Dbm

The dbm library was a simple database engine, originally written by Ken Thompson and released by AT&T in 1979. The name is a three letter acronym for DataBase Manager, and can also refer to the family of database engines with APIs and features derived from the original dbm.

The dbm library stores arbitrary data by use of a single key (a primary key) in fixed-size buckets and uses hashing techniques to enable fast retrieval of the data by key.

The hashing scheme used is a form of extendible hashing, so that the hashing scheme expands as new buckets are added to the database, meaning that, when nearly empty, the database starts with one bucket, which is then split when it becomes full. The two resulting child buckets will themselves split when they become full, so the database grows as keys are added.

The dbm library and its derivatives are pre-relational databases – they manage associative arrays, implemented as on-disk hash tables. In practice, they can offer a more practical solution for high-speed storage accessed by key, as they do not require the overhead of connecting and preparing queries. This is balanced by the fact that they can generally only be opened for writing by a single process at a time. An agent daemon can handle requests from multiple processes, but introduces IPC overhead.