gd_metaflush(3)

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 metadata, 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 conforms 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 maximum allowed length. On most platforms, the maximum length is at least 2**31 bytes, so this typically 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_fragment(3), gd_sync(3)