Why use Ruby's DBM library

Question

Is anyone aware of a practical (real-life) use of Ruby's DBM lib? Is it an alternative to more "widespread" persistent key-value stores like Redis ?

Answer 1

• DBM is a very old "standard" (there are multiple versions, see a post.)
• Software to read/write DBM is much more widespread than the much newer Redis.

If you need compatibility with some other software that uses or generates DBM, use it.

Otherwise, you're probably right to investigate newer technologies including Redis. But don't stop with Redis--you should also look into other NoSQL solutions. FindTheBest

Answer 2

I've never used it, but the obvious answer is that it's part of the standard library and thereby available anywhere Ruby is. This potentially makes it very useful in a very narrow set of circumstances, i.e. when you need a key-value store but the end user is in an environment where more robust solutions aren't available, e.g. Redis can't be installed or run or there's no internet connection to download a gem.