dbm_delete man page on HP-UX

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ndbm(3X)							      ndbm(3X)

NAME
       dbm_open,  dbm_close,  dbm_fetch,  dbm_store, dbm_delete, dbm_firstkey,
       dbm_nextkey, dbm_error, dbm_clearerr - database subroutines

SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
       These functions maintain key/content pairs in a database.  They	handle
       very  large  (a	billion blocks (block = 1024 bytes)) databases and can
       access a keyed item in one or two file system accesses.

       key and content parameters are described by the type.   A  specifies  a
       string  of  dsize  bytes pointed to by dptr.  Arbitrary binary data, as
       well as normal ASCII strings, are allowed.  The database is  stored  in
       two  files.   One  file is a directory containing a bit map of keys and
       has as its suffix.  The second file contains all data and  has  as  its
       suffix.

       Before  a database can be accessed, it must be opened by This will open
       and/or create the files and  depending  on  the	flags  parameter  (see
       open(2)).

       Once  open,  the	 data  stored  under  a key is accessed by and data is
       placed under a key by The flags field can be either or can only	insert
       new entries into the database, and cannot change an existing entry hav‐
       ing the same key.  replaces an existing entry if it has the  same  key.
       A key (and its associated contents) is deleted by A linear pass through
       all keys in a database can be made in (apparently) random order by  use
       of  and returns the first key in the database.  returns the next key in
       the database, The following code can be used to traverse the database:

       returns non-zero when an error has  occurred  reading  or  writing  the
       database.  resets the error condition on the named database.

DIAGNOSTICS
       All  functions  that return an indicate errors with negative values and
       success with zero.  Functions that return a indicate errors with a null
       dptr.   If  is called with a flags value of and finds an existing entry
       with the same key, a value of is returned. If a call to results	in  an
       internal block overflow, a value of −2 is returned.

WARNINGS
       The  ndbm  functions provided in this library should not be confused in
       any way with those of a	general-purpose	 database  management  system.
       These  functions	 provide for multiple search keys per entry, they pro‐
       tect against multi-user access (in other words they do not lock records
       or  files),  and	 they provide the many other useful database functions
       that are found in more robust database  management  systems.   Creating
       and  updating  databases	 by  use of these functions is relatively slow
       because of data copies that occur upon hash  collisions.	  These	 func‐
       tions  for  applications	 requiring  fast  lookup  of relatively static
       information that is to be indexed by a single key.

       The pointer to data that is  returned  from  these  functions  are  not
       aligned.	  This can cause problems if the block contains data that must
       be aligned to a specific boundry. If the block contains data that  must
       be  aligned,  the  block	 should	 be copied to an appropriately aligned
       area.

       The file will contain holes so that its apparent	 size  is  about  four
       times  its  actual  content.   Some older UNIX systems create real file
       blocks for these holes when touched.  These files cannot be  copied  by
       normal  means  (such as cp(1), cat(1), tar(1), or ar(1)) without expan‐
       sion.

       dptr pointers returned by these subroutines point into  static  storage
       that is changed by subsequent calls.

       The sum of the sizes of a key/content pair must not exceed the internal
       block size (currently 1024 bytes).   Moreover,  all  key/content	 pairs
       that hash together must fit on a single block.  returns an error in the
       event that a disk block fills with inseparable data.

       does not physically reclaim file space, although it does make it avail‐
       able for reuse.

       The  order  of keys presented by and depends on a hashing function, not
       on anything interesting.

       A or during a pass  through  the	 keys  by  and	may  yield  unexpected
       results.

AUTHOR
       ndbm(3X) was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.

SEE ALSO
       dbm(3C), thread_safety(5).

								      ndbm(3X)
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