sub tie_hash_or_array
{
    my (@arg) = @_ ;
    my $tieHASH = ( (caller(1))[3] =~ /TIEHASH/ ) ;

    $arg[4] = tied %{ $arg[4] }
        if @arg >= 5 && ref $arg[4] && $arg[4] =~ /=HASH/ && tied %{ $arg[4] } ;

    # make recno in Berkeley DB version 2 work like recno in version 1.
    if ($db_version > 1 and defined $arg[4] and $arg[4] =~ /RECNO/ and
        $arg[1] and ! -e $arg[1]) {
        open( FH, ">$arg[1]") or return undef ;
        close FH ;
        chmod $arg[3] ? $arg[3] : 0666 , $arg[1] ;
    }

    DoTie_($tieHASH, @arg) ;
}