On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 11:35:53 -0500, Ann W. Harrison wrote:

>
>At 09:18 PM 12/5/2004, Fabricio Araujo wrote:
>
>>It has been discussed before, but I don't remember
>>what was decided. The counter will be promoted to
>>a 32-bit integer or eliminated?
>
>Neither. The first change was to avoid incrementing
>the table format number unless the format of the table -
>its physical representation - actually changes. That
>eliminated a lot of wasted format numbers associated
>with trigger changes, etc.
>
>However, increasing the format version number from one
>byte to two - or four - is a major ODS change that affects
>the size of every stored record and back version. It
>could (perhaps) have been done in Version 2 along with
>changes to the record number and index representation,
>but more likely it will be a V3 feature along with
>better record compression (variable length compression
>counter).

So, 'till that, the backup 'n' restore magic must be
executed from time to time to avoid trouble...