14.2. Emptying a DBM File14.2.2. SolutionOpen the database and assign ( ) to it. Use tie: use DB_File; tie(%HASH, "DB_File", $FILENAME) or die "Can't open FILENAME: $!\n"; %HASH = ( ); untie %HASH; Alternatively, delete the file and reopen: unlink $FILENAME or die "Couldn't unlink $FILENAME to empty the database: $!\n"; tie(%HASH => "DB_File", $FILENAME) or die "Couldn't create $FILENAME database: $!\n"; 14.2.3. DiscussionIt may be quicker to delete the file and create a new one than to reset it, but doing so opens you up to a race condition that trips up a careless program or makes it vulnerable to an attacker. The attacker could make a link pointing to the file /etc/precious with the same name as your file between the time when you deleted the file and when you recreated it. When the DBM library opens the file, it clobbers /etc/precious. If you delete a DB_File database and recreate it, you'll lose any customizable settings like page size, fill-factor, and so on. This is another good reason to assign the empty list to the tied hash. 14.2.4. See AlsoThe documentation for the standard DB_File module, also in Chapter 32 of Programming Perl; the unlink function in perlfunc(1); Recipe 14.1 Copyright © 2003 O'Reilly & Associates. All rights reserved. |
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