NAME

       gd_metaflush — write modified dirfile metadata to disk

SYNOPSIS

       #include <getdata.h>

       int gd_metaflush(DIRFILE *dirfile);

DESCRIPTION

       The  gd_metaflush()  function flushes all pending metadata changes in the dirfile specified by dirfile to
       disk.  This is accomplished by re-writing the format specification fragments containing modified  metada‐
       ta, overwriting the existing files.  Format file fragments which are unchanged are not touched.

       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  con‐
       forms to no known Standards Version, a Standards non-compliant fragment will be written.

       This function flushes only metadata.  To flush the field data as well, call gd_sync(3) instead.

RETURN VALUE

       On  success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned and the dirfile error is set to a non-zero error
       value.  Possible error values 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_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 max‐
               imum allowed length.  On most platforms, the maximum length is at least 2**31 bytes, so this typ‐
               ically indicates something pathological happening.

       The dirfile error may be retrieved by calling gd_error(3).  A descriptive error string for the last error
       encountered can be obtained from a call to 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.

SEE ALSO

       gd_open(3),   gd_close(3),  gd_dirfile_standards(3),  gd_error(3),  gd_error_string(3),  gd_rewrite_frag‐
       ment(3), gd_sync(3)

Version 0.9.0                                    16 October 2014                                 gd_metaflush(3)