with DBM there's no notion of a database entity separate from a file representing some sub-entity -- as a single file (when you tie it) is a simple hash table. So it looks to me like you're confusing yourself, you sayd "DB" is something and "DATABASE" is something else. Guess what, DB stands for Database. Try using the path of the actual "DB" file you mentioned. Obviously link.db is not a dbm database/file/hash/table.