dbm module provides an interface to the Unix “(n)dbm” library. Dbm
objects behave like mappings (dictionaries), except that keys and values are
always strings. Printing a dbm object doesn’t print the keys and values, and the
values() methods are not supported.
This module can be used with the “classic” ndbm interface, the BSD DB compatibility interface, or the GNU GDBM compatibility interface. On Unix, the configure script will attempt to locate the appropriate header file to simplify building this module.
The module defines the following:
Raised on dbm-specific errors, such as I/O errors.
KeyErroris raised for general mapping errors like specifying an incorrect key.
Name of the
ndbmimplementation library used.
open(filename[, flag[, mode]])¶
Open a dbm database and return a dbm object. The filename argument is the name of the database file (without the
.pagextensions; note that the BSD DB implementation of the interface will append the extension
.dband only create one file).
The optional flag argument must be one of these values:
Open existing database for reading only (default)
Open existing database for reading and writing
Open database for reading and writing, creating it if it doesn’t exist
Always create a new, empty database, open for reading and writing
The optional mode argument is the Unix mode of the file, used only when the database has to be created. It defaults to octal
0666(and will be modified by the prevailing umask).
In addition to the dictionary-like methods,
dbmobjects provide the following method: