Hi,

I can across something interesting today. I know you shouldn't be
touching the rdb$relations table but I like to lookup information in it.

My problem was that while using (IBExpert) to view the current data in
the relations, I accidentally pressed the the insert and post icon.
(I thought I was pressing another navigator bar.)

It did bring up an error message which at that time I totaly ignored
it. ( I was focused on what I need to do elsewhere).

I later noticed that there were blank records in the system table. My
first reaction was to backup and restore my database. (I try to avoid
touching any system tables). The backup was successful, but the
restore would fail. (Duplicate record was the message I believe).

I was able to correct the problem by deleting those blank records in
the system table manually. But what bothered me is that if the
restore process complained about duplicate records. Shouldn't that
mean that I shouldn't have been able to create those records in the
first place?

My concern isn't really with the system table, but the RESTORE
process. If a table gets corrupted or damage and the user/client
only has a backup of the database, shouldn't there be a way to restore
and IGNORE this. So I could be able to repair it manually? I've
tried the -N to ignore validity constraints. But I think that's for
something else. Mind you, there may be a problem with the system
table allowing duplicate records.

PS. I'm using FB 1.5 rc 8


Thank you,

Have a nice day.