Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Oracle Unveils New Open Source BerkeleyDB Release

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the time-for-first-impressions dept.

Mark Brunelli writes to tell us that Oracle has released the newest version of the open source Oracle BerkeleyDB Java Edition. From the article: "The new release of the Java embeddable database is the third to come out in three years and the first new version to come out of Sleepycat Software since Oracle purchased the open source stalwart back in February. Rex Wang, Oracle's vice president of embedded systems and a former vice president of marketing at Sleepycat, said the latest release lets Java developers take advantage of a new Persistence application programming interface (API) that provides greater flexibility and new performance optimizations that enable applications to run faster."

5 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Many using SQLite instead. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know that many developers, especially on embedded or hand-held systems, are starting to use SQLite these days instead of BDB. SQLite is small enough, and efficient enough, to be used suitably in such environments. It offers SQL support, which BDB does not. And its library-based architecture is a real plus in such environments. The fact that it's public domain makes it even more appealing.

    SQLite is even starting to take over from MySQL for many smaller websites. The overhead (both in terms of system resources and administration) can't be justified when using a server-based system, especially when SQLite does the job just fine.

    What we may even see is MySQL squeezed out of the market. I know many database developers who are starting to use PostgreSQL for their higher-end databases, and SQLite for the lower-end. MySQL could be considered the best contender for mid-range DBs, but SQLite and PostgreSQL keep converging, thus pushing MySQL out to a point of irrelevance. Of course, there has been a decade and more of development using MySQL, so for legacy reasons alone it will continue to be used for ages.

    1. Re:Many using SQLite instead. by frodo+from+middle+ea · · Score: 1, Interesting
      that's the exact reason why Oracle and IBM have open sourced BerkeleyDB and cloudscape(derby) respectively.

      Many developers use some sort of embeded / open source databases for prototyping and for small scale projects these DBs often end up being the production databases.

      The reasoning is we have written some triggers/stored procedures etc in PostgreSQL/MySQL etc, and now it's too much of a hasel to convert every thing to Oracle or DB2.

      This leads to a lot of loss in revenue for the big guys, especially from the small businesses. by open sourcing BerkeleyDB and cloudscape, Oracle and IBM wish to divert these developers to their DBs. Cloudscape supports all the datatypes of DB2 and I am sure BerkeleyDB supports Oracle Datatypes and some extensions as well.

      So prototype in these open source DBs and migrate easily to Oracle or DB2 in production without too much changes.

      --
      for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
  2. Transfer from Berkeley to Postgres? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is there a wrapper for Postgres that lets me install PG+wrapper instead of BerkeleyDB for supporting apps that depend on BDB? Asterisk uses BDB, OpenLDAP uses BDB, and more. I'd rather wrap my existing Postgres (on which other apps depend) than refactor and port all the other apps off BDB. Even if I later port them from the BDB wrapper, it will be easier and more productive along the way.

    If there's no such wrapper, is there a way to use this BDB source to strip out everything below the BDB interfaces, install mapping to PG interfaces, then integrate with PG?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Transfer from Berkeley to Postgres? by Limburgher · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Shoot, that'd be great, or even for SQLite. My biggest problem with OpenLDAP is the BDB backend, which can be slow and get wedged. I've integrated a de-wedging script into my startup so that in the event of power failure the machine will still boot normally, but I think SQLite would fit nicely. I know OpenLDAP supports multiple backends, but I've not had much success in finding out how to migrate to another backend from BDB.

      --

      You are not the customer.

  3. Years behind db4o by albert.meunier · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interesting! The new BDB Java release does attempt to store objects directly. That's quite an advance in comparison to the awkward API of BDB 2.x.

    However BerkeleyDB JE is still years behind db4o. The querying functionality of BDB is very rudimentary. It requires manual selection of indexes to be used, not really sophisiticated in comparison to db4o's Query-By-Example and Native Query concepts.

    It would be interesting to see BerkeleyDB and db4o race head to head in the Poleposition benchmark.