Problems reading earlier database

Question

The server I have been running a Perl script on has recently upgraded the version of Perl they are using from 5.8 to 5.10. My script uses the perl DB_File module to write some Berkeley DB databases and I now find that I can't read these databases. I see that the version of Berkeley DB that the Perl module is now linking to is 4.7.25 while previously it was much earlier, probably version 1 or 2.
Can someone please confirm that the way that the data is stored has changed sometime between these earlier versions and this new one so that this will account for my problem?

Answer 1

Hello,
The, "Berkeley DB Upgrade Guide" at:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17076_02/html/upgrading/index.html
should contain the information you are looking for.
I went through and checked the section on:
Database or Log File On-Disk Format Changes
for releases from 4.1 to 4.7.25.
I am not sure what problem you are experiencing, but the log file
format changed from 4.1 to 4.7.25. Regarding database format changes:
Upgrading from 4.5 to 4.6 there
was a fully compatible database change:
The format of Hash database pages was changed in the Berkeley DB 4.6 release, and items are now stored in sorted order. The format changes are entirely backward-compatible, and no database upgrades are needed. However, upgrading existing databases can offer significant performance improvements. Note that databases created using the 4.6 release may not be usable with earlier Berkeley DB releases.
And going from 4.1 to 4.2 there was an incompatible database format change:
Queue databases that use encryption or data checksum features with extent files will need to be dumped and reloaded prior to using with release 4.2. For more details, see Queue access method. [#8671]
Thanks,
Sandra