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

Argument errors:

Error Code	Error message	Cause
ERR	Namespace '<path>' is reserved for internal use	The namespace path contains the reserved __internal__ name.

Namespace errors:

Error Code	Error message	Cause
NOSUCHNAMESPACE	No such namespace: '<path>'	-
NAMESPACEBEINGREMOVED	Namespace '<path>' is being removed	-
ERR	Cannot remove the default namespace: '<path>'	-

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