> If I remember rightly, ...
> System metadata is also subject to grabage collection, so its
> possible that you could make 255+ changes over time and not see the error,
> assuming of course that the metadata was garbage collected before the 255
> limit was reached.

Because format number is stored in header of each record version,
it is not possible to do "format garbage collection" without
checking/visiting all records/versions in a table.

Ivan