At 01:39 AM 5/8/2001 -0700, Joe Martinez wrote:

>First, my main overall question:
>Is an IB 5.6 database file the exact same thing as an IB 6 dialect 1
>database file?

No. The ODS (On Disk Structure or database file format) is independent
of dialect. All V6 databases have the same ODS, and all use 64 bit
generators - truncating them for Dialect 1.

>The migration guide says to back up all of your databases
>while version 5 is installed, uninstall version 5, install version 6,
>and restore from the backups.

In my opinion, and apparently in the opinion of the Borland developers,
that's ridiculous. The released version of IB6 and all versions of
Firebird handle ODS 9 (V5) and ODS 10 (V6). Convert as is convenient.

>I have tried simply skipping the backup and restore steps, and just
>opened the version 5.6 database with version 6, and everything works
>perfectly.

And so it should. Eventually you should convert your databases
just because new features will be based on the new ODS. But you
can do so at any time.

>I've also heard that you're not even supposed to copy database files
>from one server (of the same IB version and OS) without backing up and
>restoring, but I do it all the time and have never had a problem.

If you copy a running database - one in which updates are going
on - your copy is likely to be trash. Copying a database that's
been stopped is fine. I copy databases between Linux and Windows
without problems - both systems use the same alignment rules and
the same "endian" integers. On the other hand, I don't run my
business on those databases I copy. Copying from one windows
system to another is fine.



Regards,

Ann
www.ibphoenix.com
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