DEL

Deletes one or more keys.

Browse all commands · Upstream source documentation

Reference field	Value
Canonical name	DEL
Catalog group	Generic commands
Upstream since	1.0.0 — upstream Redis/module version, not an ffkv release
Pinned catalog	Redis 8.10.0

Syntax

DEL key [key ...]

ffkv behavior and limits

TTL deadlines use wall-clock time and remain absolute across restart. Key/database operations can overwrite or remove data; SCAN is incremental rather than an atomic snapshot. New typed structures remain in RAM in hybrid mode.

Source: README.md:193–195, 375–377, 584–585; tests/bdd/features/generic.feature.

Data-changing administration: use an isolated dataset or a verified backup. Lost replies have an unknown outcome; never blindly replay a destructive operation.

All requests share the 8 MiB framing/1,024-argument ingress limit; normal RESP replies have 64 MiB wire/logical budgets with bounded nesting/value counts. Management and Lua origins impose smaller budgets. These are not a process RSS cap. Catalog inclusion is not exhaustive option or wire-format parity. See limits and compatibility.

Upstream metadata

The following fields come from the pinned Redis metadata, not measured ffkv performance or an assertion that ffkv enforces every upstream flag. Running COMMAND INFO/COMMAND DOCS describe the current engine.

Upstream Redis complexity: O(N) where N is the number of keys that will be removed. When a key to remove holds a value other than a string, the individual complexity for this key is O(M) where M is the number of elements in the list, set, sorted set or hash. Removing a single key that holds a string value is O(1).

Upstream arity: -2 (includes the command name; a negative number is a minimum).

Command flags: WRITE.

ACL categories: KEYSPACE.

Command tips: REQUEST_POLICY:MULTI_SHARD, RESPONSE_POLICY:AGG_SUM.

Argument structure

Argument	Type	Constraints / metadata
key	key	multiple; key_spec_index: 0

Key specifications

Upstream key discovery descriptors (indexes are relative to the full command vector):

[
  {
    "flags": [
      "RM",
      "DELETE"
    ],
    "begin_search": {
      "index": {
        "pos": 1
      }
    },
    "find_keys": {
      "range": {
        "lastkey": -1,
        "step": 1,
        "limit": 0
      }
    }
  }
]

Additional pinned upstream metadata

{
  "group": "generic",
  "since": "1.0.0"
}

Metadata source · Local snapshot: src/command_metadata.json, key del.

BDD coverage and source examples

These are source observations, not a test run performed by this documentation build. A tag identifies scenario intent; an extracted vector identifies a command invocation, which may intentionally produce an error. Scenarios may require setup, multiple connections, persistence, cluster nodes or native-module fixtures.

• Flushing assignments rejects a nonempty database and persists an empty release — tests/bdd/features/cluster.feature:753; invocation observed.
• Live resolved mutations replay list changes deletion and absolute expiry exactly once — tests/bdd/features/cluster.feature:1109; invocation observed.
• Existence counts repeated arguments but deletion counts each removed key once — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:129; command tag and invocation observed.
• Move respects destination collisions and transfers a hash with its deadline to another database — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:768; invocation observed.
• Random key returns the only live key and becomes null after deletion — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:1012; invocation observed.
• A complete singleton scan supports MATCH COUNT TYPE and a terminal empty result — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:1159; invocation observed.
• Numeric signed zero bounds share equality without invalid ranges — tests/bdd/features/search.feature:5; invocation observed.
• Empty tag queries follow initial scans updates deletion and rebuild — tests/bdd/features/search.feature:61; invocation observed.
• Each vector algorithm maintains a real index across updates and deletions (Scenario Outline) — tests/bdd/features/search.feature:693; invocation observed.
• Suffix dictionaries update when their last posting disappears — tests/bdd/features/search.feature:1168; invocation observed.
• Rewritten journal preserves live values and deletes after restart — tests/bdd/features/server.feature:142; invocation observed.
• Memory diagnostics account for live data without inventing allocator internals — tests/bdd/features/server.feature:313; invocation observed.
• Memory statistics distinguish allocated bytes from actual live keys across databases — tests/bdd/features/transactions_runtime.feature:211; invocation observed.

Extracted command vectors

The following JSON arrays are the test harness’s argument vectors, not shell commands. Numeric arguments are converted by the harness; objects of the form {"base64":"…"} represent decoded binary bytes, not a literal JSON command argument. Preserve scenario setup and connection ordering. See the CLI guide for shell quoting and binary stdin. No reply is invented or inferred.

Memory statistics distinguish allocated bytes from actual live keys across databases — tests/bdd/features/transactions_runtime.feature:226 (client “memory” executes:)

[
  "DEL",
  "memory:deleted"
]

Next source assertion: the reply equals:

"QUEUED"

Existence counts repeated arguments but deletion counts each removed key once — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:143 (I execute:)

[
  "DEL",
  "text",
  "text",
  "missing",
  "list"
]

Next source assertion: the reply equals:

2

Random key returns the only live key and becomes null after deletion — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:1031 (the following commands succeed:)

[
  "DEL",
  "only"
]