Thread: Datafiles binary portable?

This is probably a silly question, but are the database files binary portable?
eg could I take datafiles from a Sparc and copy them to an Intel machine,
or would the endianness differences kill me?

I expect the answer to be "funny man!  Of course not!" for reasons of speed
(native interger handling being quicker than forcing network-endianness,
for example) but you never know...

How about cross OS (eg from Linux Intel to Windows XP, or from Solaris Intel
to Linux Intel)?

(I almost expected this to be a FAQ, but I didn't see it there).

--

rgds
Stephen

Stephen Harris wrote:
> This is probably a silly question, but are the database files binary portable?

No

> eg could I take datafiles from a Sparc and copy them to an Intel machine,
> or would the endianness differences kill me?

Yes

> How about cross OS (eg from Linux Intel to Windows XP, or from Solaris Intel
> to Linux Intel)?

Maybe. Wouldn't count on it though.

In fact the data files can be incompatible because of different
compile-time flags (64-bit integer dates on/off for example).
--
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd

Stephen Harris <lists@spuddy.org> writes:
> This is probably a silly question, but are the database files binary portable?

No.

            regards, tom lane

On Tue, Nov 28, 2006 at 11:00:35AM -0500, Stephen Harris wrote:
> This is probably a silly question, but are the database files binary portable?
> eg could I take datafiles from a Sparc and copy them to an Intel machine,
> or would the endianness differences kill me?

No.

It may not even be compatable across the same platform with different
compilers and/or configure flags.

Have a nice day,
--
Martijn van Oosterhout   <kleptog@svana.org>   http://svana.org/kleptog/
> From each according to his ability. To each according to his ability to litigate.