NAME

       gd_rewrite_fragment — re-write a Dirfile format specification fragment

SYNOPSIS

       #include <getdata.h>

       int gd_rewrite_fragment(DIRFILE *dirfile, int fragment);

DESCRIPTION

       The  gd_rewrite_fragment()  writes  the  format  specification  fragment  specified  by fragment to disk,
       regardless of whether it has changed or not, overwriting the existing file.

       In  addition  to  being  simply  a  valid  fragment  index,  fragment  may  also  be  the  special  value
       GD_ALL_FRAGMENTS, which indicates that all fragments should be rewritten.

       Metadata  is  written  to  disk using the current Standards Version as stored in the dirfile object.  See
       gd_dirfile_standards(3) to change or report the current  Standards  Version.   If  the  dirfile  metadata
       conforms to no known Standards Version, a Standards non-compliant fragment will be written.

RETURN VALUE

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

       GD_E_ACCMODE
               The supplied dirfile was opened in read-only mode.

       GD_E_ALLOC
               The library was unable to allocate memory.

       GD_E_BAD_DIRFILE
               The supplied dirfile was invalid.

       GD_E_BAD_INDEX
               The supplied fragment index was out of range.

       GD_E_IO An I/O error occurred while trying to write modified metadata to disk.

       GD_E_LINE_TOO_LONG
               While attempting to flush modified metadata to disk, a  field  specification  line  exceeded  the
               maximum  allowed  length.  On most platforms, the maximum length is at least 2**31 bytes, so this
               typically indicates something pathological happening.

       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).

BUGS

       When writing metadata using Standards Version 4 or earlier, the reference field may change, owing to  the
       lack of a /REFERENCE directive.  A work-around is to upgrade to Standards Version 5 or later.

HISTORY

       The gd_rewrite_fragment() function appeared in GetData-0.7.0.

       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_dirfile_standards(3),  gd_error(3),  gd_error_string(3),  gd_flush(3),  gd_metaflush(3),
       gd_open(3)