For standard SQLite, this pragma identifies the maximum size that the journal file is allowed to be.

Berkeley DB does not have a journal file, but it does write and use log files. Over the course of the database's lifetime, Berkeley DB will probably create multiple log files. A new log file is created when the current log file has reached the defined maximum size for a log file.

You use PRAGMA journal_size_limit to define this maximum size for a log file.

For more information, see Setting the Log File Size.

For standard SQLite, this identifies the maximum number of pages allowed in the database. For the BDB SQL interface, this identifies the maximum size (in bytes) that the database file is allowed to be.

For both interfaces, this pragma performs essentially the same function, but you express the upper bound in a slightly different way depending on which interface you are using.

For more information, see Configuring the Database Page Size.