> Do db4.0->db4.2 upgrades work that way often? :-) If so, perl might be > easier to upgrade to db4.2...
The simpler the use of BDB, the more painless the upgrade. A quick glance at DB_File reveals that it's only providing an interface to Hash, BTree, and Recno database types. Since it's not using Queue or transactional database environments, I wouldn't be too concerned. The bogofilter package went from 4.0 to 4.1 to 4.2 without incident, for example.
