URLyBird: Multiple servers?

[Matt Sheehan]

I am just getting started on this and was wondering: is the db file expected to be used by multiple servers simultaneously? That probably wouldn't make any sense, but I just wanted to make sure.

[mike acre]

No, does your spec not say 'you may assume that at any moment, at most one program is accessing the database file' That program being the one you are writing.

[Matt Sheehan]

Thanks for your reply.
So does that mean that no two servers will read/write the file at the same instant, or that two servers won't run at the same time with a reference to the same file? I guess what I'm asking is can a server get information from the db file and then assume it will be the same until that server changes it.

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to JavaRanch and this forum.

You should assume that the examiner will never run two instances of your server at the same time. Nor will they run two instances of your stand alone client at the same time. Nor will they run your server and a stand alone client at the same time.

There will only ever be one application running that can directly modify the database file.

There may be several clients running in client/server mode, but they will not be directly modifying the database - they will be using the server to do all the modifications.

Regards, Andrew

[Matt Sheehan]

Thanks Andrew.