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Description

delete_post is fired before and after a post (or page) is deleted from the database.

However by this time the post comments and metadata have been already deleted. Use the before_delete_post hook to catch post deletion before that.

Definitions

/wp-includes/post.php - pre-deletion

(#2041) (integer) The $postid parameter is the same value that was passed to wp_delete_post().

Hook: do_action( 'delete_post', $postid );

/wp-includes/post.php - post-deletion

(#2043) (integer) The $postid parameter is the same value that was passed to wp_delete_post().

Hook: do_action( 'deleted_post', $postid );

Example

Let's suppose you have a plugin that, for one reason or another, stores its own post metadata in a separate database table called codex_postmeta. One of the ways you can achieve synchronisation is to be made aware when a post is deleted so that you can replicate the changes yourself.

<?php
add_action( 'admin_init', 'codex_init' );
function codex_init() {
    add_action( 'delete_post', 'codex_sync', 10 );
}

function codex_sync( $pid ) {
    global $wpdb;
    if ( $wpdb->get_var( $wpdb->prepare( 'SELECT post_id FROM codex_postmeta WHERE post_id = %d', $pid ) ) ) {
        $wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare( 'DELETE FROM codex_postmeta WHERE post_id = %d', $pid ) );
    }
}
?>

Related

wp_delete_post() before_delete_post()