DB_SECONDARY_BAD instead of DB_KEYEXIST

Question

Hello,
I am a bit new to Berkeley DB so please be indulgent.
I am using Berkeley DB 4.5.20. I am using the C++ interface, the configuration is DB_BTREE.
A primary db with DB_INIT_MPOOL | DB_CREATE | DB_THREAD | DB_INIT_LOCK as i don't need transactional feature.
A secondary db with DB_DUPSORT
I am doing an initial load with the following accessors :
put(0,&key,&value, DB_NOOVERWRITE );
this works fine : return 0 and if I work without secondary db i am able to get the content back.
however sometime I will call the :
put(0,&key,&value, DB_NOOVERWRITE);
with the same data, i was expecting to obtain a DB_KEYEXIST as the documentation explain, instead of i get a
a db exception : "DB_SECONDARY_BAD: Secondary index inconsistent with primary".
I also noticed that the callback methods is also called twice before the exception is raised.
Is it the normal behaviour ? is it because i do not used transactions ? I am doing something wrong ?
what would be the best practice to load data without overwriting the already existing records ?
I noticed that some months ago a post similar to this one "Secondary key problem(s) with Berkelley DB 4.5" but there is no answer yet.
Thanks for your advices.
Regards,
Steve

Answer 1

To be clear, when I run the code below, linked against Berkeley DB 4.5.20, it prints "Expected result". That is when the databases do not exist initially (I run "rm *.db" before running the test).
If you see something different, can you please spell out what error you get, what version of Berkeley DB you are using, the platform you are running on, and any other environmental issues required to reproduce the error.
Regards,
Michael Cahill, Oracle.
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <db_cxx.h>
using namespace std;
struct rco
    string id;
    string name;
    string fname;
    string full;
} t_record;
void init_rco(rco &record)
    record.fname.clear();
    record.id.clear();
    record.name.clear();
    record.full.clear();
void handleError(int err_value)
    cout << "Error occured value : " << (err_value) << " exiting..." << endl;
    exit(-1);
size_t getNextTokenql(string &input_string, string &substring, const string& delimiter = "\t")
    size_t pos = input_string.find(delimiter);
    substring.assign(input_string, 0, pos);
    input_string.assign(input_string, pos + 1, input_string.size());
    return (pos);
void get_data_line(const string &orig_line, rco &ret)
    if (orig_line.size() < 1) {return ;}
    ret.full = string(orig_line);
    ret.full += '\0';
    string courant = string(orig_line);
    string t_res = "";
    getNextTokenql(courant, t_res);     ret.id = t_res;     // ID
    getNextTokenql(courant, t_res); ret.name = t_res;      // name
    getNextTokenql(courant, t_res); ret.fname = t_res;      //fname
    return;
int
get_fname_cb(Db *sdbp, // secondary db handle
             const Dbt *pkey, // primary db record's key
             const Dbt *pdata, // primary db record's data
             Dbt *skey) // secondary db record's key
    // First, extract the structure contained in the primary's data
    string record((char * )pdata->get_data());
    // Now set the secondary key's data to be the origin content
    rco rco_temp;
    init_rco(rco_temp);
    get_data_line(record, rco_temp);
    skey->set_data((void*)rco_temp.fname.c_str());
    skey->set_size((u_int32_t)rco_temp.fname.size());
    // Return 0 to indicate that the record can be created/updated.
    return (0);
int main()
    int test = 0;
    try
        rco cur_record;
        init_rco(cur_record);
        get_data_line("AA001\tNOEL\tJean",cur_record);
        Dbt key((void*)cur_record.id.c_str(), (u_int32_t) cur_record.id.size());
        Dbt value((void*)cur_record.full.c_str(), (u_int32_t) cur_record.full.size());
        //opening primary
        Db recDB(NULL,0);
     recDB.set_error_stream(&cerr);
        test = recDB.open(NULL, "./qrecords.db" , NULL, DB_BTREE, (DB_CREATE | DB_THREAD), 0);
        if( test != 0) {handleError (test);}
        //opening secondary
        Db dsgDB(NULL,0);
     dsgDB.set_error_stream(&cerr);
        dsgDB.set_flags(DB_DUPSORT);
        test = dsgDB.open(NULL, "./qfname.db" , NULL, DB_BTREE, (DB_CREATE | DB_THREAD), 0);
        if( test != 0) {handleError (test);}
        //associate
        test = recDB.associate(0,&dsgDB,get_fname_cb, 0);
        if( test != 0) {handleError (test);}
        test = recDB.put(0, &key, &value, DB_NOOVERWRITE);
        if(test != 0) {handleError (test);}
        test = recDB.put(0, &key, &value, DB_NOOVERWRITE);
        if(test == DB_KEYEXIST ) {cout << "Expected result" <<endl; } //handleError (test);}
        else if (test == 0) { cout << "Unexpected : no error !" <<endl;}
        else { handleError(test);}
        test = recDB.close(0);
        if(test != 0) {handleError (test);}
    }catch( DbException ex)
        cout << "DB: DB Exception : " << ex.what()<< endl;
        exit(-1);
    }catch( std::exception ex)
        cout << "DB: std exception : " << ex.what() << endl;
        exit(-1);
    }catch(...)
        cerr << "DB: last chance exception" << endl;
        exit(-1);
    return 0;
}