Disk Based Hashtables (DBH) 64 bit¶

Library to create and manage hash tables residing on disk. Associations are made between keys and values so that for a given a key the value can be found and loaded into memory quickly. Being disk based allows for large and persistent hashes. 64 bit support allows for hashtables with sizes over 4 Gigabytes on 32 bit systems. Cuantified key generation allows for minimum access time on balanced multidimensional trees.

Functionality¶

A DBHashTable provides associations between keys and values which is optimized so that given a key, the associated value can be found very quickly.

Note that only one hash record is loaded from disk to memory at any given moment for a DBHashTable. Both keys and values should be copied into the DBHashTable record, so they need not exist for the lifetime of the DBHashTable. This means that the use of static strings and temporary strings (i.e. those created in buffers and those returned by GTK+ widgets) should be copied with dbh_set_key() and dbh_set_data() into the DBHashTable record before being inserted.

You must be careful to ensure that copied key length matches the defined key length of the DBHashTable, and also that the copied data does not exceed the maximum length of the DBHashTable record (1024 bytes by default, and expandable by dbh_set_size(). If the DBHashTable record length is to be variable, be sure to set the appropriate length before each dbh_update(), with dbh_set_recordsize(), otherwise the record length need only be set before the first dbh_update().

To create a DBHashTable, use dbh_create(). To insert a key and value into a DBHashTable, use dbh_update(). The DBHashTable will not be modified until this command is given. All changes to the current DBHashTable record only reside in memory: dbh_update() is necessary to commit the changes to the DBHashTable. To lookup a value corresponding to a given key, use dbh_load(). To erase and unerase a key and value, use dbh_erase() dbh_unerase().

To call a function for each key and value pair (using a sweep route) use dbh_foreach_sweep() and dbh_sweep(). To call a function for each key and value pair (using a fanout route) use dbh_foreach_fanout() and dbh_foreach_fanout(). To destroy a DBHashTable use dbh_destroy().

This is dbh version 2, incompatible with dbh version 1 files. The main difference between the two version is the handling of file pointers. In version 1, file pointers were 32 bits in length, while in version 2, file pointers are 64 bits in length. This allows for DBHashTables with sizes greater than 2 GBytes.

Cuantified numbers¶

Cuantified numbers are an alternate way to view the set of natural numbers {1, 2, 3, ...} where order is defined in two levels. In natural numbers there is only one level of order (defined by the > boolean operator). In cuantified numbers the first level of order is defined by the cuanta or quantity. The cuanta is obtained by adding all the digits of the cuantified number.

Thus, for example, 10022, 5, 32, and 11111 are all equal at the first level of order since they all add up to 5. The second level or order may be obtained in different manners. In functions dbh_genkey() and dbh_genkey2() the corresponding order of the natural numbers from which they are associated is not conserved.

In dbh_orderkey() the corresponding order of the natural numbers from which they are associated is conserved, but at a price. The base, or maximum value each digit may reach, must be defined. This effectively puts a limit on the number of keys which may be generated for a given number of digits.

When a DBHashTable is constructed with cuantified keys, the maximum amount of disk access instructions generated to access any given record is equal to the cuanta of the cuantified number represented by the key. This allows a DBHashTable to be constructed with minimum access time across all records.

FILE_POINTER¶

FILE_POINTER is an architecture independent 64 bit integer type.

Structures¶

typedef struct dbh_header_t;
dbh_header_t is the structural information written at the first 256 bytes of a DBHashTable file.

typedef struct DBHashTable;
DBHashTable is a data structure containing the record information for an open DBHashTable file.

Macros¶

unsigned char DBH_KEYLENGTH (DBHashTable * dbh);
FILE_POINTER DBH_RECORD_SIZE (DBHashTable * dbh);
void *DBH_KEY (DBHashTable * dbh);
void *DBH_DATA (DBHashTable * dbh);
FILE_POINTER DBH_ERASED_SPACE (DBHashTable * dbh);
FILE_POINTER DBH_DATA_SPACE (DBHashTable * dbh);
FILE_POINTER DBH_TOTAL_SPACE (DBHashTable * dbh);
FILE_POINTER DBH_FORMAT_SPACE (DBHashTable * dbh);
FILE_POINTER DBH_RECORDS (DBHashTable * dbh);
FILE_POINTER DBH_MAXIMUM_RECORD_SIZE (DBHashTable * dbh);
char *DBH_PATH (DBHashTable * dbh);

Functions¶

int dbh_close (DBHashTable *dbh);
int dbh_destroy (DBHashTable *dbh);

DBHashTable *dbh_open(constchar*path);
DBHashTable *dbh_openR(constchar*path);
DBHashTable *dbh_create (const char *path, unsigned char key_length);

int dbh_erase (DBHashTable *dbh);
int dbh_unerase (DBHashTable *dbh);
int dbh_prune (DBHashTable *dbh, unsigned char *key, unsigned char subtree_length);
int dbh_unprune (DBHashTable *dbh, unsigned char *key, unsigned char subtree_length);

FILE_POINTER dbh_find (DBHashTable *dbh, int n);

void dbh_genkey (unsigned char *key, unsigned char length, unsigned int n);
void dbh_genkey2 (unsigned char *key, unsigned char length, unsigned int n);
void dbh_orderkey (unsigned char *key, unsigned char length, unsigned int n, unsigned char base); sp FILE_POINTER dbh_load (DBHashTable *dbh);
unsigned char dbh_load_address (DBHashTable *dbh, FILE_POINTERcurrentseek);
FILE_POINTER dbh_load_parent (DBHashTable *dbh);
FILE_POINTER dbh_load_child (DBHashTable *dbh, unsigned char key_index);

DBHashTable *dbh_regen_sweep (DBHashTable *dbh);
DBHashTable *dbh_regen_fanout (DBHashTable *dbh);
int dbh_settempdir (DBHashTable *dbh, char *temp_dir);

void dbh_set_data (DBHashTable *dbh, void *data, FILE_POINTER size);

void dbh_set_key (DBHashTable *dbh, unsigned char *key);

int dbh_set_size (DBHashTable *dbh, FILE_POINTERsize);
void dbh_set_recordsize (DBHashTable *dbh, int record_size );

int dbh_sweep (DBHashTable *dbh, DBHashFunc operate, unsigned char *key1, unsigned char *key2, unsigned char ignore_portion);
int dbh_fanout (DBHashTable *dbh, DBHashFunc operate, unsigned char *key1, unsigned char *key2, unsigned char ignore_portion);
int dbh_foreach_sweep (DBHashTable *dbh, DBHashFunc operate);
int dbh_foreach_fanout (DBHashTable *dbh, DBHashFunc operate);
void dbh_exit_sweep (DBHashTable *dbh);
void dbh_exit_fanout (DBHashTable *dbh);

FILE_POINTER dbh_update (DBHashTable *dbh);
int dbh_writeheader (DBHashTable *dbh);