Re:SQLite Is Serverless
by hartator on Sunday January 26, 2020 @01:06PM
(#22153559)
MySQl, Postgres, or MongoDB still store your date in files. So there are also “just a file format”. You do have one extra step - the db server process - to access the files.
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Yes! You've defined the difference between an RDBMS (the server process and whatever else it does) and the file format the data is stored in.
SQLite is just a file format. If you want it served up over some kind of server, you have to build your own (and most people do), or use a server that somebody else has built for you (there's a couple out there).
SQLite is not "just a file format" anymore than say MS SQL Server is a file format. SQLite is a RDBMS in the form of a library and uses a particular file format for persistent storage. But it can also run purely in-memory: https://www.sqlite.org/inmemorydb.html without any file at all.
Being a RDBMS is not defined by whether the engine runs in-process or as a server in its own process.