Ok, here's how I'm interpreting this. Let me know if this is correct:

IB5 uses ODS9. IB6 (regardless of dialect) uses ODS10. IB6 (and all
Firebird) can handle either ODS 9 or ODS10 databases.

A couple more questions:

If I back up my V5 (ODS9) database with V5 server manager and restore it with
V6 (or Firebird) IBConsole, will the resulting database then be ODS10?

Can I use IBConsole (on Firebird) to back up an ODS9 database and then
restore it? If so, same question as above.

I remember hearing (back when the IB6 source was first released) that there
was a bug in the backup/restore in IBConsole, and that GBAK should be used
instead. Has this been fixed as of the 12/2000 build of Firebird?

Thanks,
Joe



"Ann W. Harrison" wrote:

> 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.
>