Process model of the database server

Processes

dbd

The "master" daemon of the database system. All access to the underlying database engine goes through this process. It is implemented as a multi-threaded process, and written in C.
The dbd daemon:

dbupdate

The front-end process for incoming updates. It starts from .forward: the incoming update mail messages are piped to dbupdate. It can also be invoked from command-line, using a file as an argument. It is written in C, and C++ for the object parser.
The dbupdate process:

Must pay extra attention in using the right exit codes (should probably return 75 for ALL fatal errors and other non-successful situations and report them to the database management through some channel instead of sending ugly bounces to senders).

networkupdate

A dumb program which just reads an update from STDIN and sends it to the networkupdate daemon. Written in C.

networkupdate daemon

Started from inetd every time an update is sent from networkupdate. It has exactly the same function as dbupdate, and it could actually be the same binary invoked with a different option.


$Id: process-model.html,v 1.1 2000/05/11 10:51:18 daniele Exp $