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1:mod:`dbhash` --- DBM-style interface to the BSD database library
2=================================================================
3
4.. module:: dbhash
5   :synopsis: DBM-style interface to the BSD database library.
6.. sectionauthor:: Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake@acm.org>
7
8.. deprecated:: 2.6
9   The :mod:`dbhash` module has been removed in Python 3.
10
11.. index:: module: bsddb
12
13The :mod:`dbhash` module provides a function to open databases using the BSD
14``db`` library.  This module mirrors the interface of the other Python database
15modules that provide access to DBM-style databases.  The :mod:`bsddb` module is
16required  to use :mod:`dbhash`.
17
18This module provides an exception and a function:
19
20
21.. exception:: error
22
23   Exception raised on database errors other than :exc:`KeyError`.  It is a synonym
24   for :exc:`bsddb.error`.
25
26
27.. function:: open(path[, flag[, mode]])
28
29   Open a ``db`` database and return the database object.  The *path* argument is
30   the name of the database file.
31
32   The *flag* argument can be:
33
34   +---------+-------------------------------------------+
35   | Value   | Meaning                                   |
36   +=========+===========================================+
37   | ``'r'`` | Open existing database for reading only   |
38   |         | (default)                                 |
39   +---------+-------------------------------------------+
40   | ``'w'`` | Open existing database for reading and    |
41   |         | writing                                   |
42   +---------+-------------------------------------------+
43   | ``'c'`` | Open database for reading and writing,    |
44   |         | creating it if it doesn't exist           |
45   +---------+-------------------------------------------+
46   | ``'n'`` | Always create a new, empty database, open |
47   |         | for reading and writing                   |
48   +---------+-------------------------------------------+
49
50   For platforms on which the BSD ``db`` library supports locking, an ``'l'``
51   can be appended to indicate that locking should be used.
52
53   The optional *mode* parameter is used to indicate the Unix permission bits that
54   should be set if a new database must be created; this will be masked by the
55   current umask value for the process.
56
57
58.. seealso::
59
60   Module :mod:`anydbm`
61      Generic interface to ``dbm``\ -style databases.
62
63   Module :mod:`bsddb`
64      Lower-level interface to the BSD ``db`` library.
65
66   Module :mod:`whichdb`
67      Utility module used to determine the type of an existing database.
68
69
70.. _dbhash-objects:
71
72Database Objects
73----------------
74
75The database objects returned by :func:`.open` provide the methods  common to all
76the DBM-style databases and mapping objects.  The following methods are
77available in addition to the standard methods.
78
79
80.. method:: dbhash.first()
81
82   It's possible to loop over every key/value pair in the database using this
83   method and the :meth:`!next` method.  The traversal is ordered by the databases
84   internal hash values, and won't be sorted by the key values.  This method
85   returns the starting key.
86
87
88.. method:: dbhash.last()
89
90   Return the last key/value pair in a database traversal.  This may be used to
91   begin a reverse-order traversal; see :meth:`previous`.
92
93
94.. method:: dbhash.next()
95
96   Returns the key next key/value pair in a database traversal.  The following code
97   prints every key in the database ``db``, without having to create a list in
98   memory that contains them all::
99
100      print db.first()
101      for i in xrange(1, len(db)):
102          print db.next()
103
104
105.. method:: dbhash.previous()
106
107   Returns the previous key/value pair in a forward-traversal of the database. In
108   conjunction with :meth:`last`, this may be used to implement a reverse-order
109   traversal.
110
111
112.. method:: dbhash.sync()
113
114   This method forces any unwritten data to be written to the disk.
115
116