> OK, to make progress on this work I need a few decisions (Gavin?) > > 1) Shall we do it?
What problem does it solve? If the problem it will solve is "it will only take 4 hours to download the entire blockchain next year instead of taking 16 hours" then no, I don't think we should do it, both 4 and 16 hours to get fully up and running is too long. If the problem it will solve is the "too easy to get a DB_RUNRECOVERY error" because bdb is fragile when it comes to its environment... then LevelDB looks very interesting. If the problem is bdb is creaky and old and has obscure semantics and a hard-to-work-with API, then yes, lets switch (I'm easily seduced by a pretty API and blazing fast performance). > 2) LevelDB is obscure, new and has a very minimalist build system. It > supports "make" but not "make install", for example, and is unlikely > to be packaged. It's also not very large. I suggest we just check the > source into the main Bitcoin tree and link it statically rather than > complicate the build. As long as it compiles and runs on mac/windows/linux that doesn't really worry me. I just tried it, and it compiled quickly with no complaints on my mac. Lack of infrastructure because it is new does worry me; for example, could I rework bitcointools to read the LevelDB blockchain? (are there python bindings for LevelDB?) > 3) As the DB format would change and a slow migration period > necessary, any other tweaks to db format we could make at the same > time? Right now the key/values are the same as before, though using > satoshi serialization for everything is a bit odd. Satoshi rolled his own network serialization because he didn't trust existing serialization solutions to be 100% secure against remote exploits. Then it made sense to use the same solution for disk serialization; I don't see a compelling reason to switch to some other serialization scheme. Modifying the database schema during migration to better support applications like InstaWallet (tens of thousands of separate wallets) or something like Pieter's ultra-pruning makes sense. -- -- Gavin Andresen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Bitcoin-development mailing list Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development