Hi

I have tried -o -n but it skipped large tables and ended in the message "...
not complete".

What I have done now is I have downloaded Interbase 7.1 trial and used its
gbak with my firebird server. -n works in that release, it restores the full
database.
[As far as I can tell, every row is restored and only violated conditions or
"not null"s are removed. Can someone comment on this?]

The "man page" (-help) of my firebirds gbak tells me that "-n" would skip
validation. Is -n somehow buggy on firebird?

The tip to use IB7.1 gbak was from google, and I was lucky, that the gbk was
in 1.0.3 format. From what i know from this list, gbak 1.5 gbk-files are
incompatible to IB7.x. Can someone comment on this?

I seem to have gotten away this time having only a bloody nose. But I am
afraid such problems could occur again. Till now I thought recent backups
were some kind of safety, but beginning today I start [additionally] copying
fdb files.

What is the safe way to backup firebird databases ?

Regards,
Steffen