/Doc/library/dumbdbm.rst

 1:mod:`dumbdbm` --- Portable DBM implementation
 2==============================================
 3
 4.. module:: dumbdbm
 5   :synopsis: Portable implementation of the simple DBM interface.
 6
 7.. note::
 8   The :mod:`dumbdbm` module has been renamed to :mod:`dbm.dumb` in Python 3.0.
 9   The :term:`2to3` tool will automatically adapt imports when converting your
10   sources to 3.0.
11
12.. index:: single: databases
13
14.. note::
15
16   The :mod:`dumbdbm` module is intended as a last resort fallback for the
17   :mod:`anydbm` module when no more robust module is available. The :mod:`dumbdbm`
18   module is not written for speed and is not nearly as heavily used as the other
19   database modules.
20
21The :mod:`dumbdbm` module provides a persistent dictionary-like interface which
22is written entirely in Python.  Unlike other modules such as :mod:`gdbm` and
23:mod:`bsddb`, no external library is required.  As with other persistent
24mappings, the keys and values must always be strings.
25
26The module defines the following:
27
28
29.. exception:: error
30
31   Raised on dumbdbm-specific errors, such as I/O errors.  :exc:`KeyError` is
32   raised for general mapping errors like specifying an incorrect key.
33
34
35.. function:: open(filename[, flag[, mode]])
36
37   Open a dumbdbm database and return a dumbdbm object.  The *filename* argument is
38   the basename of the database file (without any specific extensions).  When a
39   dumbdbm database is created, files with :file:`.dat` and :file:`.dir` extensions
40   are created.
41
42   The optional *flag* argument is currently ignored; the database is always opened
43   for update, and will be created if it does not exist.
44
45   The optional *mode* argument is the Unix mode of the file, used only when the
46   database has to be created.  It defaults to octal ``0666`` (and will be modified
47   by the prevailing umask).
48
49   .. versionchanged:: 2.2
50      The *mode* argument was ignored in earlier versions.
51
52
53.. seealso::
54
55   Module :mod:`anydbm`
56      Generic interface to ``dbm``\ -style databases.
57
58   Module :mod:`dbm`
59      Similar interface to the DBM/NDBM library.
60
61   Module :mod:`gdbm`
62      Similar interface to the GNU GDBM library.
63
64   Module :mod:`shelve`
65      Persistence module which stores non-string data.
66
67   Module :mod:`whichdb`
68      Utility module used to determine the type of an existing database.
69
70
71.. _dumbdbm-objects:
72
73Dumbdbm Objects
74---------------
75
76In addition to the methods provided by the :class:`UserDict.DictMixin` class,
77:class:`dumbdbm` objects provide the following methods.
78
79
80.. method:: dumbdbm.sync()
81
82   Synchronize the on-disk directory and data files.  This method is called by the
83   :meth:`sync` method of :class:`Shelve` objects.
84