I am using Firebird 1.0.3 as a back end for an application that
clears nearly the entire database and re-inserts between one and two
million records nightly.

I have disabled sweeping because it takes way too long to complete
the process - up to several hours. Instead, after the database is
populated, I run a backup and restore using gbak, which reduces the
database file down to the minimum size.

My question is: do I need to be concerned with sweeping if I am
running a backup/restore regularly?

Incidentally, sweeping doesn't seem to do anything visible to the
data file. After it takes several hours to run (consuming only about
1% CPU) the datafile doesn't decrease in size at all. Is this normal
behavior?

Thanks,

Matt