1<!--$Id: version.so,v 10.24 2003/11/27 18:26:01 bostic Exp $--> 2<!--Copyright (c) 1997,2008 Oracle. All rights reserved.--> 3<!--See the file LICENSE for redistribution information.--> 4<html> 5<head> 6<title>Berkeley DB Reference Guide: Library version information</title> 7<meta name="description" content="Berkeley DB: An embedded database programmatic toolkit."> 8<meta name="keywords" content="embedded,database,programmatic,toolkit,btree,hash,hashing,transaction,transactions,locking,logging,access method,access methods,Java,C,C++"> 9</head> 10<body bgcolor=white> 11<table width="100%"><tr valign=top> 12<td><b><dl><dt>Berkeley DB Reference Guide:<dd>Upgrading Berkeley DB Applications</dl></b></td> 13<td align=right><a href="/build_vxworks/faq.html"><img src="/images/prev.gif" alt="Prev"></a><a href="/toc.html"><img src="/images/ref.gif" alt="Ref"></a><a href="/upgrade/process.html"><img src="/images/next.gif" alt="Next"></a> 14</td></tr></table> 15<p align=center><b>Library version information</b></p> 16<p>Each release of the Berkeley DB library has a major version number, a minor 17version number, and a patch number.</p> 18<p>The major version number changes only when major portions of the Berkeley DB 19functionality have been changed. In this case, it may be necessary to 20significantly modify applications in order to upgrade them to use the new 21version of the library.</p> 22<p>The minor version number changes when Berkeley DB interfaces have changed, 23and the new release is not entirely backward-compatible with previous 24releases. To upgrade applications to the new version, they must be 25recompiled and potentially, minor modifications made (for example, the 26order of arguments to a function might have changed).</p> 27<p>The patch number changes on each release. If only the patch number has 28changed in a release, applications do not need to be recompiled, and 29they can be upgraded to the new version by installing the new version 30of a shared library or by relinking the application to the new version 31of a static library.</p> 32<p>Internal Berkeley DB interfaces may change at any time and during any release, 33without warning. This means that the library must be entirely recompiled 34and reinstalled when upgrading to new releases of the library because 35there is no guarantee that modules from the current version of the 36library will interact correctly with modules from a previous release.</p> 37<p>To retrieve the Berkeley DB version information, applications should use the 38<a href="/api_c/env_version.html">db_version</a> function. In addition to the previous 39information, the <a href="/api_c/env_version.html">db_version</a> function returns a string 40encapsulating the version information, suitable for display to a user.</p> 41<table width="100%"><tr><td><br></td><td align=right><a href="/build_vxworks/faq.html"><img src="/images/prev.gif" alt="Prev"></a><a href="/toc.html"><img src="/images/ref.gif" alt="Ref"></a><a href="/upgrade/process.html"><img src="/images/next.gif" alt="Next"></a> 42</td></tr></table> 43<p><font size=1>Copyright (c) 1996,2008 Oracle. All rights reserved.</font> 44</body> 45</html> 46