flock or database

[hakim]

Hi,

I have written a simple guestbook in php which writes the contents in a
file while using flock. But I have read that this is not always save.

So some people suggested to use a database instead. But if I use mysql,
then my customers have to pay more for the webspace. Actually, I would
prefer to use a simple database like dbm
(http://www.php.net/manual/de/ref.dbm.php) and write the information in
a local file.

Under http://www.php.net/manual/de/ref.dbm.php in the last not of the
User Contributed Notes some says that the return codes are nadly
documentated or wrong.

Is dbm a save way to give several scripts/processes at the same time
the ability to read/write from the same file. Or are there maybe others
which php programmers prefer. But remember I want to write the data to
a file and not to database service...

Thanks a lot...

[NC]

Re: flock or database

hakim wrote:[color=blue]
>
> I have written a simple guestbook in php which writes the contents in a
> file while using flock. But I have read that this is not always save.[/color]

It is not safe on Windows. But you are not going to host your
guestbook on a Windows machine, are you?
[color=blue]
> So some people suggested to use a database instead. But if I use mysql,
> then my customers have to pay more for the webspace. Actually, I would
> prefer to use a simple database like dbm
> (http://www.php.net/manual/de/ref.dbm.php) and write the information in
> a local file.[/color]

But then you'd have to talk your hosting company into enabling dbm
support. Would they go along with that for free?

Cheers,
NC

[hakim]

Re: flock or database

NC schrieb:[color=blue]
> It is not safe on Windows. But you are not going to host your
> guestbook on a Windows machine, are you?
>[/color]
No it's a debian box...
[color=blue]
> But then you'd have to talk your hosting company into enabling dbm
> support. Would they go along with that for free?
>[/color]

That's true. But are there some nice file - database solutions other
then dbm, which don't need to be compiled into php??

I have looked for sqlite, but this seems to be experimental...

hakim