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Portable DBM implementation</TITLE>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION009800000000000000000">
7.8 <tt class=module>dumbdbm</tt> --
         Portable DBM implementation</A>
</H1>

<P>


<P>
A simple and slow database implemented entirely in Python.  This
should only be used when no other DBM-style database is available.

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1395"><tt class=function>open</tt></a></b> (<var>filename</var><big>[</big><var>, flag</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>]</big><big>]</big>)
<dd>
Open the database file <var>filename</var> and return a corresponding object.
The optional <var>flag</var> argument can be
<tt>'r'</tt> to open an existing database for reading only,
<tt>'w'</tt> to open an existing database for reading and writing,
<tt>'c'</tt> to create the database if it doesn't exist, or
<tt>'n'</tt>, which will always create a new empty database.  If not
specified, the default value is <tt>'r'</tt>.

<P>
The optional <var>mode</var> argument is the Unix mode of the file, used
only when the database has to be created.  It defaults to octal
<tt>0666</tt> (and will be modified by the prevailing umask).
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1396"><tt class=exception>error</tt></a></b>
<dd>
Raised for errors not reported as <tt class=exception>KeyError</tt> errors.
</dl>

<P>
<div class=seealso>
  <p class=heading><b>See Also:</b></p>

  <div class=seemodule>
<p>Module <b><tt class=module><a href="module-anydbm.html">anydbm</a></tt></b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(Generic interface to <tt>dbm</tt>-style databases.)</p>
</div>
  <div class=seemodule>
<p>Module <b><tt class=module><a href="module-whichdb.html">whichdb</a></tt></b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(Utility module used to determine the type of an
                      existing database.)</p>
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