Index: trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadata.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadata.c	(revision 20333)
+++ trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadata.c	(revision 20417)
@@ -12,6 +12,6 @@
  *  @author Ross Harman, MHPCC
  *
- *  @version $Revision: 1.173 $ $Name: not supported by cvs2svn $
- *  @date $Date: 2008-10-14 01:48:30 $
+ *  @version $Revision: 1.174 $ $Name: not supported by cvs2svn $
+ *  @date $Date: 2008-10-28 00:13:19 $
  *
  *  Copyright 2004-2005 Maui High Performance Computing Center, University of Hawaii
@@ -670,7 +670,10 @@
         }
 
-        if (flags & PS_META_REPLACE) {
+        if ((flags & PS_META_REPLACE) && psMetadataLookup(md, key)) {
             // drop the existing entry or entries
-            psMetadataRemoveKey(md, key);
+            if (!psMetadataRemoveKey(md, key)) {
+                psError(PS_ERR_UNKNOWN, false, "Unable to remove existing item to replace");
+                return false;
+            }
         } else {
             // elevate the existing hash entry to be PS_DATA_METADATA_MULTI