dbm(3x) discrepancy on Sun386i / Sun-3

[utzoo!henry at cs.utexas.edu]

>When I tried to use a dbm database from Sun386i and Sun-3 (both running
>SunOS 4.0.1), I encountered a strange effect.  If the dbm file is created
>on a Sun386i, I cannot read it from the Sun-3 (and vice versa) !

The format of dbm databases is (a) undocumented, and (b) machine-specific.
Short of reimplementing dbm, there is no general cure that I know of.  It
isn't necessarily just a byte-ordering problem; there is also the question
of whether dbm's hash function is machine-dependent.

>... (I need this to run the news software in a heterogeneous network.)

I am exploring the possibility of fixing Jon Zeeff's "dbz", which is a
partial dbm lookalike sufficient for news, to be byte-order-independent.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry at zoo.toronto.edu