
dws
Deleted
Jul 30, 2000, 10:54 PM
Post #2 of 5
(3054 views)
|
If you're truly concerned about speed, database this small may be better stored in flat files. As long as the file is less then whatever the pagesize is for whatever environment you're running in (8K is typical), then you can suck in the entire "database" in one read. Since most implementations of DBM split out index and data, at minimum you're looking at an extra open and an extra page read per record retrieved. For either flatfile or DBM, if you're mixing modifications in with accesses, you'll need to lock the files. This is a bit trickier with DBM, since access to underlying file handles varies depending on the DBM implementation. I'll hazard the guess that you'll be happier with flatfile database given your current small data size and relatively low volume requirements. Encryption is an orthogonal issue. Depending on what web server you're using, there are various techniques for preventing the data files themselves from being visible through the web. What security concerns do you have?
|