diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index b32d4555e8c9..d335bfd9d4bc 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -406,6 +406,8 @@ Extension Modules
 Build
 -----
 
+- Issue #6491: Allow --with-dbmliborder to specify that no dbms will be built.
+
 - Issue #7589: Only build the nis module when the correct header files are
   found.
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b8bad1461702..ef70df9a55a0 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -893,14 +893,15 @@ class db_found(Exception): pass
         else:
             missing.append('_sqlite3')
 
+        dbm_order = ['gdbm']
         # The standard Unix dbm module:
         if platform not in ['cygwin']:
             config_args = [arg.strip("'")
                            for arg in sysconfig.get_config_var("CONFIG_ARGS").split()]
-            dbm_args = [arg.split('=')[-1] for arg in config_args
+            dbm_args = [arg for arg in config_args
                         if arg.startswith('--with-dbmliborder=')]
             if dbm_args:
-                dbm_order = dbm_args[-1].split(":")
+                dbm_order = [arg.split('=')[-1] for arg in dbm_args][-1].split(":")
             else:
                 dbm_order = "ndbm:gdbm:bdb".split(":")
             dbmext = None
@@ -962,7 +963,8 @@ class db_found(Exception): pass
                 missing.append('_dbm')
 
         # Anthony Baxter's gdbm module.  GNU dbm(3) will require -lgdbm:
-        if (self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'gdbm')):
+        if ('gdbm' in dbm_order and
+            self.compiler.find_library_file(lib_dirs, 'gdbm')):
             exts.append( Extension('_gdbm', ['_gdbmmodule.c'],
                                    libraries = ['gdbm'] ) )
         else: