I have a persistent class A whose objects sometimes have a reference to instances of another persistent class B. I have it mapped many-to-one... but apparently I can't use all-delete-orphans in this case.

I understand, then, that if I remove the reference to the B in an A, and then delete the A, my B will stick around.

Is there a way to achieve the delete-orphans semantics without resorting to a Set and the standard parent-child inverse bidirectional mapping?

I'm sure this question has a simple answer. Thanks for your help.

Ben

No, you have to do this manually. "all-delete-orphan" is only really doable in a parent-child relationship. How should Hibernate know if other A's refer to the B?

Okay, fair enough. In my situation, however, it is only ever the case that one single A refers to one single B.

If A's reference to a B is reseated to another B, it is guaranteed that the first B is no longer referred to by any A's, and thus can be deleted.

Is there a way to achieve automatic deletion in this case without resorting to a Set of children?

Ben

Imho what you are having here is a one-to-one, not a many-to-one.