.. license:
    Copyright 2016 - 2025
    André Malo or his licensors, as applicable

    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
    you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
    You may obtain a copy of the License at

        http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
    WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
    See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
    limitations under the License.


========================================
 CDBx - CDB Reimplementation for Python
========================================

|**cdbx**| is a `CDB <https://cr.yp.to/cdb.html>`_ reimplementation for
Python.

Supported python versions are Python 2.7 and Python 3.6+.


Documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. toctree::
    :hidden:

    apidoc/cdbx


- :ref:`Documentation Search <search>` (needs javascript)
- :doc:`API Documentation <apidoc/cdbx>` (generated)


Examples
~~~~~~~~

Note that everything going in and out of the CDB is bytes. This is
more relevant for Python 3. Keys and values which are passed as
(unicode) strings, are converted to bytes using the latin-1 codec.
However, keys and values retrieved from the CDB are always bytes.


.. code-block:: python

    # simple file write
    import cdbx

    cdb = cdbx.CDB.make('somefile')
    cdb.add('key', 'value')
    # ...
    cdb = cdb.commit()
    print(cdb['key'])


.. code-block:: python

    # atomic file write (original cdbmake behaviour)
    import os
    import cdbx

    cdb = cdbx.CDB.make('somefile.tmp')
    cdb.add('key', 'value')
    # ...
    cdb.commit().close()
    os.rename('somefile.tmp', 'somefile')
    cdb = cdbx.CDB('somefile')
    print(cdb['key'])


.. code-block:: python

    # CDB within tempfile
    import tempfile
    import cdbx

    cdb = cdbx.CDB.make(tempfile.TemporaryFile(), close=True)
    cdb.add('key', 'value')
    # ...
    cdb = cdb.commit()
    print(cdb['key'])

    cdb.close()  # or going out-of-scope, or del cdb

    # now it's gone
    print(cdb['key'])
    IOError: I/O operation on a closed file


Rationale, Advocacy, Key Features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

`CDB <https://cr.yp.to/cdb.html>`_ as a concept is a great idea for
various reasons. It's fast, it's a simple, portable file format and all
operations can be done using one open file descriptor.

There are, of course, other interfaces to CDB (most notably `python-cdb
<https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-cdb>`_, which I have been using for
a long time).

|cdbx| tries to solve a few problems with those for me:

- support for Python 3
- better interface for CDB creation - you only need a file descriptor if
  you want to. This is important if you want to create a CDB within a
  single temporary file.
- all operations are independent from each other (multiple accesses at
  the same time are possible). Thanks to the GIL it should be even
  thread safe. This has not been tested yet, though.
- more natural interface for the main CDB class in general
- better error handling (especially with regard to python) in some
  places
- Since it's a complete reimplementation, the licensing issue (people
  claim to have with public domain software [cdb]) does not apply.


Development Status
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beta.

There are some features to add and some cleanups to do before a stable
release.


.. placeholder: Download


License
~~~~~~~

|cdbx| is available under the terms and conditions of the "Apache
License, Version 2.0." You'll find the detailed licensing terms in the
root directory of the source distribution package or online at
`http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
<http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>`_.


Bugs
~~~~

No bugs, of course. ;-)
But if you've found one or have an idea how to improve |cdbx|,
feel free to send a pull request on `github
<https://github.com/ndparker/cdbx>`_ or send a mail to
<cdbx-bugs@perlig.de>.


Author Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

|cdbx| was written and is maintained by André Malo.


.. vim: ft=rest tw=72
