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re-implementation seems to be required. Currently both engines are
prematurely optimized and therefore it is not trivial to provide
further optimization without the risk of breaking existing features.

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participate or post to the DBI Developers Mailing List.

=head2 Reliability

DBD::File currently lacks the following points:

=over 4

=item duplicate table names

It is currently possible to access a table quoted with a relative path
(a) and additionally using an absolute path (b). If (a) and (b) are
the same file that is not recognized (except for
flock protection handled by the Operating System) and two independent
tables are handled.

=item invalid table names

The current implementation does not prevent someone choosing a
directory name as a physical file name for the table to open.

=back

=head2 Extensibility

I (Jens Rehsack) have some (partially for example only) DBD's in mind:

=over 4

=item DBD::Sys

Derive DBD::Sys from a common code base shared with DBD::File which handles
all the emulation DBI needs (as getinfo, SQL engine handling, ...)

=item DBD::Dir

Provide a DBD::File derived to work with fixed table definitions through the
file system to demonstrate how DBI / Pure Perl DBDs could handle databases
with hierarchical structures.

=item DBD::Join

Provide a DBI driver which is able to manage multiple connections to other
Databases (as DBD::Multiplex), but allow them to point to different data
sources and allow joins between the tables of them:

  # Example
  # Let table 'lsof' being a table in DBD::Sys giving a list of open files using lsof utility
  # Let table 'dir' being a atable from DBD::Dir
  $sth = $dbh->prepare( "select * from dir,lsof where path='/documents' and dir.entry = lsof.filename" )
  $sth->execute(); # gives all open files in '/documents'
  ...

  # Let table 'filesys' a DBD::Sys table of known file systems on current host
  # Let table 'applications' a table of your Configuration Management Database
  #  where current applications (relocatable, with mountpoints for filesystems)
  #  are stored
  $sth = dbh->prepare( "select * from applications,filesys where " .
                       "application.mountpoint = filesys.mountpoint and ".
		       "filesys.mounted is true" );
  $sth->execute(); # gives all currently mounted applications on this host

=back

=head1 PRIORITIES

Our priorities are focused on current issues. Initially many new test
cases for DBD::File and DBD::DBM should be added to the DBI test
suite. After that some additional documentation on how to use the
DBD::File API will be provided.

Any additional priorities will come later and can be modified by (paying)
users.

=head1 RESOURCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

See L<http://dbi.perl.org/contributing> for I<how you can help>.

If your company has benefited from DBI, please consider if
it could make a donation to The Perl Foundation "DBI Development"
fund at L<http://dbi.perl.org/donate> to secure future development.

Alternatively, if your company would benefit from a specific new
DBI feature, please consider sponsoring it's development through
the options listed in the section "Commercial Support from the Author"
on L<http://dbi.perl.org/support/>.

Using such targeted financing allows you to contribute to DBI
development and rapidly get something specific and directly valuable
to you in return.

My company also offers annual support contracts for the DBI, which
provide another way to support the DBI and get something specific
in return. Contact me for details.

Thank you.

=cut