found at step 248 then the pointer in the classification block indicated by the classification family is set to point to the classification information found during the general database search performed at step 246 the setting of the pointer occurs at step 250 before processing ends at step 244 if no matching general reference pattern is found as determined in step 248 the pointer in the classification block indicated by the classification family is set to null at step 252 before ending at step 244 in that case there truly is no classification information available for that specific reference pattern and classification family referring now to fig1 a logical diagram of the configuration system shown in fig1 is shown after the removal of three specific reference patterns according to the processing steps explained in fig1 namely the specific reference pattern u201c 010100 u201d was removed for classification family 0 causing the corresponding pointer to change the indicated classification information the specific reference pattern u201c 101100 u201d was removed for classification family 0 causing the pattern to be removed entirely from the database and the specific reference pattern u201c 100111 u201d was removed for classification family 0 causing the corresponding pointer to be set to null when removing the specific reference pattern u201c 101100 u201d for classification family 0 the reference count will eventually equal zero as determined at step 240 of fig1 such that the entire specific pattern is removed from the specific pattern database 104 as seen by the arrow 254 pointing to the missing entry that existed previously as shown if fig1 note that the implicit installation of the specific reference pattern u201c 101100 u201d for classification family 1 would also be removed any effort by a client to classify the specific reference pattern for classification.