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 behaviour, 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 specification of other fields, resolve these other  fields'  dependence  on
               the   deleted   field   by  replacing  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 error.

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)