbm) plus clustered linked list multiuser: read only distributed: no, can be used over nfs if the systems are similar query language: very limited command line limits: 30-bit max document size, 31-bit distinct words in vocabulary, up to 2^24 documents (possibly more but I don't have enough disk to test anything like that!) index size: >30%, <100% of input text robustness: The README says that there are bugs. description: lq-text is a text retrieval package. That means you can tell it about lots of files, and later you can ask it questions about them. The questions have to be: "which files contain this word?" or "which files contain this phrase?", but this information turns out to be rather useful. Lqtext has been designed to be reasonably fast. It uses an inverted index, which is simply a kind of database. This tends to be smaller than the size of the data, but more than half as large. You still need to keep the original data. Lqtext uses dbm (berkeley db or sdbm) to store its indexes. discussion: lq-text-beta-request@sq.com bugs: lq-text-beta@sq.com ports: most version of unix (except SCO) restrictions: permission required for commercial use. author: Liam R. E. Quin how to get: ftp pub/lq-text*.tar.Z from relay.cs.toronto.edu updated: 1992/08/24 name: qt (Query Text) version: 0.1 interfaces: unix command line access methods: ? multiuser: no distributed: no query language: unix command line index size: ? limits: ? robustness: ? description: Qt creates, maintains, and queries a full text database. The database file system is organized as an inverted index. The program is written as a single script, in Bourne Shell, and permits simple natural language queries. [qt appears to be easier to use than lq-text and wais --muir] bugs: author ports: Unix, SysV.4, AIX, OSF/1, etc. author: John Conover how to get: comp.sources.unix volume 27 updated: 1993/10/18 name: SMART version: 11.0 interfaces: terminal, X (slightly oder version), and several under development including Z39.50 access methods: inverted file search or sequential search multiuser: yes, but last writer wins when there are update conflicts distributed: In-house version, to be made public in fall query language: Natural language index size: approx 40% of original text. limits: Can only handle roughly 4 Gbytes of text in non-distributed version. robustness: Research tool; parts have been well-tested but others not. description: SMART is an implementation of the vector-space model of information retrieval proposed by Salton back in the 60's. The primary purpose of SMART is to provide a framework in which to conduct information retrieval research. Standard versions of indexing, retrieval, and evaluation are provided. The system is designed to be used for small to medium scale collections, and offers reasonable speed and support for these actual applications. SMART analyses the collection of information and builds indexes. It can then be used to build natural-language based information retrieval software. It uses feedback from the user to tighten its search. restrictions: Research use only. discussion: smart-people-request@cs.cornell.edu ports: Unix (works under Linux, does not work under Ultrix, ?) contact: how to get: ftp pub/smart/* from ftp.cs.cornell.edu updated: 1992/07/21 name: WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) version: 8 b5.1 interfaces: the wais protocol (Z39.50) access methods: inverted string index multiuser: read only distributed: client/server query language: natural language, boolean, Relevance Feedback index size: roughtly = data size limits: "none" robustness: fairly high description: There are three main components: WAISINDEX, WAISSERVER, and WAISSEARCH. WAISINDEX creates an inverted file index. WAISINDEX includes filters for a number of common file formats. WAISSERVER listens for Z39.50 packets and tries to answer them. WAISSEARCH is the user agent that talks to WAISSERVERs. There are several front ends: shell, X, and emacs. announcements: wais-interest-request@think.com discussion: wais-discussion-request@think.com ports: vax, sun-3, sun-4, NeXT, sysV restriction: commercial version exists, contact info@wais.com author: Harry Morris , Brewster Kahle , Jonny Goldman how to get: ftp pub/freeware/unix-src/* from wais.com updated: 1992/11/16 =========================================================================== =========================== interfaces ==================================== =========================================================================== name: CB++ version: 0.1 interface from: C/C++ interface to: SunOS/Oracle (DOS+Windows/Oracle,Gupta, OS/2 Sybase) description: CB++ provides a plain C/C++ interface (not embedded) for SQL database server access. It was written in 1989 as a basis for storing C++ objects in a relational database. It is very simple to use and makes applications portable among different SQL databases. The library itself is relatively easy to port as the database vendor specific code is separated into a single C++ class which makes up only a limited part of the library. The author supports the current SunOS/Oracle version and server ports to other UNIX databases (DOS-, Windows-, OS/2-stuff is provided as it is and no longer supported) requires: C++ ports: Oracle 6 for SunOS 4.1.3, Gupta SQL Server for DOS/MS-Windows, OS/2 SQL Server author: Bernhard Strassl how to get: ftp contrib/CB++.0.1.tar.Z from ftp.x.org updated: 1993/10/05 name: DSQL version: 3.0 interface from: Unix, Macintosh, MS-DOS, MS-Windows, and Macintosh Hypercard interface to: Unix/Informix, VMS/Oracle description: DSQL is a simple client/server protocol to support remote access of SQL databases. DSQL was designed in response to a perceived need at Genentech to provide graphical front-ends on Macintosh computers to Informix relational databases running on Unix servers. DSQL version 3 is distributed with 2 server implementations and four client library implementations. The API for the client libraries has been standardized, and the client code is divided into portable and architecture-specific portions. requires: ? ports: Mac, PC, Unix author: The Genentech Scientific Computing Technology Development group. Original authors: David Mischel, Terry Oberzeir, Scooter Morris , Kathryn Woods. Current team: Jim Fitzgerald, David Mischel, Scooter Morris, Terry Oberzier, and Dan Lamb (VMS/Oracle). contact: ? how to get: ftp pub/dsql.3.tar.Z from cgl.ucsf.edu updated: 1993/06/25 name: Isqlperl version: 1.1 interface from: perl interface to: Informix limits: Maximum concurrently open cursors configured at build time. descritpion: Isqlperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to access Informix databases. requires: Perl 4.035 or higher, Informix ESQL/C (Online, SE, or Turbo) discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com restrictions: GNU Public License author: Bill Hails how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/isqlperl/isqlperl-1.1.shar.Z from ftp.demon.co.uk updated: 1993/10/02 name: Isqltcl ? version: ? interface from: tcl interface to: Informix description: Isqltcl is an extension to Tool Command Language (Tcl) that provides access to an Informix database server. Isqltcl adds additional Tcl commands that login to an Informix Server, pass SQL code, read results, etc. requires: ? discussion: comp.lang.tcl author: Srinivas Kumar how to get: ftp tcl/extensions/isqltcl.tar.Z from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu updated: 1993/09/15 name: Interperl version: ? interface from: perl interface to: Interbase descritpion: Interperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to access Interbase databases. requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ? discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com author: Buzz Moschetti how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/interperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk updated: ? name: Oraperl version: ? interface from: perl interface to: Oracle descritpion: Oraperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to access Oracle databases. requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, Oracle Pro*C discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com author: Kevin Stock how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/oraperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk updated: ? name: Oratcl version: 1.0 interface from: TCL interface to: Oracle description: Oratcl is an extension to Tool Command Language (Tcl) that provides access to a Oracle Database server. Oratcl adds additional Tcl commands that login to an Oracle Server, pass SQL code, read results, etc. Oratcl was inspired by similar tools written for Perl (sybperl, oraperl) but was written from scratch instead of borrowing on the work of either Perl extension. requires: Tcl 6.7, Tk 3.2, Oracle OCI libraries 1.5, Oracle SQL Server Version 6 or Version 7 discussion: comp.lang.tcl author: Tom Poindexter how to get: ftp pub/tcl/extensions/oratcl-1.0.tar.Z from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu updated: ? name: pgperl version: ? interface from: perl interface to: Postgres descritpion: pgperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to access Postgres databases. requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ? discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com author: Igor Metz how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/pgperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk updated: ? name: Sqlperl interface from: perl interface to: Ingres descritpion: Sqlperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to access Ingres databases. requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ? discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com author: Ted Lemon how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/sqlperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk updated: ? name: Sybperl version: 1.009 interface from: perl interface to: Sybase descritpion: Sybperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to access Sybase databases. requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ? discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com author: Michael Peppler how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/sybperl/sybperl-1.009.* from ftp.demon.co.uk updated: 1993/10/10 name: Sybtcl version: 1.2 interface from: TCL interface to: Sybase description: Sybtcl is an extension to Tool Command Language (Tcl) that provides access to a Sybase Database server. Sybtcl adds additional Tcl commands that login to a SQL Server, pass SQL code, read results, etc. Sybtcl was inspired by similar tools written for Perl (sybperl, oraperl) but was written from scratch instead of borrowing on the work of either Perl extension. requires: Sybase Open Client (DB-Library), Sybase SQL Server discussion: comp.lang.tcl author: Tom Poindexter how to get: ftp tcl/extensions/sybtcl-1.2.tar.Z from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu updated: 1992/10/08 name: Uniperl version: ? interface from: perl interface to: Unify 5.0 descritpion: Uniperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to access Unify databases. requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ? discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com author: Rick Wargo how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/uniperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk updated: ? =========================================================================== =========================== other ========================================= =========================================================================== name: _lex & yacc_ by Levine, Mason & Brown published by O'Reilly version: ? parts: grammar description: In _lex & yacc_, by Levine, Mason & Brown an SQL parser is included as an example grammar author: Levine, Mason & Brown how to get: buy the book, or ftp published/oreilly/nutshell/lexyacc/? from ftp.uu.net. updated: ? name: examples from: "Information Retrieval, Data Structures & Algorithms," William B. Frakes, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Editors, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, 1992, ISBN 0-13-463837-9. version: ? descriptions: example code from the book "Information Retrieval, Data Structures & Algorithms" how to get: ftp pub/reuse/ircode.tar.Z from ftp.vt.edu author: [resumably William B. Frakes, Ricardo Baeza-Yates] updated: ? name: MultiCal version: 1.0 interfaces: ? access methods: ? multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: enhanced SQL2 index size: ? limits: ? robustness: the DBMS component "eschews ... disk access methods" description: MultiCal is both a novel approach to supporting multiple calendars and internationalization of time constants and a query processor prototype that demonstrates this approach. MultiCal consists of about 48K source lines of C code; the query processor prototype consists of about 63K source lines of code. The documentation consists of fifteen documents, comprising some 300 pages of material. MultiCal consists of an approach to providing limited extensibility for support of multiple calendars and languages for temporal support within a database management system (DBMS). We have augmented the Structured Query Language (SQL), specifically, SQL2, with time values, i.e., temporal constants. Our approach is notable in that we allow many different calendars to be used in the database management system, and we incorporate only calendar-independent constructs into the language. We introduce three new temporal data types. New language features are defined for temporal built-in functions, special time values, arithmetic expressions involving time, temporal predicates, and aggregate functions over time. Ten languages are supported. To illustrate how an existing DBMS could be augmented to support multiple calendars, we provide a prototype DBMS that supports the proposed extensions. This prototype consists of query analysis and execution components. It eschews traditional functionality such as concurrency control and disk access methods, as these aspects are not relevant to timestamp management. ports: Sun4 contact: or Rick Snodgrass how to get: ftp tsql/multical/* from ftp.cs.arizona.edu updated: 1993/10/30 name: dbf (xbase manipulation package) version: ? interfaces: command line access methods: ? multiuser: no transactions: no distributed: no query language: none limits: ? robustness: ? description: DBF is a set of tools and library routines to manipulate xbase files. The tools allow xbase files to be created and manipulated from the command line. author: Brad Eacker how to get: comp.sources.misc volume 40 updated: 1993/11/01 ------------------------------ ** FOR YOUR REFERENCE ** The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is: Internet: Linux-Misc-Request@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.misc) via: Internet: Linux-Misc@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites: nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux End of Linux-Misc Digest ******************************