NAME

       gd_flush gd_raw_close gd_sync — write all pending Dirfile changes to disk or close open raw fields

SYNOPSIS

       #include <getdata.h>

       int gd_flush(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *field_code);

       int gd_raw_close(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *field_code);

       int gd_sync(DIRFILE *dirfile, const char *field_code);

DESCRIPTION

       The  gd_sync()  function flushes all pending writes to disk of raw data files associated with field_code,
       or its input(s), in the dirfile specified by dirfile.  If the field_code contains a valid  representation
       suffix, it will be ignored.

       As  a  special case, if NULL is passed to gd_sync() as field_code, all fields in dirfile will be flushed.
       In this special case, modified metadata will also be flushed to  disk  as  if  gd_metaflush(3)  had  been
       called.   If  the  dirfile  has  been  opened  read-only, this function does nothing.  Additionally, some
       encoding schemes may implement this as a NOP.

       The gd_raw_close() function  closes  any  raw  data  files  which  GetData  has  opened  associated  with
       field_code,  or  its  input(s).   Again,  if field_code is NULL, all open data files are closed.  The I/O
       pointer of any RAW field which is closed is reset to the beginning-of-field.

       Calling gd_flush() is essentially equivalent to calling first gd_sync() and then gd_raw_close()  (ie.  it
       does  both  tasks),  although,  if  field_code  is NULL, the order of operations if may be different than
       making the two explicit calls.

RETURN VALUE

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

       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_IO An I/O error occurred while trying to write modified data or 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.

       GD_E_RECURSE_LEVEL
               Too  many  levels of recursion were encountered while trying to resolve field_code.  This usually
               indicates a circular dependency in field specification in the dirfile.

       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 dirfile_flush() function appeared in GetData-0.3.0.

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

       The gd_raw_close() and gd_sync() functions appeared in GetData-0.8.0.

       In GetData-0.10.0, the error return from these functions 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_metaflush(3), gd_open(3)