# 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 flag argument, used to control how the database is opened in the other DBM implementations, is ignored in `dumbdbm`; the database is always opened for update, and will be created if it does not exist.

  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). Changed in version 2.2: The mode argument was ignored in earlier versions.

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.