Documentation Source Text

If you are an SQLite user whose has stumbled over some quirk of
SQLite that is not mentioned here, please send us an email so that
we can document the problem.

<h1>SQLite Is Embedded, Not Client-Server</h1>

<p>
When ever comparing SQLite to other SQL database engines like
Whenever comparing SQLite to other SQL database engines like
SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle, it is important first of all
to realize that SQLite is not intended as a replacement or competitor to
any of those systems.  SQLite is [serverless].  There is no separate
server process that manages the database.  An application interact
with the database engine using function calls, not be sending messages
server process that manages the database.  An application interacts
with the database engine using function calls, not by sending messages
to a separate process or thread.

<p>
The fact that SQLite is embedded and [serverless] instead of being
client/server is a feature, not a bug.

<p>

Which format you use, is entirely up to your application.

<h1>Foreign Key Enforcement Is Off By Default</h1>

<p>SQLite has parsed foreign key constraints for time out of mind,
but added the ability to actually enforce those constraints much later,
with [version 3.6.19] ([dateof:3.6.19]).  By the time foreign key constraint
enforcement was added, there where already countless millions of databases
enforcement was added, there were already countless millions of databases
in circulation that contained foreign key constraints, some of which
were not correct.  To avoid breaking those legacy databases, foreign key
constraint enforcement is turned off by default in SQLite.

<p>Applications can activate foreign key enforcement at run-time using
the [PRAGMA foreign_keys] statement.  Or, foreign key enforcement can
be activated at compile-time using the