
		------------------------------------
			XBase and DBD::XBase
		------------------------------------

This is the README file for the XBase and DBD::XBase packages.

Module XBase provides access to XBase (dBase, Fox*) database files,
namely dbf, dbt, fpt. It provides native Perl interface to read and
write the tables. The goal wasn't to write database engine but simply
a parser, simple tool to read and write the data. If you are looking
for something more powerfull, check (for example) MySQL or Postgres.

The XBase module doesn't currently make use of index files and
doesn't write them. So if you change your data files that have
attached index files, you need to regenerate them using other software,
probably one that supports them.

DBD::XBase is a database driver for Perl DBI interface. It talks to
the XBase module that actually accesses the data. You need DBI module
to use this database driver -- please check the DBI(3) man page on how
to use it. As an argument to connect, give "dbi:XBase:$dir", where $dir
is directory with the data files.

The distribution also includes a dbfdump script that prints out the
content of the table in readable form.

Once more, this is a module to parse and update XBase files, not a db
engine. It is provided in a hope you might find it usefull. My intent
is to support as many variations of formats as possible, but I do not
have dBase/Fox* and do not plan to have, so send me examples of your
data files if you feel your native XBase engines produce data
incompatible with this module.

Man pages for XBase, DBD::XBase and dbfdump are included, examples of
little scripts can also be found in eg directory of the distribution.

Installation:
	Download the tar.gz, unpack it, change to the DBD-XBase-*
	directory. Then do

		perl Makefile.PL
		make
		make test
		make install

	or you can use CPAN module and just type "install XBase". You
	really should have 5.004 to run cool. You need a DBI module to
	use the DBD driver.

Problems and bug reports:
	If anything goes wrong when installing, please send me output
	of your installation messages and of make test TEST_VERBOSE=1.
	If there are errors when actually using the module on your
	data, please send me the errstr messages and (if possible)
	your data files that cause the problems, so that I can trace
	down the problem. You can of course also send patches to
	actual bugs.

	Sending bug reports and patches to c.l.p.m is fine but send
	a copy to me as well, since I might miss your post.

If it works for you:
	I'd appreciate any message if you use the module and find it
	usefull -- I'm just curious for what tasks people use the
	module and what they expect from it. You can of course also
	send something more valuable.

Available:
	http://www.fi.muni.cz/~adelton/perl/ and from your favorite
	CPAN site in the authors/id/JANPAZ/ directory.

Copyright: (c) 1997--1998 Jan Pazdziora, adelton@fi.muni.cz. All rights
	reserved. This package is free software; you can redistribute
	it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

