Yesterday I spent some time trying to solve a SQLite problem that turned
out to be due to using an old version of sqlite3, so that when I tried
to open a database created with a newer SQLite library, it would output
"Error: file is encrypted or is not a database". Later I found out this
was because that SQLite 3 file versions are generally not
forward-compatible and my sqlite3 tool was too old.
Opening the database file in a hex editor, I saw it says at the very
beginning, "SQLite format 3".
Can I suggest storing the full version number of the SQLite library in
the format of the SQLite file. That way, tools using the SQLite library
can use this to output a couple of useful errors and warnings:
- If a user tries to use a tool to open a database file, and the
database file was created with a more recent version of the library than
the tool was, the tool can warn that it's probably not
forward-compatible and you need a more recent version of the tool.
- If a user uses a tool to open a database file, and the library version
of the tool is *newer* than the library version that created the
database file (I assume this will work, if SQLite 3 format versions are
backward-compatible), the tool can warn you that if you save changes to
the database file, it will be saved in the newer file format, and the
file may no longer be compatible with the program that generated it
originally.
Bennett
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