On my system with db4, I noticed that whichdb doesn't
know anything about more recent database types created
by the bsddb module.

Python 2.4.3 (#1, Jun 13 2006, 11:46:08) 
[GCC 4.1.1 20060525 (Red Hat 4.1.1-1)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for
more information.
>>> 
>>> from whichdb import *
>>> import bsddb
>>> 
>>> dbfile= "hash"
>>> bsddb.hashopen( dbfile)
{}
>>> whichdb( dbfile)
'dbhash'
>>> # yay
... 
>>> dbfile= "btree"
>>> bsddb.btopen( dbfile)
{}
>>> whichdb( dbfile)
''
>>> # bah
... 
>>> dbfile= "recno"
>>> bsddb.rnopen( dbfile)
{}
>>> whichdb( dbfile)
''
>>> # humbug!

It looks like both these database types share:

#define DB_BTREEMAGIC   0x053162

So this might be a start:

--- Python-2.5c1/Lib/whichdb.py.orig 2005-02-05
22:57:08.000000000 -0800
+++ Python-2.5c1/Lib/whichdb.py      2006-08-28
13:46:57.000000000 -0700
@@ -109,6 +109,10 @@
     if magic in (0x00061561, 0x61150600):
         return "dbhash"
 
+    # Check for binary tree
+    if magic == 0x00053162:
+        return "btree"
+
     # Unknown
     return ""
 

But alas, I'm not clear on the best way to
differentiate between btree and recno.

The above example is on 2.4 but persists in 2.5.

Logged In: YES 
user_id=21627

It is not the job of whichdb to recognize certain database
types created by the bsddb module. Instead, as the doc
string says

"Guess which db package to use to open a db file."

The return value of whichdb is a *module name*. Since
"btree" is not a module name, the proposed change is incorrect.

Closing as invalid.