A ResourceDB::gdbm object implements a Resource Database using a GDBM file. ResourceDB::gdbm inherits from both gdbm::ResourceDB and ResourceDB.

Each dependency is stored in a record whose key based on the dependency's resource's name. For example, resource “libfoo=3.4-1” is saved in a record that's named after “libfoo”. Furthermore, for file-based dependencies, the key is the last component of the filename path. For example, the file “/usr/bin/foo”, is saved under the key of “foo”. This is done in order to meaningfully compare different filenames that actually refer to the same file, because some intermediate filename component is a soft link (if /usr/lib64 is a soft link to /usr/lib, for example, then /usr/lib64/foo and /usr/lib/foo is the same file, and the resources based on these files will compare as equal, as described in Section 3, “Special logic for file-based resources”).

To add a new dependency, the existing list of dependencies with the same key is retrieved from the gdbm::ResourceDB superclass, the new dependency is added to the list, and the updated list is saved under the same key. A particular dependency is removed using an analogous procedure.

The find method retrieves the record associated with each dependecy's key, then checks each dependency associated with the key, one at a time. The enumerate method uses the superclass's enumeration function to get all keys in the GDBM files. Each record is retrieved via the superclass, and all dependencies in the record gets enumerated.