GNU Info

(gdbm.info)Reorganization

---

Next: Sync Prev: Sequential Up: Top

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Database reorganization.
************************

   The following function should be used very seldom.

     ret = gdbm_reorganize(dbf);

   The parameter is:

GDBM_FILE dbf
     The pointer returned by `gdbm_open'.

   If you have had a lot of deletions and would like to shrink the space
used by the `gdbm' file, this function will reorganize the database.
`gdbm' will not shorten the length of a `gdbm' file (deleted file space
will be reused) except by using this reorganization.

   This reorganization requires creating a new file and inserting all
the elements in the old file `dbf' into the new file. The new file is
then renamed to the same name as the old file and `dbf' is updated to
contain all the correct information about the new file. If an error is
detected, the return value is negative. The value zero is returned
after a successful reorganization.