56.1 Connecting to a Database

Function: open-database file &optional type subtype access mode

This function opens database file, using database method type and subtype, with access rights access and permissions mode. access can be any combination of r w and +, for read, write, and creation flags.

type can have the value 'dbm or 'berkeley-db to select the type of database file to use. (Note: XEmacs may not support both of these types.)

For a type of 'dbm, there are no subtypes, so subtype should be nil.

For a type of 'berkeley-db, the following subtypes are available: 'hash, 'btree, and 'recno. See the manpages for the Berkeley DB functions for more information about these types.

Function: close-database database

This function closes database database.

Function: database-live-p object

This function returns t if object is an active database, else nil.