""Nick Upson"" <uebridger@...> wrote in message
news:F27azUSxvjPkQTGpaoG000005fa@......

> IB4, IRIX
>
> I created an external table and all was fine, then I did a backup &
> restore and the column alignment has gone wrong, the column contents
> appear as if there is a large character field at the front of the
> file (there isn't).

I don't understand well. You define an external table poiting to a valid
file. You can read from it. Then you do a backup. Isn't a backup supposed to
convert this table into an internal table? Why do I have the idea than in
IB4, this option
-CO(NVERT) backup external files as tables
wasn't available?
Anyway, your issue seems to be that the external table is still an external
table after the restore, so it should be read again from the ASCII file. If
this is the case, can you query the system tables to know if the information
about fields and lengths is correct? I found some fields for external tables
definitions in the system tables that contrary to my expectation, aren't
used.

> If I use the extracted metadata to create a new external table
> pointing at the same file, it's fine.

Then you should compare both metadatas, please.
Maybe it's a bug in v4's gbak?

C.
--
Claudio Valderrama C. - http://www.cvalde.com - http://www.firebirdSql.org
Independent developer
Owner of the Interbase® WebRing