[Xapian-tickets] [Xapian] #266: Rename flush() to commit, add a pure minimise_memory() method.

[Xapian]

#266: Rename flush() to commit, add a pure minimise_memory() method.
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 Reporter:  richard      |       Owner:  olly    
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new     
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  1.1.0   
Component:  Library API  |     Version:  SVN HEAD
 Severity:  normal       |    Keywords:          
Blockedby:               |    Platform:  All     
 Blocking:               |  
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 Currently, WritableDatabase::flush(), (which can only be called outside an
 explicit transaction), writes all the buffered changes to disk, and then
 performs a commit of the implicit transaction, making the changes visible
 to newly opened Database objects.  This isn't really implied by the
 "flush" name - it would be more accurate to call the method "commit()", or
 similar.  I suggest renaming flush to commit (but keeping flush() as an
 alias for backwards compatibility, for now).

 Also, it would be helpful to be able to force the buffered changes to be
 written to disk, to reduce memory usage, but not to cause a commit().
 This kind of flush would be useful when performing a large bulk change
 which the user wants to appear atomic.  We can't call this method
 "flush()" because this would be a confusing change of behaviour.  Olly
 suggests calling the method "minimise_memory", which seems fine to me, and
 describes the intention of the method, rather than its effects.  This
 method would work the same whether called inside or outside an explicit
 transaction - it would write as many of the buffered changes as possible
 to disk, but not perform a commit.

 Let's think about this for 1.1.0, though I'm not going to complain if this
 is bumped to later.

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Ticket URL: <http://trac.xapian.org/ticket/266>
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