Thanks for your reply, Si.

>> So, there is one FB process in Windows per *application*. Is
>> there some way that an application can make the FB process
>> die whilst it continues to run itself? I mean, can an
>> application close the FB process programmatically?

> What connection pooling options are you specifying in the
> connection string?

Pooling is switched on.

> Also might be better to take this to the firebird .net provider
> list

Although the test program I wrote was a .NET application, we use
the database in other ways too: running scripts, and making ad hoc
queries using IB Expert.

I'd really like to get a general understanding of why/when these
processes start and die. So far, it seems there is one "master"
process that's always running, and other processes that come and
go. We spend a lot of time killing them manually when we need
exclusive access to the database :-(

Thanks,

Ian.