Growing database?

[j_mckitrick]

> Depends on what db module shelve uses for its backend. For instance,
> gdbm won't shrink a database file unless you specifically tell it to,
> so if you have a lot of deletions it will grow.
> 
> Easiest way to fix it is to copy all the objects from your shelve to a
> new shelve.

That makes sense.  I wasn't sure how deletions worked, but your idea
is a good one.  I'm currently running on FreeBSD, so I am using the
bsddb backend.