Edit File: NOTE-WARNING
****************************************************************************** W A R N I N G ****************************************************************************** Gdbm files have never been `portable' between different operating systems, system architectures, or potentially even different compilers. Differences in byte order, the size of file offsets, and even structure packing make gdbm files non-portable. Gdbm version 1.9 includes `large file' support, enabling it on operating systems where it is not the default. `Large file' support is essentially when a system uses 64bit file offsets. Gdbm has, of course, supported `large files' on systems where it was the default for a very long time. On some systems this functionality is not enabled by default. To enable it, build rpm with option --with=largefile. THIS MEANS THAT GDBM 1.9 MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS DATABASES CREATED BY PREVIOUS VERIONS ON THE SAME SYSTEM. Running the `configure' script with the `--disable-largefile' flag should produce a backwards-compatible build on such a system. However, for maximum compatibility, and increased functionality, you may want to have your application produce a portable copy of your database with the 1.8.3 version of the library, and then load it back into version 1.9. Gdbm 1.9 contains a utility designed to help you produce such a portable copy: gdbmexport. To build it, configure the package with the --enable-gdbm-export option. For the information on how to use this utility, refer to the documentation, chapter 17 "Export a database into a portable format." (run `info gdbm gdbmexport' to access it, once gdbm 1.9 has been installed, or `info -f doc/gdbm.info gdbmexport' to access the shipped info file).