NAMESPACE REMOVE

Marks a namespace for logical removal without deleting its FoundationDB directory. Physical deletion requires a subsequent NAMESPACE PURGE.

Syntax

NAMESPACE REMOVE <namespace>

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
namespace	string	Yes	Dot-separated hierarchical path of the namespace to remove (e.g. staging.orders).

Return Value

Returns OK on success.

Behavior

The command sets a removed flag on the namespace metadata. The FoundationDB directory is not deleted. This is a logical removal only. To physically delete the directory, run NAMESPACE PURGE after the removal has been observed by all cluster members.

The command uses an isolated one-off transaction to prevent consistency issues. If the transaction fails due to a conflict (error code 1020), it is automatically retried.

The default namespace (configured via default_namespace) cannot be removed.

The __internal__ name is reserved at any level of the hierarchy and cannot be used.

Hierarchical removal

Removing a parent namespace (e.g. a.b) affects all child namespaces (e.g. a.b.c, a.b.c.d). The children inherit the removed state from their parent.

Cluster-wide side effects

A cluster-wide event is published to the journal. Every cluster member that consumes this event:

1. Invalidates its bucket metadata cache entries keyed under the namespace
2. Invalidates plan cache entries keyed under the namespace
3. Removes the namespace from all sessions’ open-namespaces set
4. Shuts down workers registered for the namespace
5. Records the observed namespace version once workers terminate (barrier for NAMESPACE PURGE)

Errors

Error Code	Description
NOSUCHNAMESPACE	The namespace does not exist.
NAMESPACEBEINGREMOVED	The namespace is already marked for removal.
ERR	Attempting to remove the default namespace, or the namespace path contains the reserved __internal__ name.

Examples

Remove a namespace:

> NAMESPACE CREATE staging.orders
OK

> NAMESPACE REMOVE staging.orders
OK

Non-existent namespace:

> NAMESPACE REMOVE non.existent
(error) NOSUCHNAMESPACE No such namespace: 'non.existent'

Already marked for removal:

> NAMESPACE CREATE staging.orders
OK

> NAMESPACE REMOVE staging.orders
OK

> NAMESPACE REMOVE staging.orders
(error) NAMESPACEBEINGREMOVED Namespace 'staging.orders' is being removed

Default namespace:

> NAMESPACE REMOVE global
(error) ERR Cannot remove the default namespace: 'global'

Reserved name:

> NAMESPACE REMOVE name.__internal__
(error) ERR Namespace 'name.__internal__' is reserved for internal use