# 7.9 `dumbdbm` -- Portable DBM implementation

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

`open`(filename[, flag[, mode]])
  Open the database file filename and return a corresponding object. The optional flag argument can be `'r'` to open an existing database for reading only, `'w'` to open an existing database for reading and writing, `'c'` to create the database if it doesn't exist, or `'n'`, which will always create a new empty database. If not specified, the default value is `'r'`.

  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).

exception `error`
  Raised for errors not reported as `KeyError` errors.

See Also:

Module `anydbm`:
  Generic interface to `dbm`-style databases.

Module `whichdb`:
  Utility module used to determine the type of an existing database.