Consultor Eletrônico

Status: Unverified

GOAL:

Why does issueing a prolib -delete of a procedure cause the original pl file to grow?

GOAL:

Why does prolib -delete not shrink the pl file?

FIX:

The procedure file does not shrink after a prolib -delete is issued because the space is not released in the file. Issuing a prolib -delete, the procedure makes that space available so when a new file is added there is space to be reused.


Use the prolib -compress parameter to remove the extra spaces that occur in the library as a result of repeated adds or deletes. Repeated adds will create empty spaces in the library over time. To minimize the rate at which these empty spaces are created, use one prolib command instead of many.
If the script had a single call to prolib with all the files to deleted little growth would be seen of the file (just enough to regenerate a new directory list). Or the file can be compressed it at the end of the prolib process. Compressing a pl file consumes resources, so it is not done automatically.
From the doc "To compress a library, PROLIB creates a temporary file that requires an area of disk space equal to the size of the compressed library".
If the file was compressed every time prolib was called the temp file would be creating and deleting the new pl file over and over again. Which would be very time consuming and not efficient.