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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.database
Subject: Re: UNIX + database (long quick overview)
Message-ID: <5909@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Aug-85 16:18:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5909
Posted: Mon Aug 26 16:18:25 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Aug-85 16:18:25 EDT
References: <164@3comvax.UUCP>, <10185@ucbvax.ARPA>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 17

> Locking (concurrency): Locking, what locking?
> UNIX file locking schemas are, in general, bad.
> ...
> A DBMS would be well off with three (3) levels of locks,
> (operating system people LISTEN!)  ...

If you database people could manage to get your act together and agree
on something for more than 15 milliseconds, maybe we *would* listen.
The main reason nobody wants to put database-oriented locking into an
operating system is that no two database people agree on what they want.

The existing Unix locking schemes are simple, hence often inadequate,
because nobody wants to go through the hassle of implementing a complex
mechanism when there is no consensus on what it should look like.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry