$Id: README.txt,v 1.3 2001/08/28 06:46:36 boisvert Exp $ Package readme for: jdbm.* Package version: see VERSION Package status: beta Package URL: http://jdbm.sourceforge.net Package License: BSD JDBM Project WHAT IT IS ========== - Easy API to persist Java objects (or byte arrays). - Basic layers are meant to ressemble the popular GDBM API. - Transaction support for fail-safe operation. WHAT IT'S *NOT* =============== - NOT a multiuser database - NOT compatible with existing GDBM databases - NOT an SQL database (no query capabilities) - NOT a full-blown object-oriented database (missing query, locking, schema, garbage collecting, ...) FEATURES ======== - Simple Hashtable-like interface. - 100% Java code. - Fast: Uses no persistent rollback buffer. An in-memory transaction log is kept. (It can be disabled for even greater performance.) - Transactional: Updates are garanteed to be atomic and durable once commited. - Auto-recovery. If your application crashes, the next time your application opens the database, it will automatically recover any completed transactions. - Allows implicit or explicit transaction demarcation (commit, rollback) through a low-level API called "jdbm.recman.RecordManager". - (Planned) Support for JTA (Java Transaction API) to allow participation in distributed transactions. LIMITATIONS =========== - Size of objects and transaction is limited to available memory size. - Practical limit on database size is set by your operating system. CONTRIBUTORS ============ Cees de Groot <cg@cdegroot.com> wrote the original RecordManager implementation and started the project. Alex Boisvert <boisvert@intalio.com> added GDBM-like interface, HTree and BTree implementations, caching, rollback functionality and some bug fixing.