[Feature]: Accessing older versions of SQLite database

[ZavierHoward]

Describe the new feature

Please make it possible to revert to past changes (versions) after closing out of SQLite

Does this feature exist in another product or project? Please provide a link

Google docs has a version history feature

Do you have a screenshot? Please add screenshots to help explain your idea.

No response

[FriedrichFroebel]

after closing out of SQLite

Are you speaking of the SQLite CLI or of DB4S? For now, you should be able to create your own database file copy if you really need versioning - each database file is standalone anyway.

[ZavierHoward]

I was speaking about Database For SQLite. Unfortunately I accidentally ran code that dropped a whole table and created a new one in its place yesterday without me knowing. And to my knowledge, there's no "version history" kind of thing for this like Google Docs so I can't recover it. But, from now on I'll definitely be making copies.

[justinclift]

While we could potentially save the previously version of the database as (for example) database.sqlite.bak, it's not really something we've seriously considered before due to how much of a pain SQLite file locking is.

That being said, it's not a terrible idea. Other applications manage to figure it out for their document types.

[chrisjlocke]

The main issue is that some databases are GB in size. Would you want a backup of every change? Every one? Each cell change? Every one? Each and every one? All of them? If not, whats the cut-off - if you delete 5 rows? 10 rows?
If I updated a cell, would I have to wait while DB4S copied a 4 GB database? Oops - wrong cell .. lets just put that value back ... another 4 GB and twenty minutes ...

Not poo-pooing the idea, but as a database is just a file, its not beyond the skill of the user to copy said file and paste as a backup....

Ideally, you'd want something like sqldiff so you had the 'incremental' changes, but even so .. I'm not sure how that could be automatic, based on the number of changes a user performed...

[ZavierHoward]

I would say it could change after every time the user themself makes a save to the file. And if someone has something like autosave on (which I'm not sure if a feature in the first place, but if it is), then only a version history after the user closes out of the application.

[justinclift]

Would you want a backup of every change?

Probably just the equivalent of "copy the database to database.bak" when the user presses the button to write changes. ie via explicit user action

No need for a version history, because that way would lead to insanity over time as you point out. 😉