HDEL

Deletes one or more fields and their values from a hash. Deletes the hash if no fields remain.

Browse all commands · Upstream source documentation

Reference field	Value
Canonical name	HDEL
Catalog group	Hash commands
Upstream since	2.0.0 — upstream Redis/module version, not an ffkv release
Pinned catalog	Redis 8.10.0

Syntax

HDEL key field [field ...]

ffkv behavior and limits

Hash fields have independent expiration. Counted field forms use FIELDS n; HSETEX counts field/value pairs. Key TTL and field TTL are distinct.

Source: README.md:587–599; tests/bdd/features/hashes.feature.

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 fields to be removed.

Upstream arity: -3 (includes the command name; a negative number is a minimum).

Command flags: WRITE, FAST.

ACL categories: HASH.

Argument structure

Argument	Type	Constraints / metadata
key	key	key_spec_index: 0
field	string	multiple

Key specifications

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

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

Additional pinned upstream metadata

{
  "group": "hash",
  "since": "2.0.0",
  "history": [
    [
      "2.4.0",
      "Accepts multiple `field` arguments."
    ]
  ]
}

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

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.

• Copy across databases replaces only when requested and detaches hash values and field deadlines — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:5; invocation observed.
• Deletion counts each existing field only once and removes an empty key — tests/bdd/features/hashes.feature:165; command tag and invocation observed.
• Random access indexes survive field deletion expiry and reinsertion — tests/bdd/features/hashes.feature:1564; 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.

Deletion counts each existing field only once and removes an empty key — tests/bdd/features/hashes.feature:187 (I execute:)

[
  "HDEL",
  "h",
  "a"
]

Next source assertion: the reply equals:

0

Random access indexes survive field deletion expiry and reinsertion — tests/bdd/features/hashes.feature:1566 (the following commands succeed:)

[
  "HDEL",
  "h",
  "b"
]

Copy across databases replaces only when requested and detaches hash values and field deadlines — tests/bdd/features/generic.feature:83 (the following commands succeed:)

[
  "HDEL",
  "copy",
  "persistent"
]