At 03:47 PM 9/07/2003 +0200, you wrote:

>Does FB support external files at all?

Yes. But the external file must EXIST BEFORE you create the external table.

>I can't get it to create an external
>table ...
>
>:-(
>
>Here's the SQL :
>
>CREATE TABLE EXT_HOTCARDS
>EXTERNAL FILE 'C:\netpos\npstitch\Files\HotcardM.txt'
>(
> "PACTION" CHAR(1),
> "PPAN" CHAR(20),
> "PCODE" CHAR(2),
> "PLISTNAME" CHAR(6),
> "PCRLF" CHAR(2)
>);
>commit work;

All you are doing when creating an external table is overlaying (or
predefining) a table that maps to the fixed-format structure of an existing
external text file (which may be empty). It gives the database engine a
way to read and export text data; but the external file's data are never
inside the database.

To answer your other message - no, gbak does not somehow magically copy a
filesystem file into its backup structure.

Just make sure your external file is in the correct place when the restore
is done and you won't get the error.

heLen