How To Corrupt An SQLite Database File

Table Of Contents

Overview

An SQLite database is highly resistant to corruption. If an application crash, or an operating-system crash, or even a power failure occurs in the middle of a transaction, the partially written transaction should be automatically rolled back the next time the database file is accessed. The recovery process is fully automatic and does not require any action on the part of the user or the application.

Though SQLite is resistant to database corruption, it is not immune. This document describes the various ways that an SQLite database might go corrupt.

1. File overwrite by a rogue thread or process

SQLite database files are ordinary disk files. That means that any process can open the file and overwrite it with garbage. There is nothing that the SQLite library can do to defend against this.

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