NAME

       gd_delete — remove an entry from a Dirfile

SYNOPSIS

       #include <getdata.h>

       int gd_delete(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *field_code, unsigned int flags);

DESCRIPTION

       The  gd_delete()  function attempts to delete the field or alias specified by field_code from the dirfile
       specified by dirfile.  The field_code should not contain a representation suffix.

       The flags argument influences how the deletion attempt occurs.  It may be zero, for  the  default  behav‐
       iour, or else one or more of the following flags, bitwise or'd together:

       GD_DEL_DATA
               If  the  field to be deleted is a RAW field, also delete the binary data file associated with it.
               If field_code specified a RAW field and this flag is not  specified,  the  field  will  still  be
               deleted but the binary file will be left untouched.

       GD_DEL_DEREF
               If  the field to be deleted is a CONST or CARRAY field which is used as a parameter in the speci‐
               fication of other fields, resolve these other fields' dependence on the deleted field by  replac‐
               ing instances of field_code in their field specifications with the value of the scalar field.

       GD_DEL_FORCE
               Delete  the indicated entry, even if it is used in the specification of other fields, either as a
               input for a derived vector field or as a scalar parameter in a field specification, or if it  has
               aliases pointing to it.

       GD_DEL_META
               If  the  field to be deleted has metafields attached to it, attempt to delete those, too.  If the
               field has metafields and this flag is not specified, the call will fail with the GD_E_DELETE  er‐
               ror.

RETURN VALUE

       On  successful deletion, zero is returned.  On error, a negative-valued error code is returned.  Possible
       error codes are:

       GD_E_ACCMODE
               The specified dirfile was opened read-only.

       GD_E_ALLOC
               The library was unable to allocate memory.

       GD_E_BAD_CODE
               The field specified by field_code was not found in the database.

       GD_E_BAD_DIRFILE
               The supplied dirfile was invalid.

       GD_E_DELETE
               The attempt to delete the field failed.  Either it is used in the specification of  other  fields
               and  GD_DEL_FORCE or GD_DEL_DEREF was not specified, or it has metafields and GD_DEL_META was not
               specified.

       GD_E_INTERNAL_ERROR
               An internal error occurred in the library while trying to perform the task.  This indicates a bug
               in the library.  Please report the incident to the GetData developers.

       GD_E_IO An error occurred while trying to close or delete the binary file associated with a RAW field.

       GD_E_PROTECTED
               The metadata of the fragment containing the field was protected from change.  Or, the deletion of
               the binary data file associated with a RAW field was attempted and the data of the  fragment  was
               protected.

       GD_E_UNKNOWN_ENCODING
               The  GD_DEL_DATA  flag  was  given  but the encoding scheme of the indicated format specification
               fragment is not known to the library.  As a result, the library was unable to delete  the  binary
               file associated with a RAW field.

       GD_E_UNSUPPORTED
               The  GD_DEL_DATA  flag  was  given  but the encoding scheme of the indicated format specification
               fragment does not support deleting the binary file associated with a RAW field.

       The error code is also stored in the DIRFILE object and may be retrieved after this function  returns  by
       calling   gd_error(3).    A   descriptive  error  string  for  the  error  may  be  obtained  by  calling
       gd_error_string(3).

HISTORY

       The function dirfile_delete() appeared in GetData-0.5.0.

       In GetData-0.7.0, this function was renamed to gd_delete().

       In all GetData-0.8.x releases, passing an alias name to this function would  delete  the  target  of  the
       alias.  To delete an alias itself, a separate function, gd_delete_alias() was available.

       In GetData-0.9.0, gd_delete_alias() was removed.

       In GetData-0.10.0, the error return from this function changed from -1 to a negative-valued error code.

SEE ALSO

       gd_close(3), gd_error(3), gd_error_string(3), gd_metaflush(3), gd_open(3)

Version 0.10.0                                  25 December 2016                                    gd_delete(3)