SQLite 3.38 released: the most widely deployed database

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SQLite is an in-process library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. SQLite is the most widely deployed database in the world with more applications than we can count, including several high-profile projects.

SQLite is an embedded SQL database engine. Unlike most other SQL databases, SQLite does not have a separate server process. SQLite reads and writes directly to ordinary disk files. A complete SQL database with multiple tables, indices, triggers, and views, is contained in a single disk file. The database file format is cross-platform – you can freely copy a database between 32-bit and 64-bit systems or between big-endian and little-endian architectures. These features make SQLite a popular choice as an Application File Format. SQLite database files are a recommended storage format by the US Library of Congress. Think of SQLite not as a replacement for Oracle but as a replacement for fopen()

SQLite Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

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SQLite is a compact library. With all features enabled, the library size can be less than 600KiB, depending on the target platform and compiler optimization settings. (64-bit code is larger. And some compiler optimizations such as aggressive function inlining and loop unrolling can cause the object code to be much larger.) There is a tradeoff between memory usage and speed. It generally runs faster the more memory you give it. Nevertheless, performance is usually quite good even in low-memory environments. Depending on how it is used, SQLite can be faster than direct filesystem I/O.

Changelog v3.38

  1. Added the -> and ->> operators for easier processing of JSON. The new operators are compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL.
  2. The JSON functions are now built-ins. It is no longer necessary to use the -DSQLITE_ENABLE_JSON1 compile-time option to enable JSON support. JSON is on by default. Disable the JSON interface using the new -DSQLITE_OMIT_JSON compile-time option.
  3. Enhancements to date and time functions:
    1. Added the unixepoch() function.
    2. Added the auto modifier and the julianday modifier.
  4. Rename the printf() SQL function to format() for better compatibility. The original printf() name is retained as an alias for backwards compatibility.
  5. Added the sqlite3_error_offset() interface, which can sometimes help to localize an SQL error to a specific character in the input SQL text, so that applications can provide better error messages.
  6. Enhanced the interface to virtual tables as follows:
    1. Added the sqlite3_vtab_distinct() interface.
    2. Added the sqlite3_vtab_rhs_value() interface.
    3. Added new operator types SQLITE_INDEX_CONSTRAINT_LIMIT and SQLITE_INDEX_CONSTRAINT_OFFSET.
    4. Added the sqlite3_vtab_in() interface (and related) to enable a virtual table to process IN operator constraints all at once, rather than processing each value of the right-hand side of the IN operator separately.
  7. CLI enhancements:
    1. Columnar output modes are enhanced to correctly handle tabs and newlines embedded in text.
    2. Added options like “–wrap N”, “–wordwrap on”, and “–quote” to the columnar output modes.
    3. Added the .mode qbox alias.
    4. The .import command automatically disambiguates column names.
    5. Use the new sqlite3_error_offset() interface to provide better error messages.
  8. Query planner enhancements:
    1. Use a Bloom filter to speed up large analytic queries.
    2. Use a balanced merge tree to evaluate UNION or UNION ALL compound SELECT statements that have an ORDER BY clause.
  9. The ALTER TABLE statement is changed to silently ignores entries in the sqlite_schema table that do not parse when PRAGMA writable_schema=ON.

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