Using a shell database

Using a shell database

[zzapper]

Hi,
I have shell utility which stores information (between sessions) in a series of text files. I now
want to do something more complicated, and realise I should be considering using a database.
I then ran smack into a steep learning curve.
Is there a shell accessible database? gdbm?
Pointers please, examples if possible

(I realise this thread may not be particularly zshish)

-- 
zzapper
Success for Techies and Vim,Zsh tips
http://SuccessTheory.com/

Re: Using a shell database

[Ian Langworth]

On 11/14/05, zzapper <david@tvis.co.uk> wrote:

> I have shell utility which stores information (between sessions) in a series of text files. I now
> want to do something more complicated, and realise I should be considering using a database.
> I then ran smack into a steep learning curve.
> Is there a shell accessible database? gdbm?
> Pointers please, examples if possible

You don't want to bring databases into your shell script. You want to
begin to use a tool that's better-suited for the job, like Perl,
Python or Ruby.

--
Ian Langworth

Re: Using a shell database

[zzapper]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 11:40:26 -0500,  wrote:

>On 11/14/05, zzapper <david@tvis.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I have shell utility which stores information (between sessions) in a series of text files. I now
>> want to do something more complicated, and realise I should be considering using a database.
>> I then ran smack into a steep learning curve.
>> Is there a shell accessible database? gdbm?
>> Pointers please, examples if possible
>
>You don't want to bring databases into your shell script. You want to
>begin to use a tool that's better-suited for the job, like Perl,
>Python or Ruby.

Thanx for both replies, it would seem my requirement has crossed the invisible shell/application
boundary.I realise now that shells don't have a database I hoped there might be a real simple
"pairs" application.

I did have a phase of writing all my "scripts" in Perl, but noticed that they were much slower than
their equivalent shell scripts.

Any comments from the zsh maestros?
-- 
zzapper
Success for Techies and Vim,Zsh tips
http://SuccessTheory.com/

Re: Using a shell database

[Marc Chantreux]

zzapper wrote:

> I did have a phase of writing all my "scripts" in Perl, but noticed that they were much slower than
> their equivalent shell scripts.


it depends of a lot of parameters. I use perl when perl makes thinks a 
lot easier or when there is a lot of content to parse.

if you can read french, i've done my own benches and my conclusion is 
here : http://khatar.phear.org/shell/bench.html.


regards
mc

Re: Using a shell database

[zzapper]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:12:24 +0100,  wrote:

>zzapper wrote:
>
>> I did have a phase of writing all my "scripts" in Perl, but noticed that they were much slower than
>> their equivalent shell scripts.
>
>
>it depends of a lot of parameters. I use perl when perl makes thinks a 
>lot easier or when there is a lot of content to parse.
>
>if you can read french, i've done my own benches and my conclusion is 
>here : http://khatar.phear.org/shell/bench.html.
>
Mc,
Your benchmark shows zsh being 10X quicker than Perl, that would be the order of difference that I
noticed.
I also have some shells that call perl (to complicate matters!)

-- 
zzapper
Success for Techies and Vim,Zsh tips
http://SuccessTheory.com/

Re: Using a shell database

[Marc Chantreux]

zzapper wrote:

> Mc,
> Your benchmark shows zsh being 10X quicker than Perl, that would be the order of difference that I
> noticed.

As my conclusion says (sorryn it's in french), it will only be true with 
few content to process : perl compute things very faster than shell. In 
this benchmark, perl is slower because you have to launch a huge binary 
(perl interpreter) to execute a very small task.

regards
mc

Re: Using a shell database

[Marc Chantreux]

is sqlite for you ?

http://sqlite.org/

regards
mc

Re: Using a shell database

[Clint Adams]

> I have shell utility which stores information (between sessions) in a series of text files. I now
> want to do something more complicated, and realise I should be considering using a database.
> I then ran smack into a steep learning curve.
> Is there a shell accessible database? gdbm?

There have been vague plans for zsh database modules for a long time,
but they've been stalled by other issues.