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<h2 class="title"><a id="introduction"></a>Chapter 1. Introduction</h2>
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<b>Table of Contents</b>
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<p>
Welcome to the Berkeley DB. This manual describes how to
configure, build and install Berkeley DB. Installation of DB
for all of the platforms it officially supports is described in
this manual. Upgrade instructions and release notes for newer
versions of this product are described here. For infomation on
upgrading from historical versions, see the
<a class="ulink" href="http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17076_02/html/upgrading/index.html" target="_top">
Berkeley DB Upgrade Guide.
</a>
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<p>
Note that some operating systems and distributions might
provide DB, either by default or as part of an installation
option. If so, those platforms will have installation
instructions for DB specific to them. In this situation, you should
see the documentation for your operating system or distribution
provider for information on how to get DB on your
platform.
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<h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="install-overview"></a>Installation Overview</h2>
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<p>
Berkeley DB is an open-source product, and as such it is
usually offered in source-code format. This means that
placing DB on your platform requires you to configure
the build scripts, compile it, and then install the product
onto your host system. The exception to this are Microsoft
Windows platforms for which a binary installer is
available. Note that for Windows platforms, you can still
compile the product from source if you desire.
</p>
<p>
For *nix systems, including the BSD and Linux systems,
the usual <code class="literal">configure</code>, <code class="literal">make</code>
and <code class="literal">make install</code> installation
process is used to place DB on your platform.
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For information on building and installing Berkeley DB on:
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Microsoft Windows, see <a class="xref" href="build_win.html" title="Chapter 4. Building Berkeley DB for Windows">
Building Berkeley DB for Windows
</a>
or <a class="xref" href="build_wince.html" title="Chapter 5. Building Berkeley DB for Windows Mobile">
Building Berkeley DB for Windows Mobile
</a>.
</p>
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<li>
<p>
Unix/POSIX — including Linux, BSD, iPhone OS, and Mac OS X — see
<a class="xref" href="build_unix.html" title="Chapter 6. Building Berkeley DB for UNIX/POSIX">
Building Berkeley DB for UNIX/POSIX
</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
VxWorks, see <a class="xref" href="build_vxworks.html" title="Chapter 7. Building Berkeley DB for VxWorks">
Building Berkeley DB for VxWorks
</a>.
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