At least on current Debian systems (testing/unstable), the dbm module cannot be built anymore using the classic ndbm interface. Building this module using the BSD DB compatibility interface, or the GNU GDBM compatibility interface, is not an option, because the file format differs and existing archives cannot be read anymore. I'm unaware of the situation on other Linux systems and other systems. Would it be possible to deprecate the use of the dbm module for 2.3, or is it still used on many systems? Would it be acceptable to backport the bsddb185 module to the 2.2 branch? Matthias