What does Bogofilter gain from Berkeley DB?

[Ben Finney]

On 11-Jun-2005, Tom Eastman wrote:
> David Relson wrote:
> > You've got a classic case of corrupted database, with one of the
> > internal links being bad.
> 
> A pox on all things Berkeley DB related!  What good does it do other
> than cause poor innocent people like me to lose databases?  The
> mantra I think I get is something like "Berkeley DB is a great
> database that can withstand all kinds of things without getting
> corrupted... as long as you don't do any of the hundreds of things
> that will immediately and irreparably destroy your database..."
> 
> [...]
> What is Berkeley db buying bogofilter?  It doesn't seem to be peace
> of mind.

I'd also like to see this expanded upon.

Why is Berkeley DB the default engine, when others have reported much
better success with others of the supported backend database engines?

One problem this causes is that distributors of bogofilter (i.e.
GNU/Linux distributors, and others) will build bogofilter in the
default settings, and not want to re-compile and support multiple
target binary packages for the various non-default backends. (Debian
is currently in this boat.)

Is there a plan underway to:

  - allow switching backend database engine *without* recompling, i.e.
    by administrative configuration rather than package rebuild?

  - use a default database backend that is less fragile?

I have no problem with support for Berkeley DB; many seem to like it.
But as a default for bogofilter it seems a poor choice. The option is
there to use another backend, but doing so requires rebuilding the
package in a non-default configuration every time it is upgraded,
rather than (say) setting a configuration file one time only.

-- 
 \        "When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I |
  `\     had any firearms with me. I said, 'Well, what do you need?'"  |
_o__)                                                 -- Steven Wright |
Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au>
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