> This question doesn't make sense because you are asking if databases can be management systems which is obviously false by definition. Yes! And by extension

> This question doesn't make sense because you are asking if databases can be management systems which is obviously false by definition. Yes! And by extension the tar utility is not a DBMS even if it checks some of the boxes for one. And thus SQLite files are not RDBMSs. Looks like you and I agree. > The database can be physically stored in any arbitrary format. One can build an RDBMS that stores all its data in tar or JSON files. No matter how inefficient as long as software exists that manages the database. Sure! One can come up with all kinds of very terrible software. But what's the distinction between some random software that just allows CRUD operations on a file format and an RDBMS by your definition? Because you've defined something close to 100% of all software as an RDBMS which makes the distinction between software and RDBMSs meaningless. There has to be something more than just that to be an RDBMS doesn't there?