diff --git a/meta/deps/limb/version b/meta/deps/limb/version
index 6e8bf73..17e51c3 100644
--- a/meta/deps/limb/version
+++ b/meta/deps/limb/version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.1.0
+0.1.1
diff --git a/src/doc/ssp.1.md b/src/doc/ssp.1.md
index 52b02bf..5bf4592 100644
--- a/src/doc/ssp.1.md
+++ b/src/doc/ssp.1.md
@@ -37,10 +37,12 @@ as well as TOTP (Time-Based One-Time Password Algorithm; as per [RFC 6238]).
 :: Use `ITER` iterations when performing key derivation to write database. See
 :: [[DATABASE]] below for more. Must be at least 50 000; Defaults to 500 000.
 ::
-:: Note that this only applies when writing database, not reading it (since the
-:: number of iterations used is stored within the file), but since the database
-:: is re-encrypted each time it is written, any operation requiring to write
-:: the database will make use of this setting.
+:: Note that this only applies when writing database, not reading it - since the
+:: number of iterations used is stored within the file.
+::
+:: In addition, when re-writing (i.e. updating/editing) a database, and unless
+:: this option is used, the number of iterations previously used (as read from
+:: the file during opening) will be re-used by default.
 
 : *-q*, *--quiet*
 <inc autoopt_quiet.md>
diff --git a/src/ssp/database.c b/src/ssp/database.c
index d300e78..a3bcad7 100644
--- a/src/ssp/database.c
+++ b/src/ssp/database.c
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ open_db(struct ssp *ctx, int is_needed)
 
     u32 magic = SSP_MAGIC;
     u64 ver;
-    if (!shldata_read(&magic, &ver, &ctx->sa, AT_FDCWD, db_file(ctx), ctx->pwd, plen)) {
+    unsigned algo, iter;
+    if (!shldata_read(&magic, &ver, &algo, &iter, &ctx->sa, AT_FDCWD, db_file(ctx), ctx->pwd, plen)) {
         if (errno == EINVAL && magic != SSP_MAGIC)
             warnu("open database ", ESC, db_file(ctx), ESC, ": ", "not an SSP database");
         else if (errno == EBADMSG)
@@ -79,6 +80,11 @@ open_db(struct ssp *ctx, int is_needed)
         return -1;
     }
 
+    if (!ctx->iter) {
+        ctx->iter = iter;
+        dbg("set iteration to ", PMUINT(ctx->iter));
+    }
+
     ctx->cdboff = off;
     cdb_init_frommem(&ctx->cdb, ctx->sa.s + off, ctx->sa.len - off);
     dbg("initialized cdb [off=", PMUINT(off), " size=", PMUINT(ctx->cdb.size), "]");
@@ -185,7 +191,7 @@ rebuild_cdb(cdbmaker_sa *mkr, const char *oldkey, const char *newkey,
 int
 write_db(char *data, size_t dlen, struct ssp *ctx)
 {
-    dbg("writing db");
+    dbg("writing db; iter=", PMUINT((ctx->iter) ? ctx->iter : ITER_DEF));
 
     ssize_t plen;