Hi Sean,

>Rafael,
>> I looked at my temp directory and discovered many ib_sort_ files...
>That's 'expected'

That I expected too, but not so many files ;)

>> Someone has already discussed that this files are for queries that
>> doesn't use indexes.
>Temporary files are used for both unindexed searches as well as all
>sortoperations.

Is ib_sort_* the only temporary files? I have eng*.tmp and LB*.tmp
too... Do these belong to firebird?
Hum... Shouldn't ib_sort be renamed to fb_sort???? hehehehe

>> My DB has only 20 MB but the sort files together have 76 MB. Is my
>> Database design so bad to have such disparity?
>I suspect that most of the files have been 'stranded' by the engine

->abrupt shutdowns/abends are the typical cause.

Right again, I was doing some testing with some queries involving
joining views that take too long to return data, so that I decided to
restart the service manually... After some trying I could delete most
of the files.

>> Is there any way (index) so that Firebird use less of this
>>sort_files?
>Not really.
>In Firebird v1.5, you will be able to designate a chunk of memory
>which will be used for sort/temp file operations. Currently, the
>engine caches about 128-256Kb before writing to temp files/disk.
>It will make quite a difference for those of use who have servers
>with a lot a memory.

Hum... maybe some 120 or 130 Mb can do it? hehehe
Oh.. just can't wait to be king!!


Rafael!