Book excerpt: Small, special-purpose computing devices and high-end core Internet servers need fast, reliable database management. Berkeley DB is an embedded database that provides high-performance, scalable, transaction-protected and recoverable data management services to applications. Extremely portable, this library runs under almost all UNIX and Windows variants, as well as a number of embedded, real-time operating systems. Berkeley DB is the ultimate resource for the world's most widely deployed embedded database engine. This book will aid software architects and engineers, product managers, and systems and network administrators without the overhead imposed by other database products. Designed by programmers for programmers, this classic library style toolkit provides a broad base of functionality to application writers. This book will help you to make intelligent choices about when and how to use Berkeley DB to meet your needs. You can visit the Sleepycat website to get the latest errata for this book. NOTE: The first printing of this book contained an error in the table of contents that caused the page numbers to be off. This will be corrected in the second printing. If you have an earlier edition, you can download a pdf of the correct table of contents that you can print out and use with your book. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the editor of this book at [email protected].