Amy, et al.

Check the IBPhoenix site for "careful write". I've written a fair amount
about the theory and practice behind InterBase/Firebird recovery. By
design, InterBase and Firebird maintain the database on-disk-structure in a
consistent state after every page write. As long as every page is win the
order that the database requests and written completely, you'll always have
a consistent database. In my twenty-odd years (some even more odd than
others) in the relational database world, I've never seen a partial page
write.

At Interbase Software Corp., we used the database for our code management
system, e-mail, bug tracking, customer/prospect tracking, financial
tracking, payroll, hr, everything. At one fairly early point in the
development of InterBase, we were in some third-rate semi-commercial
space. Power cords ran across the floor, normally duct-taped to the
carpet, but at least once a week one of us would trip over something and
cut power to a server. Add that to a power distribution system that would
do credit to a third-world country, and you can imagine that we had a great
deal of interest in seeing the database come back to life whole and happy.

Which it does, if you don't let the OS decide when to write pages.


Regards,


Ann