What is db-journal ?

Software digiKam
1

What is a file “digiKam4.db-journal”; it showed up in my database files and I don’t remember ever seeing one before.

Thanks.

2

According to the SQLite documentation:

A rollback journal is a temporary file used to implement atomic commit and rollback capabilities in SQLite. (For a detailed discussion of how this works, see the separate document titled Atomic Commit In SQLite.) The rollback journal is always located in the same directory as the database file and has the same name as the database file except with the 8 characters “-journal” appended. The rollback journal is usually created when a transaction is first started and is usually deleted when a transaction commits or rolls back. The rollback journal file is essential for implementing the atomic commit and rollback capabilities of SQLite. Without a rollback journal, SQLite would be unable to rollback an incomplete transaction, and if a crash or power loss occurred in the middle of a transaction the entire database would likely go corrupt without a rollback journal.

The rollback journal is usually created and destroyed at the start and end of a transaction, respectively. But there are exceptions to this rule.

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3

Thank You.
The reason I discovered this file is that, for ages, I have had an automatic program backing up the database; always, when I check the notification that such backup has occurred, it says four files copied, no files deleted, and 100% successful.

After hundreds of reports with never a deletion, I got a report showing five files instead of four and one file deleted.

When I checked the Recycle Bin, which I always keep empty, there was this journal file; so, I guess the backup program must have caught it at a time when there actually was a journal file in there.

Thanks for the explanation.

4

Which may also mean you did a backup while a database transaction occurred. Not sure if that can mess up the integrity of your backup (copying a file with partially applied changes…)

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5

Thanks.

The Backup is on an automatic schedule; so, it is what it is…

I do have a scheduled reminder to manually copy my backup to another folder, date them, and keep them for a while — just in case. ----- that is providing I heed my reminder which doesn’t always happen.