use DB_File;
my @dbs;        # array of hash references
my @dbModTime;  # mod times of db files
my @dbfns;      # array of database pathnames

# executed before fork into child processes
sub post_config {
  my $db;
  my $s = $_[3];

  # tie the DBs and get their mod times
  for ($db = 0; $db < @dbfn; $db++) {
    $dbs[$db] = {};
    tie %{$dbs[$db]}, "DB_File", $dbfn[$db], O_RDONLY
       or die ((caller 0)[3]. " can't tie "  . $dbfn[$db] . ": $!");
    $dbModTime[$db] = (CORE::stat($dbfn[$db]))[9]
       or die ((caller 0)[3]. " can't stat " . $dbfn[$db] . ": $!");
  }
}