/ 
AmberDB-5.21.0
/ README.md

AmberDB

CPAN version Perl Version License CI Platform

AmberDB is a high-performance, schema-driven NoSQL database engine for Perl, featuring ACID transactions and precomputed inverted indexing on top of Berkeley DB (DB_File). It delivers zero-overhead schema management, extensible JSON-like block records without relational SQL JOIN bottlenecks, 8-byte packed binary indexing, intelligent locale-aware full-text search, Strict 2-Phase Locking (Strict 2PL), a 2-Pillar continuous disaster recovery and .amberdb native archiving architecture, and high-throughput batch operations.

Key Features

File System & Storage Architecture

AmberDB organizes database files into a clean, deterministic physical directory structure:

dbstore/
├── schema/                      ← Database Group & Table Schemas
│   ├── catalog.dbase            ← Database group configuration
│   └── catalog_products.table   ← Product table schema
├── tables/                      ← Master Data & Derived Index Files
│   ├── catalog_products.db      ← Primary key-value data table (DB_File Hash)
│   ├── catalog_products.del     ← Soft-deleted records archive (keep_deleted)
│   ├── catalog_products.aut     ← User audit trail log (log_owner)
│   ├── catalog_products.cnt     ← View/hit counters (use_counter)
│   ├── catalog_products_1.str   ← Bidirectional string-to-ID dictionary
│   ├── catalog_products.inx     ← Primary 8-byte packed ID index
│   ├── catalog_products_1.fld   ← Inverted exact-match field index
│   ├── catalog_products_2.src   ← Full-text keyword search index
│   ├── catalog_products_3.fac   ← Columnar facet filter bitset index
│   └── catalog_products_4.srt   ← Monotonic binary pre-sorted index
└── backup/                      ← Disaster Recovery & Archives
    └── 2026/
        ├── 2026-08-28.csv       ← Continuous time-series audit stream (Pillar 1)
        └── full_backup.amberdb  ← Compressed native database archive (Pillar 2)

File Extension Reference

| File Extension | Classification | Reconstructible? | Description | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Authoritative Master Data | | | | | .db | Primary Data (Source of Truth) | ❌ No (Authoritative) | Berkeley DB master document table (DB_File Hash) | | .del | Soft-Deleted Archive | ❌ No (Authoritative) | Archive of soft-deleted records (keep_deleted) | | .aut | User Audit Trail | ❌ No (Authoritative) | Chronological user action log (log_owner) | | .str | String Dictionary | ❌ No (Authoritative) | Bidirectional string-to-foreign-key dictionary (_${blk}.str) | | Derived Secondary Indexes | | | | | .inx | Record Index | Yes (set_index) | Binary array of all active IDs, total count, highest ID | | .fld | Inverted Match Index | Yes (set_index) | Block-level key-to-IDs inverted index (match_block) | | .src | Full-Text Search Index | Yes (set_index) | Word-level token inverted index (search_block) | | .srt | Sorted Index | Yes (set_index) | Pre-sorted binary array of record IDs (sort_block) | | .fac | Facet Navigation Index | Yes (set_index) | Forward bitset index for faceted filter navigation (facet_block) | | .rwt | SEO URL Slug Map | Yes (set_index) | Bidirectional map: _0.rwt (ID→Slug) and _1.rwt (Slug→ID) | | .jinx| Junk Record Index | Yes (set_index) | Binary primary index for cold/archived records (use_junk) | | .jfld| Junk Match Index | Yes (set_index) | Field match index for cold records (jnktype => 'B'/'AB') | | .jsrc| Junk Full-Text Search | Yes (set_index) | Word-level inverted index for cold records (jnktype => 'B'/'AB') | | Runtime & Backup Files | | | | | .amberdb | Native Database Archive | 📦 Portable Archive | Compressed tar archive with schemas, data files, and SHA-256 manifest | | .csv | Continuous WAL Stream | 🛡️ Append-Only Log | Daily chronological audit stream (backup/YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD.csv) | | .cnt | View / Hit Counter | ⚠️ Counter State | High-throughput concurrent counter store (use_counter) | | .txn | Transaction Undo Journal | ⚠️ Transient (Runtime) | Active transaction rollback journal file (txn/) | | .cache | L2 Shared Cache | Yes (RAM-Disk) | L2 RAM-Disk shared cache file (cache/) | | .tmp | Disk Buffer File | ⚠️ Transient (Staging) | Disk staging buffer file under dbstore/buffer/ (buffer_write) | | .lock | Process Mutex Lock | ⚠️ Transient (Mutex) | OS flock process synchronization lock file |

Installation

Via CPAN (Recommended)

cpanm AmberDB

Manual Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/marufcetin/amberdb.git
cd amberdb
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

(On Windows with Strawberry Perl, use gmake or dmake)

Quick Start

1. Initialization

use strict;
use warnings;
use AmberDB;

# Initialize AmberDB instance handle ($adb)
my $adb = AmberDB->new(
    cfg  => { user => 'admin_user', language => 'en' },
    path => { dbase_dir => './dbstore' }
);

2. CRUD Operations

# --- INSERT ---
# Record structure: (ID, Title, Category, Price, CreatedDate, Status)
# Pass ID = 0 to auto-generate a unique 64-bit ID
my $id = $adb->insert_id("catalog_products", 0, "Wireless Headphones", "Electronics", 149.99, "2026-08-28", 1);
print "Created Product ID: $id\n";

# --- READ ---
my $product = $adb->read_id("catalog_products", $id);
print "Product Title: $product->[1]\n";

# --- UPDATE ---
$product->[3] = 129.99; # Update Price
$adb->modify_id("catalog_products", @$product);

# --- DELETE ---
$adb->delete_id("catalog_products", $id);

3. Querying & Pagination

[!IMPORTANT] List Return Signature Convention: In read_all, field_fetch, and search_table, when limit > 0 (paginated), the method returns ($total_count, @records) where the first scalar is the total matched count integer. When limit is omitted or 0 (unpaginated), it returns @records directly. Unpacking a paginated query as my @records causes $records[0] to be the integer count, throwing a fatal error on $records[0]->[1].

# --- 1. Unpaginated Queries (Returns pure record or ID array) ---
my @all_products = $adb->read_all("catalog_products");
my @all_ids      = $adb->read_all("catalog_products", 0, 0, keys_only => 1); # ID list (ultra low-memory)
my @sorted_all   = $adb->read_all("catalog_products", 0, 0, sort => -3);      # Unpaginated ascending sort

# --- 2. Paginated Queries (limit > 0: first element is $total_count integer) ---
my ($total_count, @page_products) = $adb->read_all(
    "catalog_products",
    start => 0,
    limit => 20,
    sort  => { blk => 3, reverse => 1 } # Sort descending by Price (field 3)
);
print "Total Matching: $total_count, Page Size: " . scalar(@page_products) . "\n";

# Paginated high-efficiency pipeline returning only record IDs (keys_only)
my ($total, @page_ids) = $adb->read_all("catalog_products", 0, 50, keys_only => 1);

4. Full-Text Search

# Search product catalog with language normalization and filtering
my ($total, @results) = $adb->search_table(
    "catalog_products",
    "wireless headphone",
    start => 0,
    limit => 20,
);

5. Multi-Block Field & Facet Filtering

my $res = $adb->field_filter("catalog_products", {
    type   => "and",
    filter => {
        2 => "Electronics",
        5 => 1 # Active status
    },
    sort   => { blk => 3, reverse => 0 }, # Ascending price
    start  => 0,
    limit  => 10,
});

print "Found $res->{count} matching products.\n";

6. ACID Transactions & Strict 2PL (Undo-Journal)

AmberDB provides full ACID-compliant transactions via disk-backed undo-journaling and Strict Two-Phase Locking (Strict 2PL):

# Start atomic multi-table transaction
$adb->transact_start();

eval {
    # 1. Deduct balance (acquires record lock, writes undo log)
    my $account = $adb->read_id("user_account", $user_id);
    $account->[2] -= 100.00;
    $adb->modify_id("user_account", @$account);

    # 2. Create order
    my $order_id = $adb->insert_id("order_master", 0, $user_id, 100.00, "COMPLETED");

    # 3. Commit transaction (releases locks, removes journal)
    my $status = $adb->transact_end();
    if ($status->{status} eq 'rollback') {
        die "Transaction rolled back automatically!";
    }
};
if ($@) {
    # Explicit manual rollback if an external exception occurred
    $adb->transact_rollback();
    warn "Transaction failed: $@";
}

7. Native Database Backup & Restore (.amberdb)

use AmberDB::Tools;

my $tools = AmberDB::Tools->new($adb);

# Create a compressed .amberdb backup archive
my $archive = $tools->dump();
# Archive created at: dbstore/backup/2026/amberdb_2026-08-28_180000.amberdb

# Restore archive with SHA-256 verification and automatic index rebuilding
my $result = $tools->restore(
    file    => "backup/2026/full_backup.amberdb",
    force   => 1, # Overwrite authorization for non-empty directories
    reindex => 1  # Automatically reconstruct .inx, .src, .fld, .fac, .srt
);

8. High-Throughput Batch Operations (Batch ETL & Ingestion)

When importing or updating hundreds or thousands of records from CSV, JSON, or external APIs, use the 2-phase batch methods (insert_list, modify_list, delete_list). These methods open the master .db file once and update all secondary indexes in a single batched pass, avoiding per-record locking and disk I/O overhead:

# --- BATCH INSERT ---
# Array of record tuples: [ [ID (0 for auto-assign), Title, Category, Price, Date, Status], ... ]
my @batch_products = (
    [ 0, "Mechanical Keyboard RGB", "Accessories", 129.99, "2026-08-28", 1 ],
    [ 0, "Ergonomic Office Chair",   "Furniture",   349.50, "2026-08-28", 1 ],
    [ 0, "4K Ultra-Wide Monitor",    "Electronics", 799.00, "2026-08-28", 1 ],
);

# Ingest batch in a single I/O pass with automatic index compilation
my $status = $adb->insert_list("catalog_products", @batch_products);
# Returns hashref of created IDs: { 101 => 1, 102 => 1, 103 => 1 }

# --- BATCH UPDATE ---
my @updates = (
    [ 101, "Mechanical Keyboard RGB v2", "Accessories", 139.99, "2026-08-28", 1 ],
    [ 102, "Ergonomic Office Chair XL",  "Furniture",   369.50, "2026-08-28", 1 ],
);
$adb->modify_list("catalog_products", @updates);

# --- BATCH DELETE ---
$adb->delete_list("catalog_products", 101, 102, 103);

CLI Utilities

AmberDB ships with standalone command-line tools in bin/:

1. bin/amberdb_backup.pl (Native Backup & Restore)

Create and restore compressed, portable .amberdb database archives:

# Dump entire database to default archive
perl bin/amberdb_backup.pl --dump

# Dump specific tables to custom archive
perl bin/amberdb_backup.pl --dump --file backup/catalog.amberdb --tables products,orders

# Restore archive into database with automatic index rebuilding
perl bin/amberdb_backup.pl --restore --file backup/catalog.amberdb --force

2. bin/convert_dbstore.pl (Binary Re-Indexer)

Scans and rebuilds all table indexes (.inx, .fld, .src, .srt) into packed 8-byte binary format:

perl bin/convert_dbstore.pl --dbstore ./dbstore

3. bin/setup_ramdisk.pl (RAM-Disk Accelerator)

Mounts/unmounts ultra-fast RAM-disk caches for Linux (tmpfs) and Windows (ImDisk):

# Mount 512MB RAM-disk
sudo perl bin/setup_ramdisk.pl --start --size 512M

# Check status
perl bin/setup_ramdisk.pl --status

Multilingual Locale Engine

AmberDB includes a built-in localization and text processing engine (AmberDB::Locale):

my $locale = AmberDB::Locale->new('tr');

# Correct Turkish case folding
print $locale->uc('ışık');        # "IŞIK"
print $locale->uc('istanbul');    # "İSTANBUL"
print $locale->lc('İZMİR');       # "izmir"

# Word normalization and phonetic devoicing
print $locale->normalize("Ahmet'in kitabı"); # "ahmet kitabi"

# Currency and number formatting
print $locale->format_currency(1250.50, 'TRY'); # "₺1.250,50"

Supported Languages: English (en), Turkish (tr), German (de), French (fr), Spanish (es), Japanese (ja), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Azerbaijani (az).

Documentation

Full comprehensive guides are available in the docs/ directory:

Running Tests

AmberDB contains an extensive test suite covering core operations, indexing, transactions, search, facets, concurrency, locales, and backups:

# Run all tests via prove
prove -l t/

# Or via standard MakeMaker
perl Makefile.PL
make test

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and pull requests are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Author

Maruf Cetin
Email: marufcetin@gmail.com
GitHub: @marufcetin

Copyright (C) 2005-2026 Maruf Cetin.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.