diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 1a70e3183b66..e916d08def79 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #4483: _dbm module now builds on systems with gdbm & gdbm_compat
+  libs.
+
 - Issue #4529: fix the parser module's validation of try-except-finally
   statements.
 
diff --git a/Modules/dbmmodule.c b/Modules/dbmmodule.c
index c91ea471a05e..0c50b5454c2a 100644
--- a/Modules/dbmmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/dbmmodule.c
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ static char *which_dbm = "GNU gdbm";  /* EMX port of GDBM */
 #elif defined(HAVE_GDBM_NDBM_H)
 #include <gdbm/ndbm.h>
 static char *which_dbm = "GNU gdbm";
+#elif defined(HAVE_GDBM_DASH_NDBM_H)
+#include <gdbm-ndbm.h>
+static char *which_dbm = "GNU gdbm";
 #elif defined(HAVE_BERKDB_H)
 #include <db.h>
 static char *which_dbm = "Berkeley DB";
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5c37e4553f2a..e7d3ad3ba57a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1019,8 +1019,20 @@ class db_found(Exception): pass
                 exts.append( Extension('dbm', ['dbmmodule.c'],
                                        define_macros=[('HAVE_NDBM_H',None)],
                                        libraries = ndbm_libs ) )
-            elif (self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'gdbm')
-                  and find_file("gdbm/ndbm.h", inc_dirs, []) is not None):
+            elif self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'gdbm'):
+                gdbm_libs = ['gdbm']
+                if self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'gdbm_compat'):
+                    gdbm_libs.append('gdbm_compat')
+                if find_file("gdbm/ndbm.h", inc_dirs, []) is not None:
+                    exts.append( Extension(
+                        'dbm', ['dbmmodule.c'],
+                        define_macros=[('HAVE_GDBM_NDBM_H',None)],
+                        libraries = gdbm_libs ) )
+                elif find_file("gdbm-ndbm.h", inc_dirs, []) is not None:
+                    exts.append( Extension(
+                        'dbm', ['dbmmodule.c'],
+                        define_macros=[('HAVE_GDBM_DASH_NDBM_H',None)],
+                        libraries = gdbm_libs ) )
                 exts.append( Extension('dbm', ['dbmmodule.c'],
                                        define_macros=[('HAVE_GDBM_NDBM_H',None)],
                                        libraries = ['gdbm'] ) )