Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by smanek 6241 days ago
In my experience, the downside of BDB is simply the license. There is no way for me to use it in my program (and distribute my program) without opening up my source. I can't simply 'query' a BDB server - by using BDB at all I have to link to it and also open source my own code as part of the Sleepycat License (or so I've been told - IANAL).
2 comments
zandorg 6241 days ago
DB up to and including 1.86 are Berkeley license (basically 'do anything with this but include this notice' but without open source requirements), but DB up to and including 1.86 only allow < 2GB databases. :-(

I tried to upgrade it with 64-bit integers, but it's such convoluted C code I can't make head nor tail of it.

Also try buying BDB ($20,000). I emailed them asking for a discount, but Oracle (who owns them now) never replied. :-(

link
jrockway 6241 days ago
If by convoluted, you mean "half the source code is detailed comments", then sure...
link
jrockway 6241 days ago
You can just talk to BDB (running in a separate process) over an RPC server. Yes, you have to write that server... but it would be trivial to do, and certainly less costly than licensing BDB.
link